Storytelling and Oral Tradition: Activities by Kisha Tracy

aquitaine1980 — 2023-01-12 01:15:01 UTC

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Instructions

aquitaine1980 — 2023-01-12 01:18:19 UTC

After reading the readings for today, identify one reason why studying storytelling and oral tradition is important.

The Storytelling Animal, Chapter 1 (PDF - Readings marked as PDF are located on Blackboard under “Course Documents”)
“The Essential Role of Storytelling in the Search for Truth”
“What Kids Learn From Hearing Family Stories”
“The Science of Storytelling: Why Telling a Story is the Most Powerful Way to Activate Our Brains”
“In a digital era, live storytelling is bringing people closer together”
“Why it’s important not to lose oral storytelling”

Instructions

aquitaine1980 — 2023-01-12 01:18:39 UTC

After reading the readings for today, identify one reason why studying storytelling and oral tradition is important.

Instructions

aquitaine1980 — 2023-01-12 01:19:32 UTC

After reading the readings for today, identify one reason why studying storytelling and oral tradition is important.

Instructions

aquitaine1980 — 2023-01-12 01:20:32 UTC

Reflection on at least one of the following (particularly the idea of oral recording).

Instructions

aquitaine1980 — 2023-01-12 01:22:39 UTC

Respond to our guest presenter Renée Fratantonio in the last class. (This is NOT a reflection on their presentation style, etc., but should focus on the ideas or topic.)

Instructions

aquitaine1980 — 2023-01-12 01:23:45 UTC

Respond to our guest presenter Kai Fay in the last class. (This is NOT a reflection on their presentation style, etc., but should focus on the ideas or topic.)

Instructions

aquitaine1980 — 2023-02-01 18:22:40 UTC

Respond to our guest presenter in the last class. (This is NOT a reflection on their presentation style, etc., but should focus on the ideas or topic.)

Instructions

aquitaine1980 — 2025-01-05 21:26:26 UTC

Reread the Course Learning Outcomes of our course. What do you feel like you have learned? On what have you improved? On what would you like to continue to work on? Reflect on each learning outcome.

This is an opportunity, at the end of a long semester when it's hard for any of us to think about what we have accomplished, to reflect on how far we have come.

Instructions

aquitaine1980 — 2025-01-05 21:29:13 UTC

Respond to the recording of our guest presenter: https://go.screenpal.com/watch/cTnIoCnhOsY. (This is NOT a reflection on their presentation style, etc., but should focus on the ideas or topic.)

Instructions

aquitaine1980 — 2025-01-05 21:30:19 UTC

Respond to our guest presenters in the last class. (This is NOT a reflection on their presentation style, etc., but should focus on the ideas or topic.)

Instructions

aquitaine1980 — 2025-01-05 21:31:46 UTC

Reflect on and make note of any finds you made in our visits to the University Archives.

Instructions

aquitaine1980 — 2025-01-05 21:33:49 UTC

Respond to our guest presenter Patrice Todisco in the last class. (This is NOT a reflection on their presentation style, etc., but should focus on the ideas or topic.)

Instructions

aquitaine1980 — 2025-01-05 21:35:04 UTC

Respond to our guest presenter Susan Navarre in the last class. (This is NOT a reflection on their presentation style, etc., but should focus on the ideas or topic.)

Instructions

aquitaine1980 — 2025-01-05 21:36:37 UTC

Respond to our 2nd guest panel in the last class. (This is NOT a reflection on their presentation style, etc., but should focus on the ideas or topic.)

Erumosele

2025-01-23 16:07:39 UTC

I can say the one reason on why people story tell is to make a change into history when it comes something that is wrong such as the system and viewing their perspective of how things are and how they feel towards it.

Activity

2025-01-23 18:39:23 UTC

I think studying storytelling and oral tradition is important because it can help you put yourself into a different perspective to understand what someone else has gone through. Also, it can build a closer bond through hearing someone else's experiences.

Julia Grace Ducharme

2025-01-26 22:57:12 UTC

Studying storytelling and oral tradition is so important because as the article How Storytelling Heals says “Illness can challenge the notion of the self and disrupt patients’ narratives about their own lives. Some scholars suggest that storytelling can help.” I know as a chronically ill person myself, being sick feels often like it is the largest part of who I am. It is ever present in every instance of my life, and isolates me in so many ways. Hearing others share stories about them and how they navigate not only helps me connect with them but also feel like I am not the only one who is struggling. The solidarity makes me feel like I am represented and understood. So much of storytelling is eliminating invisibility and inviting connection, and in a world as crazy (and awful often times) as ours is, the humanity of connection is so unbelievably important. Hearing others say they understand and have been there before helps me push forward.

Julia Grace Ducharme

2025-01-26 23:08:24 UTC

Oral recordings and stories of folks to the like of holocaust survivor Ilse Alexander are important not only to keep these stories alive, but allow an intimacy to the consumer that isn't available when reading something on the page. There is something about hearing the trembling, the cadence of the laughter of folks as they share their stories that allows us as listeners to connect deeper. The art of seeing and hearing allows for us to feel like these people are real, and are here with us. For a tragedy like the Holocaust hearing stories from survivors like Ilse reminds us she was just like us as well, a child, a girl, and someone who saw and endured great tragedy. This access allows us to access the real tangible trauma so (hopefully) we become the generations who would never treat each other in this way.

Hannah Hartman

2025-01-27 17:39:46 UTC

It is important to study storytelling and oral tradition because personal narratives can enrich generations by encouraging imagination and fostering public discourse. The article titled, Ursula K. Le Guin on Power, Oppression, Freedom, and How Imaginative Storytelling Expands Our Scope of the Possible relates situational neutrality and silence to a lack of imagination regarding the possibilities of imaginative literature on power structures and societal injustice. Storytelling appeals to the minds of generations and by stimulating curiosity, we can allow memories to transform into history that engages societal discourse. Spreading awareness and sharing stories, experiences, and thoughts with others can allow for more discussion and bring attention to varying issues in today's society. In the article on Ursula K. Le Guin, it is stated, “When these dominant narratives become so deeply embedded in a society, Le Guin suggests, even those whom they oppress end up internalizing them.” Provoking this individualized interpretation of different narratives can encourage a more reflective understanding of a story and topic. This would allow for a more empathetic understanding of freedom and oppression and by encouraging others to learn, listen, and think, we can also inspire people to tell their stories and share their own ideas and experiences.

Dexter Brown

2025-01-27 17:45:55 UTC

To start in my opinion the essential role of storytelling is to help build trust and connections between people and help us see our differences. Through storytelling, people can begin to understand themselves and their place in the world, using shared narratives to form a connection. In addition, stories activate different parts of the brain engaging people in ways that regular lectures can’t. Lastly, storytelling can spark imagination and creativity, encouraging people to see the world in new ways.

Michael Kelly

2025-01-27 21:30:39 UTC

After reading Ursula K. Le Guin on Power, Freedom, and How Storytelling Expands Our Scope of The Possible, I have found a very interesting and intriguing point on why studying storytelling and oral tradition is important. “What the world does to you, if the world does it to you long enough and effectively enough, you begin to do to yourself. You become a collaborator, an accomplice of your own murderers, because you believe the same things they do.”(Baldwin, James). This quote jumped out at me because it's a very true and fair statement. All societal norms are the norms because a majority of people who are raised with similar problems and situations throughout their life decide what is normal and what isn’t. For instance, in my sociology class, the old norm was men being strong and women being smaller, but now with Lizzo and all these other people, body shaming is now not a thing as much and has shifted the societal norm. Same thing with the more serious matter of slavery like the article touched on. The societal norm way back then was to have slaves… was it a good societal norm? Hell no, but people were too washed up in their brains to see the other side causing a terrible norm for people to have. All in all, societal norms seem normal at times even when they can be the most unethical practices, but then when you take out all that brainwash, and hear stories and communication from the world around us, we start to understand better as a community and work together stronger and better than ever.

Michael Kelly

2025-01-27 21:37:53 UTC

Studying storytelling and oral tradition is important because it is a way for people to express how they feel about situations as well what there going through. This gives other people the opportunity to share back things there going through weather its the same or different problems. For example, if someone is going through their first major loss in a family matter; somebody else out there might have gone through that situation more than once and can possibly talk with you about it in order to hash all the feeling your going through leading to maybe an easier way of getting though the tough times. To switch it up and go in the different direction of maybe a happy story of you accomplishing something... maybe someone out there is trying to accomplish it and you can give them tips and pointers to succeeding and the steps they went through in order to achieve the goal.

activity- Justeen Courtemanche

2025-01-28 00:01:48 UTC

After all the readings one reason for studying storytelling and oral tradition is because of the importance of understanding other's perspectives. Understanding not all humans will have the same approaches or feelings or opinions, we all think and operate differently. Even though sometimes that can cause issues it can also bring one another together. I also want to get into the fact when sharing opinions and feelings and someone shares those exact emotions it can help that other person.

Timothy Dewey

2025-01-28 00:17:40 UTC

Trauma unmakes the world of the self. Can stories repair it? by Anna Gotlib is the reading I chose. When reading this story I found myself relating to many of the ideas represented in it. Trauma from any difficult event can “Break our most fundamental, most taken-for-granted means of self-understanding” (Anna Gotlib), leaving people with what can feel as a shadow of who we once were. From this there are different reactions, with many people viewing trauma as an illness and finding a solution to combat and resolve it. They never make that step towards understanding, expressing or confronting the feeling. What I took away from the story was how trauma can be used as a way to recreate yourself. One way was called “tragic optimism” (Viktor Frankl) by which one takes trauma and creates a new meaning from it. From this I have experienced this idea from two different worlds. I didn’t grow up in the most stable households, but I never held it against anyone. What I took away from those experiences was an idea of who I wanted to be. It gave me a goal of who I wanted to be and what I should avoid. That worked well for a while until a moment in my life that happened two years ago. I haven’t been able to do what I once did since it shattered the idea that I built from that experience. I agree with the idea of tragic optimism to a certain extent but it requires a strong will and goal to make it happen.

Work's Cited:
Gotlib, Anna. “Trauma Unmakes the World of the Self. Can Stories Repair It?” Psyche, psyche.co/ideas/trauma-unmakes-the-world-of-the-self-can-stories-repair-it. Accessed 23 Nov. 2020.

Frankl, Viktor E., et al. Man’s Search for Meaning. Beacon Press, 2014.

Hannah Free

2025-01-28 01:14:15 UTC

Studying storytelling and oral tradition is important because it can show so many benefits towards a persons growth as a writer. As people go through life there are many ups and downs that are very difficult to over come but is a part of things that are done every day. There are many people that have a great story and want to share it and even a traumatic experience or sad moment in your life. You can tell others about these experiences if comfortable so they don't make the same mistake isn't repeated. As said in Spyche text,"Trauma is not a virus to be medicated away, nor a tale to be forgotten, nor a deep sadness to be replaced with reckless optimism. What it can be is a catalyst for different stories – better stories – about who we are, what we value, and how we might live in the ‘after’. And these stories are not happiness-seeking – they are meaning-making, meaning-remaking." That trauma and other experiences are a big part of life and sad or happy should be shared and celebrated. Just like when someone passes away you would want everyone to remember that person rather then forget them and by telling stories you can find the strength to think about them all the time and remembering the good times you had with that person.

Julian Morley

2025-01-28 01:17:27 UTC

An idea that I found really interesting from the article on Ursula K. Le Guin is about how storytelling allows us to free ourselves from preconceived ideas of how things like government and society should function. Often when people discuss and think about topics like these, they are based on a foundation of present conditions, and the use of fiction allows freedom to imagine what could be different and better. A quote that I found to be representative of this thought is “Are there indeed tools that have not been invented, which we must invent in order to build the house we want our children to live in?” To me, this quote represents how it is necessary to think outside the box, and how when making change, it cannot always come from a place of familiarity. To me, this idea of creating new ideas is especially needed in current politics, where a stagnating structure has led to more extremist ideas in mainstream politics that only harm lower classes. To escape this, ideas need to come from outside the current structure. However, as the article also mentions, it can be difficult for these ideas to come from within a class that hasn’t been properly exposed to the idea of unique functioning of social structures.

Gina Vilayphone - One Good Reason

gvilayph — 2025-01-28 02:16:13 UTC

One good reason for studying storytelling and oral tradition is what lives behind the story which goes beyond the storyteller, itself. For a good story to be known, there must be a great beginning and an even greater end. The beginning of a good story starts with one word and is then, comprised of many words which seem to sing to the next, ultimately arriving to the much awaited end, but is a good story ever truly complete if one does not hear it or rather know it?

One must be curious enough to read between the lines, to find meaning in what is written or being spoken of, otherwise the story itself, does not serve its intended purpose nor does it come to life. A story can become lost in translation, but even so, one does not forget what the story entails. For what reason, other than for the greater good, are meaningful stories passed along from one generation to the next.

When engaged to a story, does one merely hear the story or does one truly listen? Truth carries meaning so, which word, if choosing between many words, could one define to unlock an innate story listener into becoming the innate storyteller? For this reason, what good is a story without meaning?

Samuel Monteiro

2025-01-28 04:21:46 UTC

After reading the article “How Storytelling Heals”, I felt moved and intrigued by the message. It was the way a story can help/heal someone in ways that a painkiller can’t is really well said. This expresses how when we might tell a story to someone, it could be healing to the person hearing it, or the person saying it. Either way though this just shows how important storytelling is and how interesting it is once you learn more about it. The article continues to go into ways that storytelling heals people from certain illnesses in a way that normally isn’t possible. It ends with that when you listen to a story it helps your mind open different things and even leave the bad parts of things in your head out.

Dexter Brown

2025-01-28 04:57:48 UTC

Studying storytelling and oral tradition is important in my opinion because it can help people in certain ways that things like traditional medicine can't. In addition, many cultures have practiced the connection between storytelling and healing. For example, West African folklore includes a practice where their healers ask the sick, “When was the last time that you sang? When was the last time that you danced? When was the last time that you shared a story?” This shows that while storytelling may not have the effects of medicine, it lets people heal in ways that may not be traditional but work for everybody differently.

Samuel Monteiro

2025-01-28 05:04:23 UTC

When reading the article “What Kids Learn From Hearing Family Stories”, I was not expecting to get so much out of it when first reading it. I learned that it helps them retain good information for the future and even touches on how they can use that knowledge when adulting. Now, this can also be used to explain how adults read fictional literature, which can help their ability to understand other people's emotions.

Coean Blankenship

2025-01-28 05:21:37 UTC

Studying storytelling and oral tradition is important because without storytelling there would be no difference in opinion or different world views. The article on Chinua Achebe speaks about different perspectives and how seeing life through these different perspectives hold significant value and you must accept others world views. In the article about Power, Freedom, and How Storytelling Expands Our Scope of the Possible highlights class and that difference. If the upper-class did not know what the lower class looked like, how would they understand to feel grateful for their success. Morals do come into play here but for the most part different perspectives can bring humble and well rounded individuals. If the lower class did not have knowledge of the upper class they may not strive for a better life.

Coean Blankenship

2025-01-28 05:31:39 UTC

One reason studying storytelling and oral tradition is important is to find relatability and realize you are not alone. Shared experiences are a main aspect of storytelling. Hearing others stories makes you feel normal and that other people go through the same things that you might be currently going through or might eventually go through. When a parent shares stories with their kids, this is important because it helps the kids navigate decisions based on what their parents are teaching through the stories whether it be a lesson or to just help them feel okay.

Daniel Somers

2025-01-28 05:39:10 UTC

Oral tradition is an essential point of study not only as a practice of understanding literature, but broader global culture as well. More specifically, in regards to revolutionary activity via storytelling in modern America. As a preface to actual revolution, writer Ursula K. Le Guin presents the idea that the ideas for these revolutions are built upon the stories which are born from imaginative storytelling. Le Guin also presents the idea that those who do not understand this concept of imaginative storytelling, have essentially been oppressed in some way by default. It is this capability which Le Guin attributes to the difference between ruling and working class. The working class has been placed in an oppressed position to be starved of imaginative storytelling to flourish and grow, while the ruling class has honed it to their advantage against the rest of the population. Essentially, Le Guin's ideas through this article has made me more conscious of the metaphysical power which storytelling holds through political and cultural tribulations.

Angel Viruet

2025-01-28 06:52:16 UTC

Studying storytelling and oral tradition is important because it is writing in where there are different perspectives that are taken into consideration. It reaches a lot of aspects of one thing from POV, to thoughts and ideals.

Leanna Cox

2025-01-28 13:15:04 UTC

A reason why studying storytelling and oral tradition is important is because it can heal people in ways medicine may not. How Storytelling Heals expresses that storytelling can help people heal from trauma and emotional. Being able to write it down and process it helps them make sense of their personal experiences as well as connect with others who have also been through the same things. The article says "... but it enables patients to take control of their illness in a way that pharmaceuticals can't." I am someone who is constantly haunted by my past, I get reminded of it every single day, and it tears me down right when I think I am okay. However, stories have always been my peace in the chaos of my life. It allowed me to be somewhere else, look at something new, forget the bad and be where I wanted to be. As I have gotten older, the books have turned into me reading about other people who struggle with the same things I do, and that helps me feel like I am not alone. It helps me want to push through just because of the simple fact that someone else can do it, too.

Gina Vilayphone - Bravery starts with listening

gvilayph — 2025-01-28 13:47:40 UTC

A storyteller is a title of honor which speaks from the heart; therefore, it takes courage to tell a story and even more courage to listen to one. Truly, to be brave, is a very good reason to study storytelling and oral tradition for not all stories were made for the faint of heart. A story is a gift, and it makes the spirit move. To tell a story is to be heard and to be heard is to be a storyteller. So, when a storyteller laughs, we laugh. When a storyteller lives, we live. When a storyteller cries, we cry. When a storyteller dies, what happens? Every warrior has a story to tell. Stories initiate action, so, could the greatest warriors of this world be of great listeners? To be brave enough to hear another one’s story is to be brave enough to bear one’s own story. When one listens, one tells, and when one tells, one listens. So, how many stories go unheard? Could it be hundreds? Thousands? Millions? A warrior that shares is a warrior that has cared enough to listen. There are no stories that go unheard – if you are truly listening. Bravery is not always the loudest voice in the room, so be brave! What better cure for this world than a good story?

Erisbel Alicea

2025-01-28 14:02:54 UTC

I found why studying storytelling and oral tradition is important would be because we can learn a lot from storytelling. We can learn more about the person telling the story, we can learn more about the story to the person, we can learn how to communicate with others and learn from others. and of course we can learn how to create our own stories.

Jaleel Jackson

2025-01-28 14:06:42 UTC

One reason that studying oral tradition is important is because as an individual we all have our own purpose. Through oral tradition we are able to learn one another's tendencies and what may have caused those tendencies through each other's stories and experiences. Trauma as stated in one of the articles "Our stories can vary as widely as human experience itself. Sometimes, while trauma breaks down our sense of who we are, it also shocks us into greater clarity about alternative, perhaps better, versions of ourselves.". With this we see through our experiences that each person and their stories are unique to one another even though they may have many similar situations. Trauma is also a way people bond. By going through similar situations people tend to find peace and comfort in the tragedies in their life because they may have felt like they were the only one in the world to be effected by something but when information arises that you're not the only one it kinda gives you a sense of relief that you aren't being singled out. That there are other people who have gone through the same issues you have gone through if not worse and made it out and ultimately became financially free or whatever it takes for someone specifically to be truly happy.

Leanna Cox

2025-01-28 14:28:54 UTC

One of the reasons storytelling is important is because when you read to your children, it enhances their language skills and composition. It also provides communication and a bond with your kid. Children may find a new love for books and storytelling the more you read to them and the more you tell your own stories they more they will start to understand and love it more. My parents used to read to me every single night, and my family still tells stories to this day and it's always fun and enjoyable.

Jamie LaValley

2025-01-28 16:05:23 UTC

After reading the “How Storytelling Heals” article I thought it was really interesting about how stories can help people in ways that modern medicine can't. This is because story’s can have a big impact on people's moods. We have all experienced this when we tell stories reminiscing on something that happened and laughing about it or when you hear a sad story and then feel sad or down. It doesn't just have to heal someone who is sick. It could also help heal something more mental that we don't have great options to combat yet because sometimes all you need is a good laugh to pick your spirits up.

Justin Swaine

2025-01-28 22:38:32 UTC

From reading The Storytelling Animal, my biggest take away and feel is a reason studying storytelling and oral traditions is important is how much we are using our imagination when reading or hearing a story. "Our minds supply most of the information in the scene -- most of the color, shading and texture." (pg. 5.) When intaking a story told to us, we are imagining what is going on with this information that we already know. Our imagination is always running wild, creating stories out of thin air. It creates stories when we are sleeping and daydreaming. "...an average daydream is about fourteen seconds long... we have about about two thousand of them daily." (pg. 11.) One of the biggest times we may be conscience of when we are daydreaming is when we are imagining something we wish we could do in a situation, such as wishing we could punch our boss across the face when we can't. Understanding how crucial the imagination is when it comes to storytelling helps us become better listeners and storytellers. We can look into become more conscience of when our imaginations run wild and how we are imagining things.

Justin Swaine

2025-01-29 03:08:06 UTC

The biggest take away from "Trauma Unmakes The World Itself. Can Stories Repair It?" in my opinion simply starts with the title. One of the biggest things that all people should be aware of and learn about is how trauma affects everyone, even if it is just on the base level. "Trauma.... replaces our familiar narratives with something dreadful, something uncanny, sometimes something unspeakable." It can cause people to pull the negative out of situations and turn their storytelling, whether they are being told a story or telling one themselves, to focus on the negative. Trauma destroys one's world, giving their imagination potentially horrific things to base stories off of, especially about themselves. Storytelling can repair it as long as the one on the receiving end of the story is being open-minded and giving their attention to the teller. By embracing 'tragic optimism', we are able to find a starting point of where we can repair stories of who we are. So one reason to learn Storytelling and Oral traditions, is to learn how we can change perspective and understand trauma with how it affects and can be repaired in the realm of storytelling.

Michael Kelly

2025-01-29 21:20:36 UTC

I listened to Otto Salaman’s story in the oral recording and it is an unbelievable life that this man went through and all that he had encountered throughout his lifetime. It is hard to hear some of his memories based on how cruel and depressing they were when he relived the fact of him seeing almost all of his family and friends not make it through the camps that they had. The journey he took throughout including hiding, traveling, surviving, identity switching, etc is more than most people can hear about in a lifetime and this guy lived it throughout his child/early adulthood. Stories like these and others are very important for people to have and hear because not only is it a memory that should never be relived, you don’t want history to repeat itself so having knowledge of terrible events isn’t a bad thing because it will lead to fixing and no mishaps like that ever again. Not only is stories a big thing but oral recordings are even more touchy/feely because you get to witness the persons raw emotions on this topic. If you were to switch it over to a happy story, you then get to see the person smile and laugh creating a sense of safety and playfulness in the air knowing its a good thing not a bad thing. Unfortunately in the story I did, it was not the case but overall in general; oral storytelling can show a lot more emotions and feelings of the teller weather its good or bad.

Danny Quinn

2025-01-29 21:25:31 UTC

Reading and writing about oral storytelling in culture is very important because it helps cultures relate to one another and show appreciation for one another and bring them in closer together. Cultures do this so they can expand their culture and show other nations and cultures new things like food clothing and traditions that they can now bring to their culture this is good for all of us in a society as we expand our beliefs to make our society better as a whole.

Coean Blankenship

2025-01-29 23:39:51 UTC

Oral recording and allowing expression of oral stories through recordings makes these stories accessible for a long time. Personal stories are a very intimate medium as they are being expressed from a point of view of the speaker and are unique to the life they have lived. Oral recordings being a medium for storing these unique stories allow a much greater intimacy with the author or speaker. Listening to "Walker Hancock on locating looted art" from "Voices of the Monuments Men" was intriguing as Hancock showed true passion for the treasure he talked about and the way he used expressions and you could feel how he truly felt about what he was speaking about. Through the oral recording, you can hear laughter as the interviewer and Hancock are talking back and forth and that brings a very real feeling to the listening experience. With a traditional story which you might read on paper, you might be able to use your imagination to come up with how the characters look and sound. With this oral recording, you know what Hancock sounds like and you can imagine the interviewer asking him these questions as they banter. Additionally, hearing Walker tell his story and the details about finding the art and time of war, my imagination is able to hear how Hancock's experiences might've played out through his voice and how he articulates the story.

Samuel Monteiro

2025-01-30 00:41:39 UTC

Oral recordings and just hearing these stories really have a way of getting something across. When listening to Andrew Carnduff Ritchie on the MFAA I got to hear a story about something I would have never thought to learn about, and yet he taught me so much with a great selection of words. He goes into all of his involvement during the WWII war as a USFA. He explains how the separation between Austria and Germany was a big thing during his time and how he had to deal with it. Hearing this through a recording really gave his whole story an amazing perspective and insightful way to look at it. Now, with all his great work, he was also known and praised as being the director of the Painting and Sculpture Department at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He was a very honorable man!

Jamie LaValley

2025-01-30 00:55:10 UTC

Oral recordings for stories like the one we just listened to by Ilse Alexander about the holocaust are extremely important. These recordings are living history for people across the world. They are more powerful than just reading about a topic like the holocaust because you hear the emotions in the teller's voice and can see changes in body language. All of these things we might not think about consciously but subconsciously we notice them and they can help us get a deeper understanding of what the storyteller is trying to tell us. Along with that it allows us to in some ways humanize the storyteller and get a deeper understanding of them.

Julian Morley

2025-01-30 02:15:02 UTC

Oral recordings have a large amount of historical significance, allowing for a more accurate record, since written records don’t include things like the tone of voice or the tempo of the speaker. These qualities give more insight into the story being told, and allow for more emotional storytelling. The stories told in the playlist of historical recreations feel more personal than a written document. I also personally find it easier to answer questions in a discussion rather than over text because the answer will come to me quicker. Within the Monuments Men recordings, I enjoyed being able to hear the people speaking about their experiences with the group, and it felt more enjoyable to listen to than it would have been to read.

Dexter Brown

2025-01-30 02:22:14 UTC

I listened to the oral recording by Jorn Merry named "A Story of Holocaust Survival: As Told by One Ophthalmologist." To start, hearing and seeing a person as they speak creates a different connection than reading their words. While hearing the speaker’s voice and observing their body language it allows you to connect on a deeper level of understanding. In addition, things like their tone, and expressions show emotions that might not be seen when reading. All in all, oral reading helps bring emotions to life making it easier to connect with one another.

Justin Swaine

2025-01-30 02:41:53 UTC

Oral storytelling is an interesting way of sharing a story. From watching/listening to Frazier Teaching Artist - Big Nose Kate, I was able to get visuals in my mind from three things she did: her acent, body language and use of props. She was able to paint a pictue by including details of the environment the character was in and giving context to who was who, her use of body language and props allowed us to get a visualization of the events taking place in said environment, and her accent gave us an idea of the time and place in which the story was taking place. Our imagination was able to fill in the pieces that she was unable to give without speaking.

Leanna Cox

2025-01-30 03:14:31 UTC

Oral readings of people who have been through the most tremendous pain and trauma have a way of validating a connection between the speaker and the person listening. Being able to hear the emotion in their voice, the tremble, the fear, the sadness. This is precisely what it felt and sounded like to listen to Bill Rooz talk about his experience during the Holocaust. Though I will never shoot down the benefits of reading a book, an article, or anything educational about the Holocaust, I truly believe that listening to his story not only stirred more emotion in me but helped me better understand the actual raw tragedy he had gone through. As people, we may often overlook emotions in texts because sometimes it’s hard to pick up and then understand.

On top of that, watching and listening to how he tells his story and smiles through some of it is so impressive. Being able to express your story orally keeps your story alive and heals a part of you, knowing you can speak freely and understand other people who have gone through the same. It is difficult to believe that anyone who listens to a Holocaust survivor’s story would have the hate in their heart to want to do the same thing to other people, and in that way, I think it almost prevents that negative way of thinking about people.

Hannah Free

2025-01-30 03:21:11 UTC

With oral recording it is different it can be used in many different ways for different purposes. There are many tapes that can be made when working with recording. Also being able to record and listen to peoples daily lives can teach you lessons that you as a kid or adult might want to know down the rode. While communicating and having new conversations you can also record if okay with the person can analyze it later and figure out what they were trying to tell you. It can be a big help when you need a fresh perspective and it helps people sometimes organize where they want to go. But with my video it was about a man named Brian west and he talked about going hunting and wearing particular clothing that protected people from insects and cuts and scrapes. It taught me how everywhere people go is a lesson or a story even in oral recording.

Daniel Somers

2025-01-30 03:37:48 UTC

Oral recordings present a far more personable, and therefore meaningful connection with the listener of the story. Specifically, listening to an oral historian's interview style piece with an actor portraying Elizabeth Blackwell, gave an inviting insight into her journey as a medical practitioner. Blackwell's journey as the first woman to receive a formal medical education through college, was not only fascinating in its inspirational and historic nature, but through the conversational and informative nature of the oral recording. Often primary and secondary documents can appear intimidating to readers wishing to learn more about a particular subject, whereas this interview presents a layer of historical knowledge and context on the matter. Blackwell details a chronological account of her journey up the medical ladder, supplemented by an interviewer to prod cultural questions and allow Blackwell to explain more historical background as well. In general, this style of oral retelling presents listeners with a modernized and personable experience fit for the mediums which we consume knowledge in the current era.

Gina Vilayphone - Discernment

gvilayph — 2025-01-30 05:10:16 UTC

By nature, we are curious creatures, so why not question, or rather discern everything and everyone? Discernment is akin to a scientist applying a magnifying glass to examine the subject in question. But even so, what meets the eye isn't always as clear as one may see, nor is what meets the ears, always as clear as one may hear. Truly, nothing in this world ever appears as it seems, so how does one attempt to fully understand or interpret a story, if not discerning it? According to the Oxford Advanced American Dictionary, discernment is the ability to show good judgment about the quality of someone or something. Therefore, when studying a story, one must learn to become the judge and the jury, as Leslie Podell has, when she studied the two versions of Ms. Sojourner Truth’s 1851, “Ain’t I A Woman”, speech. In all fairness, one should not completely discount Truth’s 1863 version, as Podell suggests, as each offers different forms of insight, highlighting the realities of the time. Today, this includes the opinion of Leslie Podell herself. Upon examination, there are very clear differences in each transcription, however, does the meaning of one story, truly, triumph over the other? Ask yourselves this, to declare, whether or not discernment, is another good reason for studying storytelling and oral tradition because in the end, only Ms. Sojourner Truth, truly knows her own story because she walked it. Now, you be the judge, just forget about the jury.

Charlie Rice-Boudreau

2025-01-30 14:26:07 UTC

Oral recordings like these are extremely important to understand our histories. It is one thing to just have things written down. It can help us peer into the past, and is the only way we can see into most of the history of the world, but now we have recordings of people of the time. First person accounts of the time. Living, breathing tales. I listened to S. Lane Faison from Voices of the Monuments Men. It is formatted as an interview, where for the majority of it, he is talking about how the repossession of art and artifacts after World War II worked. How people would legitimately buy the pieces with no idea what they truly were and then have them seized by the government after the war ended to return them. People lost millions over this as there was no compensation, while the people who sold them made big money. How a lot were initially obtained at a low price off of a public who was now in poverty leading up to the war and then were resold for insane prices. All of this given in only about eight and a half minutes. Nine minutes where he isn’t even talking the entire time. It goes to show how much you can get out from someone just talking about things they had to deal with.

Hannah Hartman

2025-01-30 17:02:40 UTC

It is important to study the art and science of storytelling and oral traditions because it activates not only the language processing parts in our brain but also the areas that would be used when experiencing the events in a story. Storytelling invokes imagination which triggers the sensory parts of the brain that bring a story to life. A story uses details and sensory imagery to allow the narrative to linger through our imagination because the brain is involved in activating memory. In The Storytelling Animal, it is stated, “The writer is not, then, an all-powerful architect of our reading experience. The writer guides the way we imagine but does not determine it.” Storytelling creates a story by adding depth and intention to whatever media we craft as a story. When interpreting a story, our brains fill in details and use our imagination to personalize the story from our memories.

Oral Recording

2025-01-30 18:02:44 UTC

After listening to Voice of The Monuments Men, speaker Stanton Catlin speak about Rose Valland. Instantly one thing I noticed was the amount of passion he had in his voice. That's one thing you can get from oral recordings rather than just reading. You can also hear his true emotion as he speak. One thing Stanton Catlin said was how she's a great person and you don't really feel that from just reading. You feel the emotion behind his words and it really attacks your heart. Overall, it brings emotions to life when you hear them speak rather than reading it, this can be beneficial and could bring a sense of perspective into your life.

Devin Lebron

2025-01-30 18:11:00 UTC

It is important to study storytelling and oral traditions. They force you to consider how others live compared to how you live. It also gives you a sense of respect and humbleness. Lavinya Stennett's West Africa's oral histories tell us a more complete story than traditional post-colonial narratives was the article I read. Early in the passage, Stennett states, "These oral narratives are important modes of transmitting knowledge." Oral traditions are important to study because they serve as a key way of passing down information from generation to generation. Since these stories are spoken rather than written, they help preserve history and cultural values.

Timothy Dewey

2025-01-31 21:40:55 UTC

For this activity I chose to listen to “Voice on the Monuments Men” Specifically Walker Handcock on Looted art. Originally I wasn’t sure what type of talk this was going to be about. It ended up being a more personal talk with many stories that he himself experienced while doing his job as what I believe is a Fine Arts Officer. When listening to him answer the questions I found the most interesting answers were from his personal experiences. He was a sculptor that spent two years in Europe with his main mission as he put it to “protect the things he loved”, that being the fine arts. There was one aspect that I found interesting in regards to the process in which places received protection. He talked about his experience with processing an art historian’s house for protection from army occupation. He not only taught us the process of which this happens, but told us how one sargents denial to sign the document was the reason. After this the army occupied his housing and destroyed everything within the week. This was unfortunate but without his involvement in the cause, there would have been many more instances of this happening during this time.

Jaleel Jackson

2025-02-03 05:26:26 UTC

Storytelling is so important nowadays. With the technology advancing all we have left to tell these stories are our ancestors. Through storytelling, we have a blast to the past and are able to stay connected with our culture through storytelling. Learning our history and knowing where we came from person to person is important. You get to see how your family survived and paved the way for you to live your life as who you are. History itself has and more than likely will always be tainted with whoevers messages, through learning from those who have come before you, you learn what your heritage stands for. With certain cultures such as west africans we see their heritage be upheld and preserved through not only oral storytelling but through physical storytelling as well. Artifacts such as different materials and shaped pieces are also rich in history, we see all types of stories through the scratches, dents, and dust/dirt on them signifying how long that piece of work has survived. It is hard to identify what is legit culture and what is also something that is being made up for clicks and likes, oral storytelling is just another thing to keep legitimate traditions alive.

Julia Grace Ducharme

jduchar3 — 2025-02-03 11:51:50 UTC

So much of what we know from early civilizations goes without record. What we do have has been recorded by the “winning team” so to speak. In early times when the sun never set over the British Empire because they owned such a large portion of the world, oral history was what was left for the civilizations up for erasure. And beyond that as well, oral storytelling is accessible to anyone who is able to speak. While there is plenty left to do where equality for women is considered, in earlier times women were unable to read and write, but oral storytelling allows for a space for them to still tell their stories. In Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni article about the absence of women's voice, an important point is touched upon. Many historians of today are grappling with an entire absence of the “women” voice in many historical cannons. So much important history rests within women, and the power within their voice. Oral storytelling is important because it is able to preserve the stories (especially those of women) that inform us about their world.

Timothy Dewey

2025-02-03 18:32:24 UTC

The story of Huong Marosz from “We all have a story to tell” By: Danielle Ray, on its own is a reason why storytelling is important. Hearing about a person's hardships and eventual success brings inspiration to those who listen. When you listen to another person’s story you gain a new perspective that is unique and important. From these new perspectives we gain insight into the environment around us, the people we call friends and family, and even the objects that we possess. Huong Marosz shows us what to do in the face of adversity. “ …Whatever you are going through, it is only temporary. Keep on fighting!!!” as she stated. This story not only gives inspiration to those who hear it. It shows us that what we need for success is our will and determination. We can get caught up in the events happening in our life and feel as though we can’t accomplish our goals/dreams. When this happens to you, you can remember this statement from Huong Marosz, “Every day you have to wake up and know that something positive is going to happen.” It doesn’t need to be the greatest thing you have ever accomplished. It can be as simple as knowing you woke up in the morning and are going to get up and do what you need to do.

Erumosele

2025-02-03 18:55:57 UTC

I have listened to Oral history interview with Frieda Belinfante, and I feel like storytelling like hers is really a lot to take in but sad at the same time when you know a good amount of background of the holocaust and how much it did and the aftermath such as the impact of people and how people changed from it is very sad. In my personal opinion it was spin chilling when she said they knew it was happening but in an aspect of her mentally preparing herself for it is scary because of the things that did happen during it. Like her uncle he was very healthy before it all happened, and he didn't need the doctors but now he needed the doctors after that which is scarier to think about how much it changed on someone's health. Hearing how much the holocaust changed her life and her family's life is really impactful to others to understand that yes, it is sad that all of it happened but it also gives us and the people in the future and try and find ways to avoid this to ever repeat in the future in history and keep it in the past instead of trying to recreate this tragedy.

Julian Morley

2025-02-03 19:18:42 UTC

From the two records of speeches given by Sojourner Truth, my takeaway is how much memory of orations can differ from what actually happened. Despite the fact that the second recording was taken 12 years after the fact and has severe inaccuracies, it is remembered as being more accurate than the firsthand transcript. As well, it shows how biases of the writer can change the record of what happened. The second writer gave Truth a thick accent that was not present in the more accurate version.

Erumosele

2025-02-03 20:00:43 UTC

There can be a lot of reasons but also gaining knowledge and knowing more can also be a big gain there's some stories that are told throughout time and there can always be hidden messages throughout the story and morals to it. Through time there's stories that ancestors have made throughout history and some of us can take them in different ways when it comes to me when I listen to a story at times I think what was the cause of this story and what lesson can I take from this story that I can use it for my present day lifestyle instead of listening to it and not thinking about it what message they are trying to get across. There was times in my life where things were rough and I would hear stories from family members because they been in the same problem but they told there experience and tell me how they handled the problem and I would take their view and story and think on the situation and makes me think deeper than what I would have thought if I didn't hear their story. Yes, the stories did help but they gave me their knowledge and how it got fixed and gave me many more options on how to solve that problem throughout time. I feel like it's the same way when it comes to it. Like it says in the article “West Africa’s oral; Histories tell us a more complete story than Traditional postcolonial narratives”, It says “These oral narratives are important modes of transmitting knowledge” which it explains the sentence before that oral histories are rich and complexed tools of storytelling because it has ancestry and ancestral experiences which shows that stories can give out knowledge for generations to come.

Samuel Monteiro

2025-02-03 23:34:08 UTC

When I read the article “West Africa’s Oral Histories Tell Us a More Complete Story than Traditional Post-colonial Narratives,” I felt like the importance of studying storytelling and understanding in a deeper way was explained here. With this article, I noticed how when these stories are being spoken compared to through writing, they can have an impact on the one listening to it. They went deeper about how their storytelling plays a crucial role in preserving the region’s history and cultural identity. I also noticed that it highlights the unique methods that challenge what we face today such as traditional practices.

Dexter Brown

2025-02-04 00:19:15 UTC

To begin, studying storytelling and the oral tradition is important because it preserves history and knowledge that might get lost along the way. This is big especially in societies where records are limited or have been destroyed. In addition,some traditions like the ones of West African griots give you a look and connection to the past. This can help you not only connect historical events but also their cultural values and lived experiences. This is because a lot of their traditions can challenge Western biases which can have a major effect, in West Africa’s oral histories tell us a more complete story than traditional post-colonial narratives Kevin Macdonald states “that he would link the largest and ongoing loss of oral memory in Africa to global economic forces and ‘Westernization’, which draw youth out of rural communities and cause them to devalue the historic knowledge of their elders”.This in itself goes to show that studying storytelling and the oral tradition is important. Overall studying storytelling and the oral tradition play a crucial role in cultural preservation, ensuring that knowledge is passed down through generations despite the world and Westernization's impact on other cultures.

Leanna Cox

2025-02-04 00:55:24 UTC

One of the reasons storytelling and oral traditions are important according to West Africa’s traditions is that they keep the culture alive and well. It passes knowledge from generation to generation by introducing details of ancestry and ancestral experiences. One of the most important things to remember is through these storytellings, it brings alive stories that you are not able to find in archives and books as they do not exist. It is in the very culture to reenact these stories. It connects people to the past during the present day. The only reason they are able to keep these traditions alive is because of the importance of keeping storytelling a significant part of their culture and history. I believe that this rings true to a lot of other cultures as well, even in the most simplest ways.

Gina Vilayphone - Gisela M. Stone Holocaust Survivor

gvilayph — 2025-02-04 01:32:18 UTC

Several years have passed since my first and last visit to the Holocaust Museum of Washington DC, however, I will never forget the overwhelming sense of heaviness and grief that bled upon my very being. Mentally, I thought I would be prepared for what I would encounter, but I don’t know if anyone is ever truly ready for such dark human depravity. My eyes were stained with the unforgivable sins of man as I lamented over the endless pile of shoes belonging to innocent men, women, and children who were relentlessly tortured, starved, humiliated, and murdered for no good reason.

No animal could have committed such senseless acts of horror against mankind, and so, I question why history continues to repeat itself. Could our stories be the very seeds contributing to the roots of generational trauma? Could the way we express our stories be the penetrating factor of this vicious cycle, preying upon communities of those who have witnessed or experienced genocidal atrocities?

Truly, if not stumbling upon the story of Gisela M. Stone, I may have given up on humanity. Gisela was a prisoner of two war camps and is now a survivor of the Holocaust. In 1931, she was already aware of Hitler although she, along with others, did not believe it would affect her community in Berlin, Germany. She was only 17. By 1939, the reality of World War 2 transcended, so she and her first husband, Paul Popper, left most everything behind and took the train to Budapest since they were Hungarian. They didn’t have much choice. The Declaration of Human Rights didn’t exist back then and isn’t truly upheld today either, so my thoughts are mute.

They received food ration cards; however, they got less than everyone else because they were Jewish. Her husband was eventually sent to Auschwitz, and she would soon witness and endure one of the darkest moments of history. In her own words, Gisela shares a time when food became scarce in her last camp. She was given a rotten apple and shared it with her girlfriend, Francis who is also a survivor: “We shared everything: our sorrow, our little food, and tried to give us hope. But then we lost hope because we saw no way out.” Sadly, many lost their faith and even refused to call themselves Jews. Gisela no longer feared death at some point, yet she was still generous.

Hopeless, depressed, belittled, and brutally starved to the point of having no name, Gisela even recalled an instance of compassion where she describes finding an ounce of hope, through a small act of kindness, from a Nazi, who asked her for her name, so he could tell her “Well, Gisela, you don’t have to wait too long. You will be free.” Later, she found out he and his wife had committed suicide and left behind their young daughter. Could you imagine this?

There is more to Gisela’s story than I could ever honor, however, sharing her concluding message of hope is probably the best thing I can do:

“All these events, put in the right focus, not by an inexperienced person like I am, will maybe help some young people to realize that one should never lose hope, and we are just human beings, and we can only go through certain events like we were young…starvation and humiliation…there is always hope and we should never give up.”

Coean Blankenship

2025-02-04 02:18:28 UTC

One reason Storytelling and the Oral Tradition is important is to preserve culture and oral traditions are utilized to convey knowledge and pass down important aspects of a culture down to children. With preserving this culture it provides an outlet to older generations to share wisdom and still be involved, if not an important involvement in the culture. In the article about West Africa's oral histories, Elders in the Griots of western Africa are seen as conduits of knowledge by passing down proverbs through oral tradition. The article specially talks about oral histories which goes with preserving culture through fine details of ancestry and ancestral experiences which all contribute to passing knowledge down through generations. With oral storytelling being a direct way of passing this culture down, there have been written false narratives which exclude the lived experiences. This makes it even more important for the elders to tell there stories orally to the children to continue these traditions in a manner that is correct and accurate to the culture. Additionally if there could be a way to start writing down accurate oral traditions from the elderly to preserve the culture better on paper that would be a way to negate the false narrative being spread.

Jamie LaValley

2025-02-04 02:58:20 UTC

Storytelling and the oral tradition are important things to study because It allows us to get a look into our past before we as a species were recording history. It also allows us to see other people's perspectives and get a better understanding of one and other. This quote by Lavinya Stewert in West Africa’s Oral Histories says the same thing “These oral narratives are important modes for transmitting knowledge”. Studying stories like these gives us a way to connect to people that we may have never been able to connect with and lets us see how they live their lives and how they have iced theory lives for thousands of years.

Hannah Free

2025-02-04 03:11:14 UTC

When I was reading "West Africa's oral histories tell us a more traditional story than traditional post-colonial narratives it showed me that oral history is a rich part of story telling. They are very specific with what they are trying to say. That history presents itself through the people and culture within west Africa shows it to be dynamic and continuos. That many people can learn a lot from the history of Western Africa. With any part of history it should be apprieciated and made sure that it should be protected good or bad. When people are gone no matter what they do you could remember them either way.

Danny Quinn

2025-02-04 04:25:56 UTC

Study oral tradition and oral story telling is important because of the messages that get passed down through the traditions orally. For example a lot of life lessons can be learned if you pass down good and great stories about things that have happened and things that can happen again. In this class we have read a lot of good stuff on this and I think that it is an important concept to learn and study. We can do this by reading the messages or listening to them that have been passed down and we can then teach our youth these lessons and messages.

Daniel Somers

2025-02-04 07:05:39 UTC

Oral storytelling is not just a concept which is essential to preserve for historical purposes, but for cultural ones as well. It is the lifeblood that keeps various cultures, histories, and traditions alive. Particularly, in countries such as Mali and Senegal in West Africa. Historically these cultures have utilized the storytelling power of griots, or appointed oral traditionists who pass down culturally exclusive knowledge. Often in Western society we do not understand these concepts of vehement tradition, and rather opt for a more evolutionary style of keeping cultural records. The fact that griots still exist today in an age of digital information is nothing short of inspiring. Studying these griots and the dedication which they accept, is crucial to understanding the value and preservation of oral tradition. Studying these scholars also presents us with an insight into what the cultures of these nations are actually like as well. Lastly, the preservation of griots are essentially a testament to the strength of the West African nations in 2025. In the face of colonization and other forms of oppression, their tradition has stood the test of time with no outside influence.

Jordan Cummings

jcummi13 — 2025-02-04 12:42:03 UTC

One reason why storytelling is important is because it is way more memorable than reading on a screen. Usually,a good orally spoken story will be remembered from start to finish. Our imagination starts to swirl, and we create mental pictures of what we're being told. We can not lose oral storytelling because other than records, our history is filled with oral stories passed down and down and is fascinating when you think about it.

Jordan Cummings

jcummi13 — 2025-02-04 13:02:13 UTC

I was privileged to have a school trip to Washington D.C. and what really resonated with me was the Holocaust Memorial Museum. I had a lovely chat with Holocaust survivor, Fanny Aizenberg. She was recalling the horrors of her time at the concentration camps. She is so brave to have to orally tell a story that chilling and life changing over, and over again. Many of her childhood friends, cousins, and close ones died in front of her in Birkenaeu. It made me think of the world we were once in, and I'd like to think we are moving towards the right direction.

Jordan Cummings

jcummi13 — 2025-02-04 13:07:52 UTC

Oral storytelling is vital because it preserves history and personal stories, especially for those whose voices may be silenced or feel a little bit unheard.
For example, when I was reading Sojourner Truth, she was born into slavery and was unable to read or write. She delivered oral speeches to tell her tale and advocate for freedom and women's rights. Her most famous speech, "Ain't I a Woman?" was remembered and passed down by those who heard it. Passed down so much that lovely Dr. T reminded us students why oral storytelling is important. Without oral storytelling, many of Sojounerss words and ideas could have been forgotten. It is important to me because it preserves meaningful stories in a way that seems authentic and genuine to the heart and soul. Hearing a tale delivered orally makes it more compelling and easier to relate to and overall grab attention.

Mike Sauvageau

2025-02-04 13:29:40 UTC

I think an important reason why we should all collectively study storytelling and oral tradition is because it can only help us learn more about the past, which will subsequently help us shape the present, and vice-versa. After reading Ndlovu-gatsheni’s piece on recovering women's voices, I was enlightened to the idea that- although we have factual evidence and sources that help historians KNOW about the past, it’s up to the historians themselves to interpret this information, which we know is ultimately partial. As our society progresses and tolerance, inclusion, and empathy grows for gender equality, it’s important that we keep looking back at what we have with a new critical lens. This will provide different avenues for interpretation by those who hopefully have a less closed-mindedness nature. For example, if we continue to just go off the findings of a male historian from 1940, who believed his wife should stay in the kitchen, then the bias that he inevitably injected into his own interpretation of past stories will ultimately perpetuate the stifling of female agency in the present. It is important that we continue to fact check ourselves and, like good detectives, keep combing over the evidence we have in order to shed new light on how the story of history unfolds.

Hannah Hartman

2025-02-04 17:15:36 UTC

It is becoming increasingly more important to study storytelling and the oral tradition because it allows for public awareness and societal recognition of oral histories. The growing recognition of oral histories will enable storytellers to pass the knowledge of tradition through generations. The Quartz article titled “West Africa’s Oral Histories Tell Us a More Complete Story Than Traditional Post-Colonial Narratives,” by Lavinya Stennett states, “These oral narratives are important modes of transmitting knowledge, especially as they bring alive histories that are not present in archives, books and other forms of literary tradition.” This global recognition of rich oral histories and traditions envokes change across wider establishments. The article also highlights oral histories as a tool of cultural preservation. In Lavinya Stennett’s article for Quartz, it is stated, “In essence, they have deprived the complexity of the oral tradition through presenting false written narratives about Africa which exclude lived experiences, and draw on loaded colonial clichés.” This statement shows the importance of not only the recognition of oral histories but also the source of information on these traditional teachings.

Erisbel

2025-02-07 05:57:08 UTC

I listened to and watched the 32 minutes and 46 second video interview on Gilah Leder and her experience during the Holocaust and after. Firstly, I would like to note some parts of the interview that had stood out to me. While listening to and watching this interview what I would like to first point out would be Gilah mentioned the struggles that her foster family must have gone through during that time. this was noted as physical, emotional and psychological pain, from the youngest to the parents. This point I feel is important to note, it was hard. As for the oral recording, I liked that if I had something I had been wondering, it would then be clarified.

Erisbel

2025-02-10 22:53:16 UTC

After having read "West Africa's oral histories tell us a more complete story than traditional post-colonial narratives" a reason I found as to why studying storytelling and oral tradition is important would be so that we can learn from others and have documents of the history or impact the story was meant to give, portray, and/ or represent. It is important to be able to take the time we have and learn and hear from those around us.

Hannah Hartman

2025-02-11 17:01:50 UTC

I was captivated by Dr. Day's stories because she was passionate about cultural heritage and the importance of cultural proficiency in the education field. Discussing and identifying emotions is a step in expressing empathy and sympathy. For communication to be effective, students must have a safe, inclusive, and respectful learning environment that promotes discussions and exposure to various cultural heritage. The origins of inequality are social constructs that have been reinforced over centuries. Diversity helps us be more proficient when we understand the differences between people because we all have different perspectives, and when we communicate, we can learn from each other. Suppose students don’t understand bias and injustices. In that case, society contradicts one of the most essential goals of education, teaching young people to think critically and develop an equitable society for the future.

One of the courses Dr. Day mentioned was Developing Culturally Proficient Educators for a Democratic Society. I took this course with Dr. Cortezia and hearing how she spoke on the subject of cultural heritage just further confirmed that I want to include Dr. Cortezia in an interview. In the class, we discussed the importance of being aware of cultural differences and how to incorporate diversity into class discussions, but I am curious about his thoughts on how Fitchburg State incorporates those discussions.

Jaleel Jackson

2025-02-11 18:37:48 UTC

Todays guests showed a lot of passion and genuine effort to change the world for the better. For the guests who did speak they all told us their stories and were vulnerable with us which I am grateful for. That is something that I learned from both a listening perspective and trying to become a better storyteller myself. I know that stories themselves are very personal so in situations where you may have acted different and got different results, we are able to appreciate whatever is told to us from a different point of view because how we come up and overall view things is so different person to person. Ultimately knowing how you want to connect to your past is a really good entry point for trying to figure out your cultural heritage no matter the stigma that may surround it.

Angel Viruet

2025-02-11 21:57:04 UTC

I was so intrigued by what the special guests had to say things about heritage. They expressed their background stories, heritage and also in-depth personal stories in which some can relate to. The Idea of heritage seemed to be subjective to each guest and there life experiences that came with it.

Leanna Cox

2025-02-12 02:50:23 UTC

Just by observation of the guests that attended class today, the way they communicated with each other and with us, I could already tell there were going to be a lot of different perspectives on Heritage as a general terms. What really stuck out to me was the mention that Fitchburg State was a "State Normal School" in place to teach teachers/professors how to go about teaching. I already knew this but what I never considered was how those who are in school for Education to become teachers may feel like they are uniquely part of generations of teachers who have been there before as that is where FSU originated. I think that is such a unique way to look at heritage because it's not exactly something you can see, but something you can explain and identify with. I think that a lot of the people who came to class today had a very widespread unique story to them as individuals and it's something positive that they can make of themselves. What I liked most, however, was their ultimate connection to how Fitchburg State has perhaps helped them find that part of themselves and in that way they are all connected.

Samuel Monteiro

2025-02-12 14:44:15 UTC

Overall, I really enjoyed all the guest speakers who shared their stories today, as well as other stories about FSU as a whole. I really appreciated and liked the good emotional connection that Dr. Day made yesterday to us. She talked about personal things with her but also how those personal things pushed her to help build a better place in the education system in the future. I also really liked the stories that our International office directors Nicole and Sandy shared. They both have great stories and visions for the future. The thought that they can help students outside the US or in the US create or find their own cultural heritage that they maybe didn’t know about is amazing.

Devin Lebron

2025-02-12 15:51:38 UTC

Overall, I think all of the guest speakers had valid points. They spoke from personal experiences which added more passion and genuine thought to the topic of discussion. The last thing I liked was how they ALL spoke with enthusiasm and respect for everyone in the classroom.

Erumosele

2025-02-12 17:32:35 UTC

The special guest was very interesting in my personal opinion because they all had different backgrounds when it comes to it especially their lifestyle and how they lived. When it came to having cultural heritage there was a wide span of lifestyle like for an example there was one special guest that has more of a lifestyle of Chinese because most of her life was in China and there biggest thing in their culture is respecting the elderly. They are also heavy on their traditions and really focused on their culture and when it comes to it they always focus on peace and less conflict. But there's another lifestyle where when it comes to cultural heritage there is another one that is off footed on culture and her family is from Canada she grew up as a queer kid and not many people have the opportunity down south cultural heritage was really tricky for her. When it comes to Fitchburg state having cultural heritage they are have different ;lifestyles but they are ended with how much impact that Fitchburg state have done with their style of life and they all ended up with basically saying that Fitchburg state is and or have cultural heritage and how much Fitchburg has impacted them growing up. The example of it is when there was another special guest and she thinks it is important that having Fitchburg state as a cultural heritage is important she thinks that having Fitchburg state is her cultural heritage and is important because during the time when she was young she felt as if Fitchburg state is like home to home to her growing up because of her father being a teacher here during the time that she was growing up. Then there was another one that feels as if that Fitchburg state is cultural heritage as well because of the things that have happen when it comes to having memories of her father which her father is African American and her mom is German and how much impact that has played a role when it comes it and how much motivation it gave her to progress during her life as a college student.

Gina Vilayphone - Partners to Allies

gvilayph — 2025-02-12 22:20:24 UTC

Through storytelling and discussions, we begin to forge partnerships, and if we maintain these types of relationships, we can become allies on the same mission because we are more alike than we know, which became apparent when we heard stories of what it was like to have Chinese traditions, to be non-binary, to be in a military family, to be of German descent and the shame that sometimes goes along with it, and how it is to grow up with a certain heritage to find out there’s more than what meets the eye. It’s not a daily occurrence to hear the personal stories of our administration and professors, but it seemed to elevate the connection we have between the very people who wish to see us succeed. They are more than the services they provide to us and knowing this opens new opportunities for growth, support, and compassion that we all need as human beings. The beautiful garden variety of stories shared with us redefined the perception of those we often feel removed from as students. We witnessed the storyteller in all of us and the value each story could bring to our community and beyond, so, I truly hope faculty members will continue to share personal stories with students to create a familial sense of belonging because without “family”, there will be no structure strong enough to form the heritage that will continue to build upon the historical lineage of Fitchburg State University.

Daniel Somers

2025-02-13 01:51:18 UTC

It was fascinating to get a grasp of the faculty's diversity, and deep connection to any questions asked during the panel. This is especially considering the fact that many members of the panel I had yet to actually see in person before. Learning of the guest's knowledge and first-hand activism in cultural awareness, particularly in Dr. Day's case, was quite reassuring. Along with her position as an esteemed educator at Fitchburg State, it was clear that her stories and granted an invaluable perspective. It was this variety of perspectives which I found most fascinating overall, granting me a much clearer picture of the diversity which is present at FSU. Numerous guests, such as Dr. Swartz and Dr. Day alike, spoke of feeling a detachment from any particular setting as a part of their heritage. More specifically they spoke of originating from "nowhere" in reference to constantly moving homes. While I cannot personally relate to this feeling, I found their method and mentality of understanding that facet of their upbringing and heritage to be intriguing. Along with this understanding, Dr. Swartz spoke of coming to terms with a heritage her family was raised to be "ashamed" of, and understanding that mentality as well. Each of these stories in relation to FSU, allowed me to understand that heritage and culture are multi-layered concepts which often require a deep internal acceptance and understanding.

Dexter Brown

2025-02-13 02:09:22 UTC

To start, I found Ms.Sallah’s discussion very interesting, especially her perspective on Fitchburg State as a part of her cultural heritage. Also, her father’s contributions to the film program and her own long-standing connection to the university highlight how meaningful Fitchburg State is to those who have been part of it. I liked the idea that every student carries at least one memory that makes them smile when they think of Fitchburg State, whether we realize it or not, we all remain connected to the university even after graduation. It made me think about how your school should leave an impact on after you leave.

Coean Blankenship

2025-02-13 05:47:30 UTC

I really enjoyed listening to the different perspectives of culture that came to light in the discussions. It was nice seeing a lot of pride in each of the work that the different guests do. When discussing culture around the room, it was interesting as the discussions changed when the idea of what culture means to different people got brought up and the difference in what culture could even be. The culture you are born into and the culture you choose was especially a cool turning point in the conversations. The guest whose father basically built the film program FSU has at the moment was especially interesting to hear about. It was interesting to hear how the guests had different upbringings and different parental impacts on their lives. One of the guests mentioned how Her dad being born German and into the German culture, that culture forced him into the military, and then was taught to be ashamed of his culture after war. The last thing I will mention is how as we discussed culture, the different personalities in the room showed how they are preserving different cultures.

Timothy Dewey

2025-02-13 14:52:08 UTC

When listening to our panel guest, I listened for core pieces of what they thought of when talking about Cultural Heritage. From “What is your cultural heritage?” The aspects that were talked about by a majority were Parental Influence, Family Hierarchy, and Geographical Significance. From our speakers Kat, and Sandy Yo was an important part of who they came to be. Kat talked about their family's support in her coming out which helped them in learning about who they are. Sandy Yo talked about her family tradition that she celebrates since it was how she was raised. With Family Hierarchy I think of two different viewpoints with respect to Sandy Yo. Sandy Yo’s Chinese culture really emphasized the importance of respect in regards to elders in her community. One of my closest friends had that same respect when it came to family and took much pride in honoring his family's legacy. Finally, what I thought was most talked about was Geographical Significance. Kat, Dr.Day, Tanya, and Shanna all touched on this topic in different ways. Kat talked about their experience growing up in South Carolina and the lack of cultural significance. They felt that South Carolina didn’t have a big influence on who they are as a person. Dr.Day talked extensively about the Abolitionist Park and the importance of the stories that the park brings to fitchburg. The creation of it is of importance to who we are as people from the Fitchburg community. Tanya’s Experience of growing up in Fitchburg State University with her father working as staff was an interesting aspect you don’t commonly hear about. The importance of FSU is different for her since she grew up watching these alumni become the people they are today. Shanna’s frustration with the lack of location for our student veterans was interesting to hear about. I Personally don’t know many veterans so I am interested to hear from them about how they feel about FSU. I want to take a moment to Thank our speakers for taking time out of their schedules to come and answer questions for us.

Michael Kelly

2025-02-13 19:44:05 UTC

I thought that Dr. Day had some really good topics and ideas of discussion that really showed Fitchburg, the city of Fitchburg, the schools of Fitchburg, and many more ideas that showed how great it really is and the rich history of Fitchburg of what it was, to what it is now. The first thing she mentioned that was cool to think about was the fact that Fitchburg State University has a school on our campus and how undermined it is that we don’t do more to interact with the younger generations of our world. Older people always have more than can teach to someone younger than them simply because we have been around longer and have seen more things, so it's always important to respect your elders and listen to them when they have something to say. Another thing that she talked about that I thought was cool is that Fitchburg originally started as a school of schooling; meaning its main teaching focus was for future teachers being mostly women. Now you look at FSU today and it has a wide variety with many different majors and classes that are offered to students which is awesome. I also remember when she mentioned the park and how good that is for the city/town and it has a lot of meaning behind it and that its not just a random park that you see in a lot of places.

Michael Kelly

2025-02-13 19:56:24 UTC

Storytelling and oral tradition are extremely important for many reasons, but one that stood out to me from “West Africa’s oral histories tell us a more complete story than traditional post-colonial narratives.” The quote that jumped out to me for the biggest reason for its importance is, “As history presents itself through the people, culture within West Africa shows itself to be dynamic and continuous.” This quote shows that stories and traditions passed down to younger generations keeps the heritage and culture alive. Being able to know what your ancestors did and do the same things keeps not only their spirits alive, but a whole group of people who share the same culture. This I can also relate to because growing up I would and still do hear stories of passed relatives and things they used to do or eat on certain days or how they would celebrate all the different holidays throughout the calendar. I believe that there are a lot more reasons why story telling is important… but for the reason of keeping your culture alive by passed down stories is a huge factor that will go on through time and generations.

oral recordings (Justeen Courtemanche)

2025-02-15 21:12:21 UTC

The idea of oral recordings is very important for keeping the stories and traditions alive and never forgotten. When listening to Elizabeth Blackwell and her story of getting accepted into the studies of medicine made me wonder and think. She was the first women to be accepted in playing that role of having a medical degree. This had a lot to do with oral recordings because this story will be told to thousands if not millions of people and it will help people especially women to fight for they want. Oral recordings are very significant because it was a way to share people experiences, they went through even if you can't visually see them. Oral recordings without seeing the person are also significant because it helps you create a picture which is also a big thing in oral recordings. helps you visualize what someone went through even when you never experienced it yourself. I also noticed with oral recordings you will understand the tone more and the emotions going through the person as they are discussing a topic.

storytelling and oral tradition importance

2025-02-15 21:27:50 UTC

After reading "West African's oral histories tell us a more complete story than traditional post-colonial narratives" by Lavinya Stennett it made me understand more in depth why storytelling and oral tradition is important. "Oral histories are rich, complex tools of storytelling." This stood out to me because it made me think about oral recordings, all of it comes together as one for us to understand why oral tradition is important. I feel without storytelling and oral tradition there will be nothing for us to learn from, listening to people's stories and their experiences helps us as people in life. Helps us keep up with historical events and helps pass down knowledge and keeps us well educated.

Hannah Free

2025-02-16 21:08:20 UTC

I thought that all of the judges had very unique and different perspectives on different heritages. That it made me think a lot about my own and we’re I came from. All the talks were very inspiring and it helped me to understand why discovering our own culture is so important to our lives and the relationships that can come from them. It helps me realize that different cultures can show what we need to explore. The guests all had something special to say either about themselves or about the history of Fitchburg Sate and it expanded my thought process of the assignment. There are deep connections all around us and how we must seek them out and learn more about them to grow as people.

Erisbel

2025-02-16 21:58:58 UTC

The panel that was brought to our class was a mix of panelists who work for our school. I had forgotten her name, which I apologize for, but I found her story to be very intriguing. Her story was the start to her culture and how her family came from Germany to the United States of America. Her family came right around the end of the war from Germany to America, but due to the unfortunate past her father had become part of the military force as their past had been a shameful one. Due to their past, she was not able to tell others of her roots, and this blanket of shame, the past, and the military had been a big part of her culture.

Dexter Brown

2025-02-17 16:09:55 UTC

To begin, what stood out to me was that Fitchburg State’s student population is 51% graduate students, with 69% of them identifying as female and 19% as racially or ethnically diverse. But, like stated in the video many are taking classes later in the day or online, and they’re not as seen on campus as much. So, my thought was what is the university doing to make sure they feel included? Since graduate students make up more than half of our population, there should be more effort to get them involved in campus life in ways that fit their schedules. We don’t see them around as much, and I’ve noticed this myself with my friend in the graduate program, I really only see him at the dining hall or football unless we decide to hang out but never just walking to class or on campus. But if we find ways to engage them to go out whether it be through virtual events or campus activities it would help make sure they feel involved in campus life, especially outside their sport.

Devin Lebron

2025-02-17 19:53:05 UTC

The one thing that grabbed my attention was how it talks about the on-campus to off-campus ratio. This is shocking to me because I live on campus and rarely experience much of campus life. So, how does a student who commutes or lives off-campus gain the same experience? Are they missing out or not missing much? I think it's unfortunate that we have such little on-campus activities compared to much bigger schools. It kind of feels like the college itself is getting complacent and does the bare minimum to involve students.

Julian Morley

2025-02-17 20:49:54 UTC

I didn’t realize that a majority of the FSU population was graduate students because as the video mentions, a lot of them have unusual class times, as well as the stem departments having very few graduate degrees. Less of a surprise was how diverse the community is, although it was still above what I expected. It's good to see more equality in who is attending higher education. Moving to the statistics of the city of Fitchburg itself, it wasn’t unexpected to see higher poverty rates and lower incomes when compared to the state average, as it is generally the norm for urban areas to be poorer than suburban and rural ones.

Hannah Free

2025-02-18 01:41:11 UTC

What pulled most of my attention was how many incoming freshman wanted to work on campus for the first year. I feel it is a big adjustment and I didn't expect it to be at 93% when watching the video. There are also many Percentages throughout the Fitchburg demographics. Bachelors degree or higher is at 24.5% vs 47.8% statewide. Also how with disabled it is 16.4% vs 12.8%. That close to half of our Fitchburg State community is first generations 39% of the school. Every day the percentages are going to change based on how many people come here to learn and how much we grow as a community. Fitchburg State is a very great school and has deep heritage. Everything about it is very positive all around.

Justin Swaine

2025-02-18 01:48:16 UTC

I found it interesting that many of the presentators either weren't from the United States or recent heritage isn't. Taking a look at Sandy Yu, her cultural heritage is from China where they have a lot of respect for their elder, tending to take care of them. In the United States, we do not show this form of respect and care for our elderly. At a certain age, we tend to put them in elderly communities or in nursing homes to have others take care of them for us. I'm curious to see what thoughts and comparisons she may be able to make with this. With Beth and Kat, hearing their experiences growing up in military families where they were constantly on the move stuck a spot with their difficulty finding what their cultural heritage is. Beth claimed that the stuggle with her father being German from Nazi Germany and having to hide his heritage by getting an alternative name in the United States and how that translated into her life. From knowing Beth through TRIO, I can see what she now considers her cultural heritage, but now knowing she struggled to find it for so long is pain stacking. With Kat, the south is not very welcoming to those apart of the LGBTQ+ community. I have a friend who grew up in New Orleans and attended a Christian Church while identifying as a lesbian. She has told me how unaccepting they were of her and how long it took for her family to accept her for who she is. Hearing Kat's story about the struggle she had andthe struggle people continue to have to this day. One of my biggest takeaways is how the United States claims they are welcoming to all and a home for the free, but the country does not follow this as there are many things that othercountries do significantly better and how unwelcoming they can be to certain communities.

Hannah Hartman

2025-02-18 02:24:13 UTC

I like how the speaker really puts the power in the audience's hands by asking thought-provoking questions to get us to think more about and question what we already know about the community's demographics. Asking the audience questions about the community they are a part of and hearing the statistical results can push you to reflect on your surroundings and inspire you to be more aware of your community's demographics. I personally was shocked by the answers to the reflective questions in the video. I now feel a desire to be more intentional with how I perceive my surroundings and want to pay more attention to the diversity of my community. As a result of the video, I hope to gain more observational value and understand more about the members of my community.

Jamie LaValley

2025-02-18 03:48:52 UTC

Before watching this video I had known that a large number of students at this school were commuters but I did not know that over half of our student body is. Having 56% of the students that attend this university not living on campus makes me realize how much bigger this school actually is. This made me wonder what we do as a university to make over half of our student body feel included and as much of a part of this school as they actually are. I have been able to do a lot of activities at this school because I have been living on campus and don't have to worry about small things like what time I'm getting home or where I can stay while I wait for an activity to start. But for a large part of our student body these are more complicated questions. For example an event like the homecoming fair that we do in the fall for me i can go to whenever i want and then leave when I want but for a commuter they have to think about where they are going to stay until it starts and then how late they can stay if they don't want to be driving home very late at night. These issues might just make some commuters not want to attend at all.

Jaleel Jackson

2025-02-18 03:59:17 UTC

Fitchburgstates demographic is wider than I thought. Majority of the grad students study online too. It makes sense though because of the lack of campus presence. A lot of campuses have activities nonstop throughout the year and overall more of a community feel as well as look. When you walk on other campuses you see students in groups walking around laughing and overall enjoying the campus, you don't really see much of that here. Something else that caught my attention was the income that the people of Fitchburg make. It's unfortunate that because they make less they are funded less as well ultimately contributing to the lack of resources. Like up the street from our campus there was a playground, not sure what the exact reason for it being torn down, but regardless it was torn down. With lack of resources it's harder to find communities based on the school besides your ethnicity, though this school is very wide spread in ethnicity you still see a lot of people hanging out with people that are familiar and comfortable.

Danny Quinn

2025-02-18 05:05:32 UTC

The video focused a lot on the demographics that are very interesting and that I will get into later. But first I would like to discuss how the video clearly showed an interesting and open community at Fitchburg state which creates a happy and safe working environment. This leads to better education and an overall better working experience and this leads to bringing in more people of this nature which is gonna draw in more finances which leads to a whole lot of benefits for not just Fitchburg State University but the whole city in general in can bring in ore and better shops and the whole Fitchburg community will really and truly benefit everyone who is was or will be Fitchburg state. Now let’s get into the demographic.
Now 51% of fsu is graduate students and this leads to a better college because more graduate degrees and brighter future for students of Fitchburg state.

Most report as female which is good for inclusivity.

19% racially diverse but 38% of undergraduates are which is also good for inclusivity.

44 % of full time students lived on campus last year and this is good for a better on campus community.

A lot of full time students are first generation and almost all of incoming freshman want to work on campus this semester

Now the city of Fitchburg which is very diverse and has a lot of different ethnicities.

Coean Blankenship

2025-02-18 06:03:06 UTC

This was a very interesting and informational video about Fitchburg State. The video essentially told a story about the university through the data. This "story" created a sense of relatability which we discussed is an important aspect of storytelling. I could relate to some of the statistics. I am a first generation college student who also lives in Fitchburg as a commuter. Graduate students taking up 51% was surprising. Seeing the median income being significantly lower in Fitchburg than it is in statewide was also interesting. The almost half percentage of bachelors degree's or higher in Fitchburg compared to the state puts Fitchburg State in a position where they have to push to raise this percentage.

Daniel Somers

2025-02-18 06:25:53 UTC

One demographic that was particularly alarming, was that over a fifth of incoming freshman students at Fitchburg State reported some form of food insecurity. Over a fifth of FSU's incoming students economically have the will to attempt to complete a college education, yet still possess some kind of food insecurity; presumably for economic reasons. This struck me as quite a large percentage, and provoked me to ask what FSU could do to better understand and aid this issue. Along with this, seeing over 93% of incoming freshman work during the semester was also an interesting demographic. While the video does not elaborate, presumably a portion of the money made from each student's paycheck would fund their education at FSU, meaning a large portion of the incoming class is self-sufficient economically to some degree. This is a point I can relate to heavily, as I have held a job whilst attending FSU since day one. Overall, these demographics present altogether present a picture of a student body which is diverse ethnically, and economically.

Gina Vilayphone - The future of Community

gvilayph — 2025-02-18 13:12:01 UTC

Although community demographics does not always tell the whole story, it does somehow paint a picture of a future community progressing.

Here at Fitchburg State University,

93% of incoming freshman are coming to college in hopes of working in the future, 37% dream of getting an education beyond a bachelor's degree, and out of that 22% face food insecurity.

Since, over a third of undergrad students identify as racially diverse at 38% with 17% identifying as Hispanic or Latino, 44% living on campus, 39% coming in as first generation students, and 39% also receiving Pell Grants - this data seems to show many students coming in from lower income backgrounds, as first generation students, with most choosing to live on campus, possibly to gain independence, affecting language or time spent at home, while choosing to work after graduation, instead of going into masters programs.

I am assuming this because interestingly, 71% of graduate students are female and overall, 51% of students but only 19% are racially diverse. So, it seems most males might choose to pursue careers above higher education and women seem to pursue an education above careers to plan for the long run. I am unsure what this might mean other than seeing the future as women?

In 2020, a Fitchburg census revealed 37% of individuals identify as Hispanic or Latino descent which is higher than the statewide average of 12.6%. Furthermore, only 28.6% of households spoke another language outside of English which is not too far off from the statewide average of 25.3%. This signals an overall decline in linguistic diversity.

In addition, the medium income was $70,000 compared to $100,000 statewide and the employment rate was 63% vs 64% statewide. So, it seems to show just as many people in Fitchburg were working in 2020 compared to the rest of the state, but $30,000 less income was earned. This may correlate with higher education since 24% had a bachelor's degree vs 47.8% statewide, and 16.4% had disability vs 12.8%.

It seems many households in Fitchburg are working to make ends meet, possibly not spending as much time at home conversing, leaving the possibility of those with disabilities and women earning higher degrees before men who “traditionally” have the responsibility of financially supporting family households, however, I am curious to see an updated census.

I am assuming all this, of course, by the data given which may or may not encompass everyone. If this is the trajectory of the future, then perhaps, we will see more women and those with disabilities, leading the way.

Reflection

2025-02-18 13:16:51 UTC

I think on a very basic level of surprise and interest that I was most captivated by the poverty statistics in relation to FSU students. The two that stood out to me the most were the 22% of students who reported food insecurity and the whopping 93% of students who plan to work during the semester. As a commuting student myself who pays for rent, gas, food, other bills, and my own tuition, I also have a job that coexists with my current education plan, however, I was fortunate enough to have had a few years of savings to help me get by and thus didn’t think too much about having a side job while attending school. If anything, these statistics made me realize that many students may be working through school and not viewing that job as supplemental income… it could very well be dependent on their education and their overall livelihood. With that in mind, my biggest takeaway from this data is: every student has a different story, and it may not be easy to read it from their cover appearance. I think this data has also made me realize that I take for granted my own situation and have been quick to judge people I’ve heard in different classes using the excuse, “I didn’t do the homework because I was working.” I can safely say this data has given me a little more empathy and understanding for my fellow classmates!

Samuel Monteiro

2025-02-18 13:22:24 UTC

I think this video was very informal and helped me open my eyes to a lot of different things that our campus here at FSU could use or at least take into consideration. Some things like involvement with commuters more and more events could attract more people to like the campus more. I feel like we don’t have a place where everyone here can feel welcomed, and even more, we just want to come out for things. We always have room to improve and after looking at some numbers I noticed that we probably have a lot of left out students that could be getting more involved.

Erisbel

2025-02-18 13:52:20 UTC

When listening to and reading this presentation I had found it interesting. I found it interesting because the demographics had intrigued me. I liked how the presenter made a comparison to those student era in our school compared to those statewide and to those who lived in Fitchburg. All in all I found it informative.

Angel Viruet

2025-02-18 14:11:38 UTC

This video is very eye opening. It showed that 19 percent of the demographic would identify as racially diverse is 19%, that is a staggeringly low number. Being a student of Fitchburg state I am oddly surprised because I know a good amount of people on campus, and I have always believed it was more towards 50/50 or 60/40. This goes to show that there is a demographic of people that for me. Well, we all know Fitchburg is a commuter school but actually knowing the ratio is crazy, it being so high creates a grand line between commuter and on campus people.

Erumosele

2025-02-18 14:30:21 UTC

I am very impressed because I didn’t think that there was a lot of graduate students that was on campus and that where living on campus last semester which is very impressive because I never knew. When it comes to being a first generation college student I’m also very interested because I never knew that there was a good portion of people that where first generation but I thought there was going to be more people then I thought from that video. Because I would have thought that there was a lot of people when it also comes to wanting to get more then bachelors degree is a very small percentage which is really impressive I never thought there was a small few of people because I thought there was more then that because I thought it would impact on the future.

Justin Swaine

2025-02-18 20:29:38 UTC

One of the biggest reasons we should be studying storytelling and oral traditions I found was in the West Africa's Oral Histories. I learned about griots from a previous course I took. I believe it is important to learn about how oral storytelling has gone down through the generations. Griots are a prime example as we are now seeing how oral storytelling is starting to diminish in the sense of their culture. We have moved more towards written storytelling for stories from many generations prior. We don't use a family line to continue to preserve our stories in the modern day. Knowing how other cultures continue to share their stories and how other nations may have done the same is important to know about. We may be able to learn moe about how we still use these forms of storytelling to this day. An example I would say that relates to griots are how our grandparents tell us stories of past generations within our family line.

Leanna Cox

2025-02-22 16:55:25 UTC

I haven't been at Fitchburg State for long, but even at first glance, I can see that while it may not be as diverse as some other universities, it is still significantly more diverse than my high school—by at least 98%. When I say there were maybe four Black students and three Asian students in my entire school, I’m not exaggerating. My experience was different when I lived in Michigan, and even when I moved to the Cape in fourth grade, where the majority of the population was Brazilian. Moving here was a bit of a culture shock.

Another thing I’ve noticed is the difference in student life on and off campus. As a commuter, I often feel out of the loop when it comes to campus events. Most of the time, I only find out about things through word of mouth, usually on the day of, when it's already too late to make plans. Because of this, I don’t feel very connected to the university, which is why I’ve had to go out of my way to join activities just to feel included. It’s frustrating, and I don’t think the university does enough to engage and support commuter students.

Kensley Antoine

2025-02-24 01:36:04 UTC

In my opinion it is important to not lose oral storytelling because, Oral storytelling is such a powerful and intimate way of preserving culture and history. It allows the stories to remain dynamic, as each generation adds its own layer of interpretation and relevance. Plus, it fosters a strong sense of community, as it’s often shared in gatherings where people connect on a deeper level. It’s a way of ensuring that the values and experiences of the past continue to resonate with future generations, even as the world changes.

Kensley Antoine

2025-02-24 01:38:17 UTC

Storytelling creates a space where people can confront and process their emotions in a safe and structured way. By telling a story, whether it's their own or through a character or event, individuals can re-examine difficult experiences from a different perspective. This helps them integrate the emotional weight of those experiences without feeling overwhelmed

Kensley Antoine

2025-02-24 01:39:20 UTC

Oral recording has become integral to modern society because it bridges the gap between cultures, preserves important memories, and fosters deeper human connections. It continues to evolve, making it a versatile and influential tool in how we share stories, preserve knowledge, and communicate

Kensley Antoine

2025-02-24 01:48:37 UTC

By exploring storytelling and oral traditions, we gain a deeper appreciation for the diverse ways in which cultures express their values, struggles, and triumphs. It not only helps preserve cultural heritage but also enhances our collective human understanding, bridging gaps between generations and across different backgrounds.In the case of Sojourner Truth's "Ain't I A Woman?"The oral tradition allows Truth's powerful words to resonate with audiences beyond her time, emphasizing the intersection of race and gender while challenging societal norms.This study allows us to reflect on shared human experiences, making it easier to connect with others.

Kensley Antoine

2025-02-24 01:49:57 UTC

Hearing different perspectives probably reflect on how we all play a role in safeguarding and passing down cultural practices, whether it's through oral storytelling, language, or community rituals. For me, the most impactful takeaway would be the reminder of how fluid and dynamic cultural heritage is. It’s not just about preservation but also adaptation of how heritage evolves and adapts to modern times, sometimes incorporating new influences while still holding onto core traditions.

Justin Swaine

2025-02-24 18:58:29 UTC

I found this video very informational and a key contributor to the cultural heritage of our universiity. For myself, knowing information relating to first generation college students is going to be key to my research. I also belive knowing how diverse our campus is, especially in the latinx/hispanic aspect is huge as we are striving towards becoming a Hispanic Serving institution. Some questions I feel should be asked on the topic of the video is what does the historical chart of this information look like? Where have we seen an increase in percentages and when have we seen decreases?

Hannah Hartman

2025-02-25 17:29:50 UTC

Fitchburg has so much history that I never knew about. I enjoyed how the guest speaker described various ways in which the history of Fitchburg was so interconnected with other parts of Massachusetts and some neighboring states. She also connects the history of the town to present-day events and innovations. I find it interesting how much history Mrs. Navarre related to the names of people, places, and historical archives. This reminded me of the guest speaker series we had in class where Mrs. Emily Stark discussed the cultural heritage behind her family’s last name. There was so much history and cultural heritage tied to Mrs. Stark's family name and this was similar, in my eyes, to the interconnectedness of the history and cultural heritage of Fitchburg and the University. I have never been a big history person, but hearing the speaker today discuss all of the milestones of Fitchburg made me feel like I was more connected to history and I could better understand the significance of history on our society today. She brought up many interesting people and events as well as discussed how big the manufacturing industry was in Fitchburg, and for the first time, I really began thinking about how my cultural heritage played a role in the history of Fitchburg.

Gina Vilayphone - Ms. Susan Navarre

gvilayph — 2025-02-25 20:34:29 UTC

Ms. Susan Navarre, storyteller and executive director of the Fitchburg Historical Society, shared a wonderful snapshot of Fitchburg's exciting past, which still is being uncovered today. She began by expressing the local indigenous history we have may be inaccurate, so there is ongoing research, however, it was shared this was the territory of the Nipmuc Tribe which is of Algonquian culture. She was suggested to look at the names of places such as Massachusetts, Wachusett, ect to understand the origins of the people who first lived here. Through a book located at the historical society, she mentioned Fitchburg did not have any settlements, but there were American Indians that were enslaved when the Europeans came. I am very interested in putting the pieces together on this as I am aware of King Philips war and the story of John Fitch being kidnapped and returned. I enjoyed learning about our historical Fitchburg writers and composers, our historical immigrants that became a part of this vivid history, our women leaders, the textile industry, how church and state was not quite separated yet, and Fitchburg being the first of many things but mainly how it was given the opportunity to showcase moon rocks at the Civic Center from the first moon landing with a show from the Boston Pops. I plan to visit the Historical society before spring break to satisfy my curiosity and see if I can find anything relating to John Fitch, King Philips War, and the enslavement of the American Indian people. I am curious if all Nipmuc or if other tribes were brought in as slaves and if any traditions survived or if made to assimilate since church was a requirement to establish towns/cities at the time. We learned of the slave bible as well so, it's all very interesting to try to put the pieces together.

Hannah Free

2025-02-26 00:16:24 UTC

Susan Navarre spoke in depth about so much of Fitchburg States history. There was a lot covered that was surrounded by the campus and the history society. There were so many facts that I didn't know before today and now I feel like what she said had an impact. It also shows me on how I can move forward on my podcast. There are different angles that had been covered by different people over time. That Main Street went from all factories to the city we know today. That history is now changing around the surrounding areas with not just the new and old buildings but the people that are here.

Jaleel Jackson

2025-02-26 15:41:40 UTC

I myslef showed up to class a few minutes behind so when I entered class Ms. Navarre was already in the middle of one of her stories. One of the main stories that she mentioned that caught my attention the most or that I can remember most vividly was when she brought up photos of the house that Is on main street. I am not exactly sure how old the house is in particular but I do know that the house has been there for quite some time. Through that time the history of that house has only become richer. I remember her saying that the house was brought out by a different family who I'm assuming is going to do like the last family and just pass it down generation to generation like the previous family. This likey something that is going to happen to that houses as well as many more pieces of land and property, different families and their generations are going to be able to come together and enjoy the fruits of our labor as well as our ancestors.

Devin Lebron

2025-02-26 15:52:09 UTC

To start, I noticed that Susan Navarre knows a lot about Fitchburg’s history, especially its industrial past and important landmarks. She clearly cares about the city’s history, and it showed in the way she talked about it. Her enthusiasm made it clear that she is passionate about sharing this knowledge.

I was surprised to learn how much industry used to exist in Fitchburg. Before hearing her speak, I didn't know that Fitchburg as a city had such a rich industrial history. However, Susan Navarre explained how its mills, factories, and businesses played a big role in shaping the city and even had a wider impact beyond it.

Erumosele

2025-02-26 16:57:03 UTC

Fitchburg is very impressive and interesting to learn about. I am not from Fitchburg or Massachusetts. There is a lot of history that was viewed in my opinion but it is very interesting. I enjoyed that she basically expressed how she feels and showed that she has been very interested with fitchburg history and culture around it.The history with fitchburg she felt as if she was reliving the time which made the story telling more interesting. I was very impressed that the photographer was also a Fitchburg alumni and he was there for the history as well. I feel as if learning the history around Fitchburg and or about Fitchburg kind of changed how I see Fitchburg and what it's all about the same the history with it.

Michael Kelly

2025-02-26 21:26:31 UTC

Susan Navarre touched on a lot of cool and interesting information that Fitchburg has as a city as well as Fitchburg State University as a school. There were many things she brought up that I had no idea about like the fact Wachusett Mountain used to be the place where natives would meet to hunt, fish, hangout, etc. I thought that was interesting because I have gone snowboarding down that mountain a few times and it's interesting to know what was going on at the mountain before it became a ski/snowboarding mountain. Another cool thing she brought up was the fact that it was founded in 1764 and was a small residential area until the 1830s where it was one of the biggest populations around its area. To that fact too, she mentioned it was called, "The Patch, from Irish, Polish, and Italian, to Latino communities.” I think that is also very interesting because it shows the movements undergone by the school's city and the many changes it went through as far as its community and diversity. The last thing that caught my attention was when she mentioned the 36-year-old Irishman, Henry M. Francis, who died of cirrhosis. He was the builder of the monument square and Christ church that we still can see today. Overall there is a lot of rich history about the city of Fitchburg and a lot to learn about.

reflection on panel of guest

2025-02-26 23:04:12 UTC

I sadly could not make it into this class that day but reading my classmates responses helped me! I'm going to put bullet points of the things I found most interesting.

-I liked how a lot of my peers expressed how the guest was very vulnerable especially when talking about things.

-connecting to our past is a good way to figure out cultural heritage.

-Different perspectives

-Some cultural focus on peace and less conflict

Daniel Somers

2025-02-27 01:06:15 UTC

I found Susan Navarre's breadth of knowledge regarding Fitchburg's history on numerous levels to be quite compelling. I had particularly enjoyed hearing her speak on the brushes with greater fame Fitchburg as a city experienced, such as the showcasing of moon rocks in 1970, or JFK's visit to the city. More importantly, her awareness of the roots in which the city was founded on was crucial to having any basis for the history which follows. Along with this fact, I found her knowledge of ethnic demographics through several decades of Fitchburg's history to be the most historically fascinating piece of her presentation. Specifically, Fitchburg's high Chinese population in the late 19th century, in contrast to cities such as Quincy that had extremely low Chinese populations during this time. In 2025, the Chinese population has certainly skyrocketed since the late 19th century, where Fitchburg has gained a large Latino population from countries such as Uruguay. I had no prior knowledge of the ethnically-based neighborhoods which encompassed Fitchburg in decades prior either, such as "The Patch" which was predominantly Irish-Americans. Overall, Susan Navarre had presented us as a class with a great selection of details from Fitchburg's history as a city, and especially ones that much of the class likely knew little about prior.

Julian Morley

2025-02-27 01:32:50 UTC

The presentation on the history of Fitchburg highlights how much of its history is shaped by immigration. I’ve always known Fitchburg as having high amounts of immigration, but 75% of citizens being either foreign born or the children of immigrants was much higher than I expected. I found the part about the different neighborhoods for different immigrant groups to be very interesting because during my interview with my dad he talked about how he grew up with the different groups in different areas. It was also interesting to hear about how these areas have new ethnicities move into specific areas that previously had a different group.

Michael Sauvageau

2025-02-27 01:36:48 UTC

I thought that Mrs. Navarre did an excellent job of conveying how rich the history of Fitchburg is and how crucial the research and preservation process was, and still is, for keeping the city's legacy alive. While this class has undoubtedly planted the seed, her first-hand insight really watered down my understanding that it takes meticulous examination and uncharted exploration to achieve even the tiniest result, but one that could ultimately lead to future discoveries and historical awareness. Some of her stories about the more notable residents and advancements to come out of Fitchburg were fascinating, with her mention of the couple who created the Book of the Month Club serving as a standout anecdote for me, (Great, now I know who to thank for the mismatched book sizes on my hardcover shelf) but what caught my attention the most was her discussion on the population boom that occurred between 1850-1950. I was unaware of how rapid the city growth had been at that time, and even more in the dark about how instrumental the Nashua river waterpower was to the expansion of immigrant housing and employment. Overall, it was interesting to hear about the different diversity group migrations that took place throughout the years and it proves to show that there’s so many levels of culture and history to a seemingly ordinary place. I think if anything, this presentation will give me a little more patience when researching for my podcast because it really hit home the idea that the necessary work and drive to uncover new historical data and information is always worth it for the end results.

Dexter Brown

2025-02-27 02:03:30 UTC

To begin, one thing that stood out to me that Susan Navarre spoke about was the house on Main Street. I remember how she spoke about it and how houses built like those are a part of Fitching's rich history. Also, I remember her speaking about how some young families are moving in and starting to refurbish these houses. Specifically when she spoke about how the house on Main St was owned for around a century before the owners decided to sell it to a young couple. They are fixing it up but of course, keeping the unique structure. Overall you could tell through the passion and enthusiasm Susan spoke with that this house and houses like this are a big part of Fitchburg's rich diverse history.

Samuel Monteiro

2025-02-27 02:56:49 UTC

I wanted to start where I liked it the most, Fitchburg’s History! Susan went deep into history and how things have been created/ passed down to be alive in this generation. This was a different kind of storytelling that I loved because it told a story not only through truth but through interactive parts that we can connect to within her story. From Fitchburg being founded in 1764 to reminisce of an old cotton mill that still has the foundation here today, Fitchburg in a whole has many great unique things about it. Even other facts like all the types of improvements through women's history paved a great way. Notable people like Gerry Lombard and Leonard Gaskin Chorale both had great history points within Fitchburg, from creating local Jewish communities to being a black composer here at FSU. This history is cherishable and really important for us to know.

Leanna Cox

2025-02-27 03:18:38 UTC

I never really had much interest in Fitchburg State’s history. To me, it seemed like nothing special—it was simply a university I chose over Suffolk because it was closer to home and more affordable. Now, I can’t help but wonder if Suffolk even has half the intriguing history that Fitchburg State does. I truly appreciated how Ms. Susan Navarre took the time to dive deep into the history of Fitchburg State and answer all of our questions. Now, I find myself reflecting on the very ground my feet walk upon here on campus.

I was particularly fascinated by how some of the indigenous history we’ve learned might actually be inaccurate. Learning about the role women played in Fitchburg’s history was also incredibly eye-opening. It's amazing to realize how often we take history for granted. We should all take the time to look around, explore, and gain a deeper understanding of the places around us and how the past has shaped the present.

Erisbel

2025-02-27 14:48:37 UTC

During the presentation there were some points that had caught my attention. The points that I would like to note from this were ones that she seemed to give as some interesting facts. I had been interested in Tom’s letters and I would like to look more into this. Another point would be the brief mention of Edgerly.

Gina Vilayphone - The Hidden Jewel of Forgotten Wisdom!

gvilayph — 2025-02-28 00:13:56 UTC

The library archive of Fitchburg State University is a hidden jewel of forgotten wisdom that will bring joy to many who seek it, and Mr. Asher Jackson, is the guardian overseeing this sacred collection of artifacts! Anything of curiosity, Mr. Asher is sure to find, while also, sharing personal stories and fun facts of Fitchburg’s seemingly forgotten past to the modern works of current students and notable alumni. I was impressed by the array of authors and poets who got their start at Fitchburg State University, especially, when Mr. Asher, found and shared a little green book with me, called “Memories of the First Parish Fitchburg” by multiple local authors containing historical reflections of Fitchburg’s first Unitarian church, but most delightful for me, was seeing the poetry living in between the pages. I began dreaming of the things I could create, and Mr. Asher was very encouraging by sharing previous success stories of alumni and his own ideas for the archives, having supported other students in their endeavors previously. He became a beautiful guide for me like. I could not stop smiling after I left, and I cannot wait to return to discover the possibilities the archives could provide for students like me! The library archives of Fitchburg State University is tucked safely away in an obscure lower-level location of Hammond Hall if anyone is curious to find it. Thank you, Dr. Tracy, for taking us on one of the best trips ever! I cannot wait to create my first podcast. 😊

Erumosele

2025-03-03 19:25:54 UTC

I really didn't know that the archives even existed when it comes to the archives it was very interesting to know a lot more about the history of Fitchburg state university. There are a lot of things to be known when it comes to the archives. I am glad I learned more about the building and the archive showed that there were a lot of mysteries when it comes to the history of Fitchburg state. When it comes to resources and where they are located and when and where he finds the resources of the history of Fitchburg state it's as if there are so many things that we don't even know about this area and same with the college as well. I feel as if there is a lot of knowledge that each and every single one of us learned. Same with the number of ideas that flowed through all of our minds during the times that we were in the archives. I feel the same with the amount of information that we have learned as well or can lead to a lot of questions to all of us when it comes to the place and how much information that the archives do have in the one room. The information in that one room could lead to endless information about the school and the same with the area such as Fitchburg and the people that were here before any of us.

Hannah Hartman

2025-03-03 19:31:10 UTC

As I reflect on my experience at the Fitchburg State archives, I feel like I benefitted from the visits because not only did it help me get started on my Perseverantia Cultural Heritage Podcast Episode, but it also helped inspire me to learn more about my cultural heritage. I feel more curious about the history of my family and, therefore, feel more inclined to ask my relatives questions and listen more closely to their stories. It was also interesting to read through some of the legal documents and look through the photos of the University during the archives visits. I liked reading about the history of former University presidents because, as a dual enrollment student, I know very little about Fitchburg State and the city of Fitchburg in general. The archive visits gave some historical insight into different aspects of the history of Fitchburg and the University. The information I gained and my experience as a whole will be very useful for the construction of my podcast episode.

Devin Lebron

2025-03-03 19:59:29 UTC

When I reflect on my visit to the archives, I am grateful to have understood and discovered my proposal idea. I enjoy the fact that it is essentially a workshop day. So having the freedom to talk to my classmates and bounce ideas off of them is a great time. Something I got to research was the cultural presence of the Fitchburg community. For example, the population of cultures that immigrated to fitchburg and the most common ethnicity in Fitchburg.

Leanna Cox

2025-03-03 20:46:56 UTC

While taking the time to reflect, I have realized that the archives at Fitchburg tell a story about the university in ways that perhaps the oral representation can’t. Being able to look through pictures, blueprints, letters, etc gave me this newfound knowledge and interest that I never knew existed. During the second visit, we were supposed to be finding the archives that supported our podcast theme. At that point, I did not have one, but after long research I have decided to do the podcast on the Temperance Movement in Fitchburg which was the push to abolish and prohibit alcohol and tobacco for the sake of people’s lives. Though I wasn’t able to look through the archives, I could still admire what the people around me were looking through. Gina let me look through some of the things she was holding, one of the books about a First Parish church in Fitchburg and the poetry inside of it. It was really interesting and it was a moment to share and bond over something that we both thought was intriguing. I plan to go back to see if I can find anything concerning the movement I am researching. Overall, I feel as though the archives are helpful and luring. I think it’s a great way to become more educated about Fitchburg’s history, especially when it comes to the topics that are not necessarily publicized online. It feels like the archives reveal hidden stories about history and past traditions.

Jaleel Jackson

2025-03-03 21:19:47 UTC

Reflecting on my archive visit I come to have a greater appreciation for what it is. It is ultimately always for people’s greatness to not only be documented but shown off to later generations for decades to come, so they know who to not necessarily appreciate them but acknowledge the things that have done before us on the same ground that we have walked on. There are so many artifacts and overall treasures that are in that room that have been handled and occupied by thousands of people over the years and for it to still be accessible after so many years is impressive. Can’t forget to mention the welcoming Mr. Asher Jackson as well, he was so open and inviting to us and when he was teaching us about some of the pieces that he has it was like he saw these pieces for the first time again when it came to enthusiasm and overall effort when it came to showing off what the university has to offer.

Daniel Somers

dsomers1_1 — 2025-03-04 00:48:12 UTC

While I had already visited the archives prior to our first visit, I had not been exposed to its contents. On the first day of us being there, I had been exposed to more history and heritage regarding Fitchburg State than I had anywhere else on campus. It is quite fascinating to see that there is a area dedicated to the preservation and storage of materials related to not just FSU, but Fitchburg as a city. As Dr. Jackson had stated, they continue to find boxes of documents in hidden corners of the university, which is another concept I find simultaneously troubling and fascinating. I had discovered a collection of photos taken on the first floor of Fitchburg State's library, presumably in the early to mid-90s. While they were merely simple, candid photos of students during this time, it gave me a perspective of Fitchburg State's diverse cultural heritage in both the student body and the campus itself. Dr. Jackson had also briefly showcased different forms of media which they aim to preserve in the archives, the most ancient being a floppy disc. The diverse range of media which they work to preserve is fascinating on its own, and overall provided me with much more confidence in finding more specific themes of cultural heritage within the archives. Lastly, I found it somewhat shocking that the archives were not constructed until recently, rather than being a longstanding project within the university.

Jamie LaValley

2025-03-04 00:51:35 UTC

Going into our second archives visit I had a rough idea for what I wanted my proposal to be about. While I was there I went through many iterations about what I wanted to do and when I finally decided on a specific topic to do I was able to meet with Asher and he helped me find sources relating to my topic to help me with my podcast. One of the things that I liked the most that helped me come up with the idea for my podcast was that it was just a workshop day where I could speak with anyone I wanted to get to a specific idea. Something I liked that was unrelated to the podcast was the fact that I had never been to the archives before so it was interesting to see what it was like in there and learn about how it works.

Hannah Free

2025-03-04 01:40:04 UTC

I thought that the visit to the archives was a very interesting experience. Iv'e never been in an archive before but it seems to be a different version of a library. It has differences but it also has years of history and always needing to find new stuff. The University has done a good job creating this archive and building it. It has become a great resource for all students and is very beneficial for the entire school. It gives a different perspective. It gives me so much information on my topic for my podcast. It gives a lot about how the adaption of disability services has changed over the years and made so much progress.

Angel Viruet

2025-03-04 01:47:37 UTC

During the archive visit I was finally able to narrow down my topic to The First Hispanic person to graduate from Fitchburg state university. It is a slight tedious task but during it I met with you, and you helped me. Right now, I am in the process of reviewing podcast to see who it is

Michael Sauvageau

2025-03-04 02:33:08 UTC

The first rule of Archive Club is you do not talk about Archive Club.

It’s crazy to think that nestled so neatly and tucked away, just past the bathrooms, down a lonesome hallway, is a tiny room storing such a bevy of historical significance! Perhaps what’s even crazier is the notion that not enough people even know this little gem of a resource exists. I was in the library with a different class, for the sake of researching an upcoming assignment, and when I mentioned the archives, not one of the 10 or so people knew where I was talking about. Admittedly, and undoubtedly shameless, I, too, had never visited the archives prior to our first class meeting there. It’s truly criminal that such an important place exists, with such ease and wealth in accessibility and assets, yet seemingly goes underutilized. While I didn’t necessarily find anything of relevance to my podcast project at the archive (YET!) it was great to at least get a feel for how it works and learn about the different forms of record holdings and media they have to offer. It was a pleasure to have Mr. Jackson allow us to comb through some of the older Fitchburg State documents (The Nixon letter to President Hammond was way too cool) and I thought the entire trip as a whole was an excellent way to help spread awareness about the privilege of being able to access the archives and the abundance of resources it has to offer. For a place that holds the words and memories of countless dead folk- it’s kind of peaceful there, wouldn’t you say?

Samuel Monteiro

2025-03-04 03:28:20 UTC

I was able to finally pick a topic and go off on it. I also found that Asher has great people and documents for me to dive deeper into for my topic of researching the theater history here in Fitchburg. I was also able to look at older documents in the archives that had dates and more information on how the theater history evolved into what it is today in Fitchburg andd at FSU.

Dexter Brown

2025-03-04 03:34:38 UTC

To begin, some interesting information I found on my archive visit was that Fitch for a while was known as a Mill city. As The Nashua Rivier helped power mills and the Kimball Brothers were the first to do so. They made a dam to power their Gristmill and saw dating back to 1750. This a big for the history of Fitchburg. There were also a lot of people who used the river for cotton mills, noting that the third one ever in the United States was made here in Fitchburg. Overall they were owned and run by local residents who used them. But overall I learned about Fitchburgs history with the Nashaue Rivier and keene to learn more about it.

Erisbel

2025-03-04 13:43:46 UTC

During the last visit to the archives I was mostly still working on what I wanted to do. So I tried making the proposal, the rough stages of it at least, and looking up some possible questions. One I had found was why do we call daca its name, but it’s meant to portray the dining in use, I hope to find more answers to this though.

reflection on archives

2025-03-04 15:07:53 UTC

Being able to be a part of the experience of going into the archives and learning about all the things within it was good as is. Going into the archives and talking to Asher he brought me many books and papers about who was the first women to attend Fitchburg state. I still haven't been able to find the specific women who did, but I learned that the first class in 1897 it was only a two-year course instead of four. I also learned that within that first year it was mostly girls who attended. Another thing I found during our visit to the university archives was the book where all the women wrote about their time in college during those two years. It was their thesis.

reflection (Susan Navarre)

2025-03-04 15:12:52 UTC

I sadly couldn't make it too this class but being able to read my peers opinions it gives me a good gist of Susan Navarre. Susan spoke much about Fitchburg states history and how the school is connected within other parts of Massachusetts. Another thing I learned was how still to this day people are figuring and finding out more about Fitchburg.

Coean Blankenship

2025-03-17 22:07:54 UTC

The 2nd panel of speakers led to discussions that are right in the area I am focusing on, being about how Fitchburg state can be underrepresented and the city and university falls below where we would like it to be in terms of recognition. I enjoyed the conversations about education and how the speakers different lives lead to different reasons they care about their work. There was a lot of pride in what they do which could contribute to overall university pride if we embrace the individuals with overwhelming pride in these areas the broader landscape could be filled with recognition in the ways we want.

Daniel Somers

2025-03-17 22:22:50 UTC

This panel was particularly helpful for me as a student, as many of the topics discussed had direct relation to my interviews for the podcast assignment. More specifically, Dr. Keyser and I had extensively discussed Fitchburg State's role in connection with the surrounding community, and other communities we found to have a better connection with their respective college community. Each panelist had personal experience with attending a much larger university, and thus felt a far deeper connection with the community as a result of that. This had ultimately allowed me to realize that Fitchburg as a community is far less connected to the university than I had thought, due to circumstances in and out of their control. Each panelist highlighted shortcomings of the university to better this relationship, which granted me the final greatest insight into my conversations during my podcast interviews. Generally speaking, the insight granted from this panel had essentially solidified my assumptions about Fitchburg State's relationship with the surrounding community.

Hannah Hartman

2025-03-17 22:55:26 UTC

The panelist Lori Steckervetz, discussed the family dynamic and religious values that their cultural heritage impacted. They also differentiated the learned cultural heritage from the genetic heritage. We absorb aspects of the cultural heritage that were exposed to us by the people who raised us and those with whom we surround ourselves. This insight emphasized that cultural heritage is not simply about ancestry but also about the values, traditions, and practices we absorb through experience and interaction with others.

The other panelist in attendance was Dr. DeMisty. She, on the other hand, expanded on the historical significance of cultural heritage, emphasizing how it connects individuals to broader narratives and histories. She also discussed her curiosity about lost history and the unknowns and the importance of certain aspects of her cultural heritage. Together, their perspectives highlighted the complex layers of cultural identity—where both inherited traditions and the ongoing exploration of one’s past shape who we are and how we relate to the world around us.

Hannah Free

2025-03-18 02:26:54 UTC

I think that the 2nd panel showed how important the fitchburg State campus and city is so important. They showed some stories about the history and shared their own life stories and how they have changed. There was a lot of emotion that I could sense when listening to these stories. It shows what I want to do and how in depth I have to be when creating my podcast. And want to use my own stories to expand on the college that I gathered.

Leanna Cox

2025-03-18 02:41:01 UTC

During the 2nd round of speakers, the ideas and topics I have were not mentioned at all during their time. But that’s okay because that doesn’t mean I can’t try to focus more on what they were saying and use it to my advantage. Something I remember and appreciate was when they spoke about Fitchburg being underrepresented. A lot of people do not know that Fithcburg actually has a huge role in history for Massachusetts, there are just other more interesting places that people would much rather focus on. There are so many facts about Fitchburg that help represent different storylines in history. I also appreciate how they described their childhood and how that shapes what they express and put into Fitchburg State University. They are the ones who will make sure that different areas of FSU and Fitchburg are represented and recognized.

Julian Morley

2025-03-18 03:44:36 UTC

I thought that it was really neat to hear Dr. DeMisty talk about growing up in a rural area, because I’ve lived in Massachusetts my whole life. Growing up around here, you can only get so rural. Hearing about how a lack of representation can affect someone was also interesting, because where I went to school was also pretty homogeneous, but I didn’t get the same experience because I’m white so I fit in pretty well. From both panelists, I enjoyed hearing them define what culture and cultural heritage means to them, because it's something that can be very specific to someone, or they can have a hard time defining it.

Jaleel Jackson

2025-03-18 04:29:00 UTC

Reflecting on this second panel of speakers they emphasize something that as a group we kind of already recognize is that the city of Fitchburg is something that should be appreciated. With inflation how it is Fitchburg is a small affordable community with many offerings. Everyone who spoke highlighted their value and purpose to the community of Fitchburg I could see everyone's passion for what they do.

Erisbel

2025-03-18 13:13:17 UTC

I like how there were more ideas sprouting from this panel. From this panel I also remember family being a topic of discussion and how they relate to cultural heritage. This could be seen when our guests went over objects and a recipe.

Jordan Cummings

jcummi13 — 2025-03-18 13:44:37 UTC

The panel was a great discussion on what cultural heritage means to us. It can mean so many different things to us. Not just the genetic heritage, but also music, activities, traditions, and values that come with us in life

Erumosele

2025-03-18 13:49:05 UTC

I feel as if the panel was a good conversation. The topic of it was mostly as if family is huge and was a huge topic but also was a reflection because the conversation was being very open on seeing how everything was with everyone and there were different sides about the conversation. When it comes to the idea of conversations it was more based on family and cultural perspective in a way and how Fitchburg was involved in it.

Julia Grace D.

jduchar3 — 2025-03-18 13:49:11 UTC

Our second panel of guest speakers really were some of my favorites we have had so far! I adore Dr. Bellinger-Delfaid regardless but it was great to hear both of our speakers speak about what they conceive as their cultural heritage. My focus for my podcast is women produced authorship in Fitchburg’s past and present. Demisty is not only a published author but an incredible one, and getting to learn more about her past and what fueled her writing was amazing and super inspiring. I really enjoyed her story about her grandmother and the pie. Food holds so much cultural heritage and I love listening to stories from others.

Michael Kelly

2025-03-18 13:56:52 UTC

I think the archives here at Fitchburg State University is a very important part of the school and its history. It was awesome to see the things lying out on the tables back from decades ago, seeing some things that I have never seen before like some different buildings and architects. It was also cool to hear from the other tables on what they found that was either related to their topics or was just some random piece of data involving the school/students/faculty. I believe having a room that holds all of a school's records and past remembrance is an important aspect of a school's cultural heritage. It shows where we came from and how we got to where we are now. What interested me the most about the archives was that it showed how all these buildings got their names and who they are represented by. Before I visited the archives and got the chance to look around in their; I would go into perc, or thomson, or antonucci science building not even thinking about why they were named that. Now that I understand more about the history of their names though and what they meant to the University… it creates more of a meaningful idea about why I’m studying in a particular building. My next trip to the archives, I will be looking more in depth at the Irish part of the school as well as the city, to see if there were some major accomplishments by Irish heritage folks. My main focus on my podcast is about that so I will do my best to find the most interesting and important information on that subject.

Jamie LaValley

2025-03-18 13:58:10 UTC

This second guest panel was interesting because some of the topics that were talked about were very different from the first guest panel. When I think of cultural heritage I think that it is about genetics and where your family is from. Lori brought up some good points on this though that helped me understand that it is more than that. She talked about how she was adopted and because of that she didn't know much about her genetic lineage and where her biological family came from. She then talked about how she adopted a new cultural heritage because she didn't know much about her own and that new one being her parents. This whole story just helped show me that it is more than just genetics that go into cultural heritage, it can be any number of things and a lot of those things can change over time.

Michael Kelly

2025-03-18 14:16:59 UTC

To start off with an overall review on the day, I realized a lot of similarities from the speaker's ideas and reasoning with some of the people I had interviewed as well as other classmates' responses to the cultural heritage questions. We didn’t get through all the questions for the speakers but there was a lot of talk about the questions we did get through. The main similarity was the first question with “how would you define cultural heritage,” both speakers gave different views on their idea of the topic and both were correct in their own way. Looking back at the first group of speakers talking about it….. Everybody had their own individual ideas and mentions throughout the question that all differ yet relate to each other at the same time. Some people mention their ethnicity, while others talk about traditions that they did growing up and what traditions they didn’t do that were “a part of their heritage.” One of the speakers went into their explanation a little deeper after hearing the given definition and ended up talking about how often they moved as a child so intangibles were a big part of their cultural heritage, being that if your not in the same place for long; it's hard to hold onto things that you'll never see again next time you move. Overall, there were very interesting points made throughout the questions with many similarities and differences between everybody.

Sojourner Truth

2025-03-18 14:17:07 UTC

"Sojourner Truth, Two Versions of "Ain't I A Woman" by Leslie Podell is a very powerful article, it shows the "difference/stereotypes" that are put on the people for their skin. Studying oral tradition is important because it can be hurtful and/or a made-up lie. The article shows two different people speaking the same language, yet they made on sound more unprofessional, less educated. For those who experienced life enough can key in and realize that not every speaks or even sounds like that. Rather than telling stories people make them. Thus showing the power that oral communication holds because it was believed all over.

Angel V.

2025-03-18 14:27:14 UTC

Fitchburg State University, this is our school which falls on the unspoken history of the rich Fitchburg land. Ms. Navarre spoke so articulately about the land and the areas around it, despite no knowing a lot due to studies, there is still a lot that has to be discovered and found out about. The amounts of facts and ideas that were being thrown out there was quite mind boggling especially since I am very new and young to the topic that was at hand. I enjoyed hearing what had to be said, i also enjoyed this because it creates a sense of connection with the campus and the city.

Angel V

2025-03-18 16:26:15 UTC

Panel #2 opened my eyes to the importance and the connection between, the people of the city and the people of the campus. With takes and perspectives I haven't heard from. They spoke with knowledge on the top while incorporating there personal life stories, it kept me quite entertained actually.

Samuel Monteiro

2025-03-19 12:18:00 UTC

The connection between the students here and connecting it to the city and Fitchburg as a whole, really means so much. Hearing these stories during the second panel really helped me see the true and realness of their stories and how they are impacted so much by them.

Danny

2025-03-19 23:33:39 UTC

The city and the community respond very well to each other and I think the presenter does a great job at showing and showcasing this here about how well the community responds to the school culture and keeps the excellent city alive.

Coean Blankenship

2025-03-25 14:40:11 UTC

Renee was very helpful in providing the Google form exercise, which made common research practices easily digestible. The example of looking for the Washington Post newspaper was insightful as to how I would look up sources that don't come up right away. She showed her knowledge in the research field and provided information of the process of researching based off podcasts in particular which is helpful for our assignment.

Michael Sauvageau

2025-03-25 15:07:47 UTC

I thought Renee did a fantastic job with showcasing to our class the many ways in which we can locate primary, secondary, and tertiary sources of information, especially ones that could potentially be problematic when scouring for them on the internet. I thought her use of both auditory and visual representations of the same podcast script was a clever way for getting our minds to think outside of the box when evaluating source material. I definitely noticed at least one detail on the text prompt that I had missed during the vocal podcast portion, which serves to prove how it’s always better to reassess and reexamine an initial source, even if we think we’ve exhausted it; there can always be more juice to extract, it just depends on how we analyze it! It was also very beneficial for me to ask Renee questions, as she answered one that provided a great deal of insight for where to locate certain newspaper publications that pertain to my podcast. Nice!

Hannah Hartman

2025-03-25 17:40:25 UTC

During the In Class presentation, the speaker Ms. Renee Fratantonio provided detailed insight and thought provoking questions to guide us as the audience to learn more about citing our sources. I really appreciated all of the tips and tricks she informed us on to navigate source credibility and finding referenced sources. Key words were a big topic of discussion when it came to narrowing down our searches. Ms. Fratantonio showed us some examples of how outside sources can be referenced in podcast episodes. These examples gave me some inspiration for the script of my podcast episode. I like the podcast she shared with us in class because it allowed her to provide an example of source notes and explain how to find a podcast’s referenced sources. By doing the exercise as a class, I felt that I got more information than if I were to have just watched someone else do it or heard someone explain the whole process or idea. I learn much better when I am able to work hands on, so this presentation was very helpful for me when it comes to the next step of this podcast project.

Devin Lebron

2025-03-25 23:06:30 UTC

Renee Fratantonio did a great job introducing a different way of learning today. Starting by listening to the podcast was an interesting approach for a guest speaker. It taught us how to search for different information, especially those that give us trouble through payments. Her energy was also a helping factor in her lessons, it grabbed our attention and I appreciate Renee's time and efforts in today's class. Lastly, the podcast she shared with us gave us a new perspective on how we could do our podcasts and I thank her for that. Overall, Renee was very handy and it helped us all get one step closer to the final podcast project.

Samuel Monteiro

2025-03-26 12:23:44 UTC

To reflect I wanted to start off by staying Renee did a great job at helping differ from biased articles compared to real ones. This is important when writing a paper and just in general for your learning use, because you should always want the real answers from true sources so you can know that you are putting your best work out there. I also want to say thank you for Renee on giving me some good strategies on researching different topics for my various papers.

Dexter Brown

2025-03-26 16:51:45 UTC

To begin, Renee Frantantonio helped alot when it came to a new way of learning. You know a lot of the time with our generation we just Google something to get an answer. But Renee provided an insightful way to be able to find valuable information/sources to help us. Also, it wasn't the fact that it was any source, it was that they were credible sources which are harder to find as more and more misinformation is put out there on the web.

Erumosele

2025-03-26 19:06:52 UTC

I thought it was interesting that she basically gave us an example of how to talk and speak when it comes to the podcast like when it comes to the evidence portion then that's where it's kind of important because it expresses how we can cite and say that we cited it without trying to copy write or anything.

Hannah Free

2025-03-27 01:00:36 UTC

I thought that the slide show was very insightful about what to do with the podcast. When it talked about the Washington post it helped me understand the depth I have to put into my podcast. The work that she showed and the images I feel like it stayed more with me because of the way that she was showing us in the classroom.

Leanna Cox

2025-03-27 04:44:51 UTC

Reflecting on our guest speaker, Renee Frantantonio, I really appreciated the new approach she introduced to help us find and discuss sources when creating our own podcasts. As someone who learns best through hands-on experience, I found it helpful to track key words each time a source was mentioned. This method made the process much clearer for me. When she provided the transcript, I was able to highlight those sources and easily search for them online, which made the entire experience even more practical.

What really stood out to me was Renee's confidence and expertise in navigating various resources—whether it's podcasts, books, or archives. Her ability to seamlessly find and reference credible sources made it seem effortless, which, in turn, helped me feel more at ease with the task. I also appreciated her honest feedback, which was always constructive and encouraging. She made sure we felt capable of finding and using these sources on our own, without making us feel overwhelmed. Overall, Renee's teaching style created an environment where I felt confident in my ability to apply what I learned to my own podcasting work.

Daniel Somers

2025-03-27 04:57:37 UTC

From Renee's presentation, I was able to successfully take away both a better awareness of secondary source placement in text, but in an oral sense as well. I had also gained a sense of the broad range of sources that can be used in a podcast, which added a new level of depth for me personally, regarding podcasts as a means of research. Renee's exercise of keeping a keen ear for any mention of these sources allowed me to be a more active listener when absorbing such forms of media in the future as well. Lastly, as simple as it seems, Renee introduced me to the level of quality that is contained in both a transcript, and notes of a podcast. The scholarly structure of the podcast which she presented to us, served as an example for which other podcasts should model after.

Erisbel

2025-03-27 13:22:36 UTC

I had actually enjoyed Ms. Renee Fratantonio's presentation. She showed us a way on how to make a podcast bibliography by using another podcast. This was useful to me and got me thinking on ways to make a trascript when the time comes.

Jaleel Jackson

2025-03-27 14:01:22 UTC

Renee was very resourceful. She gave us many tools and supplies to help find not only sources that may be credible and relevant but sources that are also reliable. We got some hands on practice as well with the search engine of different sites.

Julia Grace Ducharme

jduchar3 — 2025-03-29 20:52:34 UTC

Rennee is lovely as always and I appreciated her presentation. I found it very informative and helpful to have a quick refresher on the best ways to search for information when it is used for research. I was also super helpful to learn how to search newspapers as that was something I did not entirely understand or know how to do. I feel prepared to do my bibliography that is upcoming soon.

Jordan Cummings

jcummi13 — 2025-04-03 05:31:23 UTC

Rennee did a great job explaining to all of us the differences between a good source (and where to find it) and a horrible source (and not where to look). At first, I was scared of the thought of creating a bibliography from other sources. Bibliographies in general scare me but Rennee soothed any bad thought with her guidance. I was a google source user coming into this school and people like Rennee help weed out what is what.

Angel Viruet

2025-04-03 20:22:01 UTC

I enjoyed her presentation and reflection; she was able to help me find good and very insightful views on things. The importance that this hold is clearly large because she can help us apply this to a multitude of things in the academic world such as researching and writing papers and for general learning skills. I really appreciated here charisma, energy, and mind. It was great and I am thankful for the opportunity.

Angel Viruet

2025-04-03 21:03:22 UTC

Mr. Todd Goodwin was a wonderful fresh of air, he was a mix of storytelling, fun, singing, and visuals. Most importantly he tells a story about an old 1941 green car that entails a story of a family and childhood. Realizing that oral story telling is very important and very easy to understand especially if you keep the audience engaged such as Mr. Goodwin did, on top of telling the story be gave visuals which gave the story a sense of life and help thicken the imaginations of the people who are listening and witnessing this as in if ones part of the story aswell. I am grateful for the opportunity to have listen and watched him tell a story.

Erumosele

2025-04-05 01:26:47 UTC

I want to say that Mr. Todd Goodwin was a very expressive person. It was very fascinating that he told us stories about an old model car and was interesting on it as well. He was very engaging and funny, and I feel like there are times that people do need people like Mr. Todd Goodwin because he would brighten up your day. I am glad that he was there that day because I had a rough day the day before and he cheered me up.

Erisbel

2025-04-06 04:27:57 UTC

Mr. Todd Goodwin had shown a tremendous stage presence. I gathered that his presentation was mainly focused on teaching storytelling and his family. Mr. Todd Goodwin first grabbed our attention by playing a harmonica, he then gathers us as a class to build an imaginary fire, after this we sing a song. He then gives us a bit of history on his family’s car, some printed photos, and he then dives right into telling stories about his family and the car. I really enjoyed his guest appearance in our class, I had also been wondering how I should go about voicing my podcast and he was a wonderful example to see for this. His storytelling abilities were great to see, engaging, and informative. While learning about him and his family it was nice to hear and see that his brother and the woman (I apologize, I forgot her name) had married one another, they got the car back, and he still used language not from our time. I highly enjoyed his presentation, and I also think he could be a possible guest for my podcast.

Reflection

2025-04-06 22:10:24 UTC

After watching and listening to this video it taught me some things that I never knew about the demographics. The first thing I want to start of with is how I didn't know it actually how many student were first generations. I really liked to see how 39% is first generations because I am also a first gen, it amazes me how we know we are capable of doing what we know most of our adults in out lives couldn't or didn't want to do. I really enjoy this one because it helps me realize we can change things around within our families. As well as seeing how 93% of our new up coming freshmen will be working during their first semester. Coming into a new place especially a school with different values and aspects than a high school and wanting to work is quite amazing. I just really enjoyed watching the demographics because its nice to know all the different facts within Fitchburg State.

reflection on 2nd panel

2025-04-06 22:16:56 UTC

The ideas and topics on our 2nd guest panel I want to start off with it the school and Fitchburg. There are many different connections between the two and how this city has a lot more different facts we don't know. Fitchburg is seen as not the best but what people forget is Fitchburg has a place when it comes to the history we don't know about. It is very overlooked.

Reflection on Renne

2025-04-06 22:19:43 UTC

I really enjoyed this class! Our guest was very kind and helped us with a better understanding when it comes to finding certain things. I likes when she provided us a google form that helped us open our eyes after the fact of watching and listening to the video she provided. She taught me and my other classmates to always keep trying and trying, to never give up when you can find a certain link or book, anything in that sort. She also taught us how to go to different websites and to keep digging even if it is a little bit tedious.

reflection on Todd Goodwin

2025-04-06 22:27:13 UTC

I want to start off by saying how disappointed I am for missing this class and sleeping through my alarm.... but being able to read my other peers work helped me paint a picture with how the class went. Todd Goodwin seemed to be a good guest and helped hook the student in. Others stated he was very engaging and gave really good visuals. I like when people are able to create a image in others heads with just words because it helps me personally remember those things a lot better. I am displeased in myself for missing this class and not being able to meet our guest. I do appreciate my classmates for adding their experiences because it helped me understand how that class went.

Hannah Hartman

2025-04-07 01:07:42 UTC

I really valued the personal story told by the guest speaker in class. I felt connected to the speaker by his sharing of the personal stories of his childhood and family life. I like how he began with an explanation of the significance and origin of his family car. It was fascinating how the car wasn’t just a mode of transportation but a symbol of his family's journey and the memories they created together. His reflections on the role the car played in bringing his family closer, whether during long road trips or day-to-day moments, resonated with me. I believe the car was a studebaker and I’m not a very big fan of cars, but his story reminded me of how much my great uncle Steve loves cars. We had so many of our own family adventures in his car growing up and his brother had a race car so we would occasionally get to go on rides in the race car! I interpreted the relevance of his family car as being a part of the speakers cultural heritage. Hearing how crucial the role of the car was in his life really amazes me and makes me think more about my own family traditions and cultural heritage.

Dexter Brown

2025-04-07 14:28:47 UTC

To begin, Mr.Goodwin was very entertaining in his version of story telling. To start with the harmonica it was something I never expected, you know. It got my attention right away, and he kept my attention through his singing and dancing, somewhat. It was interesting to also learn about his old school family car and the adventures they had in it. It was also interesting to see the visual part of storytelling he brought with his pictures. It made you stay engaged and want to ask more questions, whether it be about the car itself, the journey of getting it back, or just the memories he had created in it with his family. Overall, it was very nice to have Mr.Goodiwn in class and to be able to experience his unique way of storytelling.

Samuel Monteiro

2025-04-07 17:31:25 UTC

Reflecting on this, I was amazed by this wonderful speaker/storyteller. From the start, I was hooked on his great ways of telling and showcasing a story. His whole story was shown through words, songs, games, and even pictures he brought. All of these are great and sweet, and they all truly helped me understand his story from a deeper level. Todd’s openness to his true self and story helped him deliver such a beautiful story to all of us. Again, I am beyond grateful for this opportunity to listen to such a great example of why storytelling is important and why it is so beautiful in the ways you can showcase it.

Devin Lebron

2025-04-07 17:45:18 UTC

When reflecting on Todd Goodwin, the first thing that comes to mind is confidence. A confident person, in my opinion, is someone who is not afraid to be unique. Todd immediately demonstrated his harmonica and singing abilities. This was a real eye-opener and a good example of how we should behave. We should not be concerned with other people's opinions of us; instead, we should be concerned with our own and God's opinions. Overall, I enjoyed Todd Goodwin's appearance in the classroom. His confidence, combined with his excellent storytelling abilities, was a valuable addition to the class.

Coean Blankenship

2025-04-07 18:36:46 UTC

Todd Goodwin was a very wonderful speaker and brought joy into the classroom. His stories incorporated many aspects that were engaging and made time go by fast because he brought fun into his stories. His use of pictures throughout was good because it allowed us to see examples of the people and things he talked about which helps with comprehension and retention just like the acting out we did in the previous class. I was really intrigued with the story of the car and how much some things can mean to people. That car is most definitely apart of Todd’s culture or heritage because it stands in a special place in his heart and in his family.

Hannah Free

2025-04-07 23:51:31 UTC

The way he told the stories I could see the images in my mid and he was an amazing story teller. I liked how he got us to join in with the songs and didn't just tell the story. But he showed us the true depth of a story and I felt like I was there when he was telling it and I feel that is every story tellers goal. When talking to a small or big group of people keeping everyone engaged is a very hard thing to do. But he definitely showed all of us a great experience I will never forget.

jg

jduchar3 — 2025-04-08 00:03:21 UTC

I really appreciated Mr. Goodwin’s presentation! I was super excited to meet someone from President Hammond era! He was also just such a light! I appreciated the singing, and the visuals he used to bring us into his stories. His anecdote at the end about how doing what you love is not “work” really resonated with me. At the tail end of my time at the University it really reminded me to center myself in my why! He was a great speaker, and really captivated the space.

Jamie LaValley

2025-04-08 01:56:47 UTC

Mr Goodwin was a very unique presenter, his way of telling the stories and the stories he was telling were very personal to him which made them extremely unique. Starting off his stories by playing the harmonica was a really good way to get the audience's attention. Once he had my attention his storytelling style and the stories he was telling kept me interested and helped my attention. I had never heard stories like these before because this stuff happened before my generation so hearing these was very interesting. I thought the story about how he was the radio while his brother was driving a girl around on a date was really funny. The songs that he kept singing were also really funny and a good way to keep my attention.

Julian Morley

2025-04-08 02:19:04 UTC

It was really interesting to hear how Todd Goodwin was able to turn simple stories from his childhood about things like his dad’s car into a larger story that is able to draw you in. The use of images helped the audience to connect with the stories he was telling, as well as using a very expressive style of storytelling. I enjoyed hearing stories about Fitchburg from around the time that my dad was growing up in the area. The storytelling was well connected by the through line of the Studebaker, and it was neat to hear about its history and connection to the family.

Mike Sauvageau

2025-04-08 12:48:54 UTC

I thought Mr. Goodwin was GREATwin for our storytelling class! From his attention grabbing harmonica intro, to the multiple physical photos that were passed around to help visualize and give context to the Studebaker’s history, Todd was masterful in how he presented himself and his stories. I especially liked how he consistently incorporated the audience (making us sing, asking questions, warming up with the invisible fire, etc.) which I believe helped his narrative come to life and stick into our audience’s minds. This high level of participation, coupled with his heartfelt and sincere engagement with the crowd, made it feel as if we were a part of his friend group (or even his family) which made the impact of the Studebaker story much stronger, as we all felt as if we had gone on the car’s journey with him! I think his enthusiasm was extremely admirable, considering he’s probably told this story countless times by now, and helped prove that if you’re dedicated enough- any story, told any amount of times, can remain as fresh and indelible as the day it all happened. I will definitely be taking cues from his presentation to incorporate into my podcast. I also really loved the idea of how Mr. Goodwin was able to find his family Studebaker again after years of it’s disappearance, which proves that something lost to history can possibly be recovered again over time if one has the right amount of passion and commitment to searching for answers.

Timothy Dewey

tdewey5 — 2025-04-08 13:48:25 UTC

Todd Goodwin is a professional storyteller and it shows in how he incorporates the audience among other practices. Not only is he able to paint a picture with details but also support those with inclusions of physical pictures. When telling a story it is important to make it memorable to the listeners so they can share those experiences with others. After the presentation I wanted to ask him more questions about how he chose his stories and some advice on how to tell them more effectively. One of the pieces of advice he told me was to “repeat and practice”. Telling a good story on the first try is difficult so practice in a mirror. I’ve heard this same advice when taking a speech course. This is something that is easy to understand but can also not be the first thing you think about. For me, when it comes to situations where I’m with my friends, which stories do I want to talk about? When I asked this question to Todd he told me to “tell the ones that are interesting to you”. I think a lot of the problems I have when it comes to storytelling is I myself don’t think anything I do is interesting to others. I say this and yet Todd tells a story about an old car to a room of people where I don’t think even 10% of them know much about cars other than how to drive them. Looking at some of the reflections, one of the most remembered aspects of his talk was the green car. I think I can learn something about his storytelling just from that alone. In the future I want to incorporate an aspect into my storytelling that includes something akin to the green car and see how it comes across.

Leanna

2025-04-09 05:05:19 UTC

Todd Goodwin taught me more about the objectives of storytelling in a short amount of time than I have my whole life. I identify myself as someone who can express personal stories through writing. Oral stories, however, have never been my strong suit. My hands get clammy, my heart starts to race, I stutter. All of these points prevent me from wanting to stand up in front of a crowd and tell stories. Goodwin got up there and started singing, which was strange to me because all of the other guests who have come to speak– respectfully– did not grab my attention just as much as he did. I believe what was so wonderful about his talent is that he was able to keep me focused by having us sing along with him, use our hands to make motions, and passing around the pictures. Without such action that he took to assure our attention, I do not believe I would have been so provoked to keep my eyes on him and listen to what he had to say. The story itself was not what kept me there but instead the unknowing thought in my head of what he might have us do next. I didn’t want to miss it. I also wanted to point out that I am sure speaking in front of crowds is something that he has gotten used to and probably a class he had to take. He has seemed to master public speaking through the years of his storytelling which also helps keep people’s attention. The absolute dismissal of any kind of nervousness and anxiety of talking in front of a crowd is impressive and admirable. Overall, I enjoyed his storytelling and the way he portrayed himself to us. I loved the way he included us in his story, having us sing, and using that singing to foreshadow a significant fact in his story, which is that the car had no radio, so he and his family would sing, instead. I would love for him to come back and do this again.

Justin Swaine

2025-04-10 19:17:45 UTC

I may have only been able to visit the archives once, but I felt the visit I was present for showcased the importance of having a University Archives. There is so much historical information around not only the university, but also the local community sitting, waiting to be read. While there, I got the chance to look at a blueprint of what our campus had looked like many years ago. From this, I found it fascinating how much our campus has grown and developed. We also got the chance to hear of other texts they held within their small nook. I am curious to see what tomes they may hold with information on first-generation college students.

Justin Swaine

2025-04-10 19:33:41 UTC

I have lost count of how many times I have gotten the chance to hear from our lovely librarian Renee... I always find her presentation very informative and helpful when looking for sources. As this course is focused around storytelling, with one of the most current forms being podcasts. Learning how to look through transcripts to find the sources they used. She truly showcased how she is truly a well of knowledge in the field.

Instructions

aquitaine1980 — 2025-04-16 23:06:47 UTC

Attend all or part of the Undergraduate Research Conference on 4/17. Write a response here for 5 Extra Credit Activity points.

Instructions

aquitaine1980 — 2025-04-22 13:48:56 UTC

If you cannot make the podcast recording on May 6th at 11AM in the Main Lounge (trading for our regular class period), then you can reflect on the information about Red Shaydez and her music:

Justin Swaine

2025-04-22 17:56:38 UTC

I attended the poster portion of the Undergraduate Research Conference. My original intention was to support my friend Carolina as she was presenting during this portion; however, while walking around we saw some fairly interesting posters. One of the ones that stood out to me was the DEI in Admissions presented by Campbell Greely. I will hold my personal opinions on this poster. Another one that stood out to me was around the Aesthetics of Trump. The reason this caught my attention is because of the current political climate and how controversial it can be. There were a lot of great presentations shown during this conference.

Michael Kelly

2025-04-22 18:38:35 UTC

Kai Fay taught a very interesting and cool idea of the hidden religion in Japan. He mentioned how Japan was closed off from basically the entire world from a period of time and how religion was not allowed or else there was punishment. For example, he talked about how people would have hidden texts, meetings, symbols, and celebrations. The activity we did in class was a great example of how it was done without getting caught by using words that sound similar to other words and eventually make a story out of it that would be understood by people around but not to officials. He also made a good point to where; if everyone was doing this same thing but with different code words then it would become too hidden to the point they might not even know what they're talking about anymore. Overall, it is a very interesting topic and one that I had never heard about or knew about and the way he presented.... especially with the poems how he dissected it to make it easier understood was cool.

Coean Blankenship

2025-04-23 15:48:59 UTC

Kai Fay was an interesting speaker and showed his interests through his speaking. You could tell he enjoyed the subject and his knowledge on the topics was very good. The activities he had us go through were tricky but actively demonstrated the context of the lesson of how you would translate things when you cant directly say them. Pulling in how transforming things into stories to recite them is interesting to think about and integrate with the different types of storytelling we discuss in class. Kai mentioning how certain lingo or slang being used is also a factor of whether people would be able to translate things was insightful with how modern language evolves.

Justin Swaine

2025-04-23 19:07:33 UTC

I LOVED this activity with Kai. I have had the privilege of seeing him come into Dr. Tracy's course five times now, and this activity takes the #1 spot. I really enjoyed making a phrase in English to help remember what was said in Japanese. I feel we all had really fun with it and took our own creative views on how to present our saying. The connecting of this activity to how storytelling can cause significant miscommunication was impactful. It now makes sense how we could have so many branches on Christianity, and how the hidden Japanese communities who practiced christianity could have reformed it. As I am a fan of medieval times and just history revolving around said time period, I enjoyed hearing about how power transitioned between the samurai and the emperor in Japan. As I will be taking the Bible as Literature next semester, I am curious to see what Kai's next activity will be.

Julian Morley

2025-04-23 23:58:58 UTC

I thought that it was really interesting to learn from Kai the ways that Christianity was hidden and altered during the time period where its practice was banned. It ties into the theme of our class in how oral traditions are subject to changes as they are passed down through generations, but the creation of stories around the phonetics of how Latin sounds to someone who speaks Japanese adds a new layer to how the stories change. It also ties into how people are better able to remember stories than just random strings of information, and the in class activity showed how different interpretations of what words sound like creates something entirely separate from the original meaning.

Hannah Free

2025-04-24 01:18:46 UTC

Kai Fay was talking a lot about hidden messages in hiku for the Japanese culture. The activity where we had to try to translate our own hiku was very funny. I never thought that I would do something like that and definitely an unforgettable memory that I have. This class keeps on teaching me different things and I keep finding something new with every story that is told. That the presentation really got me to think about how much these types of words change over time. That people also have to change and evolve so that we can continue to learn about these new translations.

Dexter Brown

2025-04-24 02:31:18 UTC

To begin, I really enjoyed Kai Fay as a guest speaker. It was really interesting to see how there are different ways of translating, and how interpretation can really be left open-ended when not having the right knowledge or skills. Also, it was even better to see it first hand with the activities we did, you got to see in writing, speaking, and demonstrating our interpretations of the short phrases we got. Then it was also nice to hear the back story of how religion was outlawed. Even though it was outlawed, people still practiced it in secret meetings but also in disguise. Overall, I really enjoyed Kai Fay as a guest speaker and the look he gave us into the background of religion in Japanese culture.

Leanna Cox

2025-04-24 02:32:40 UTC

Reflecting on our guest visit from Kai Fay, I really enjoyed trying to translate different haikus based upon the pronunciation. By doing this, it gets people involved and actually wants to learn how, but what I liked most is learning about what it actually meant and the way that I could kind of connect the sounds of the Japanese words to the English words only after I knew what the real translation was. I also liked the way I could tell Kai was very knowledgeable about what he was talking about. There were very few moments I was not paying attention. I never knew that christianity was suppressed in Japan and then when they started recognizing it, the churches were shunned by the christians, as well. It was incredibly interesting to hear about this and I believe it is mostly because when I think of Japan, I think of shinto practices and events and parades they have to honor their ancestors. While it has occured to me that people did practice the christian belief, I never really thought it had such an impact on the history of Japan. I do like that the lesson was about how they keep the texts alive there. Overall, this is one of the better lessons I have sat through and would not mind him coming back and teaching again.

Erisbel

2025-04-24 03:54:47 UTC

I liked how we got to learn a bit about Christian faith. I also liked how we got to learn this for a different country. Learning some history from a bit of places has always fascinated me. The project we did was also an enjoyable one, I had enjoyed this presentation.

Michael Sauavgeau

2025-04-24 12:25:32 UTC

Unfortunately, I was absent for Kai Fay's guest speaking lecture, but after having discussed it with another student from our class (as well as reading from some reflections here) I think I was able to get a pretty decent gist of the ideas that Kai presented. The theme of context and translation was the most appealing to me, as Kai pointed out that their relationship is often never mutually exclusive; they are two concepts that work in tangent together, and sometimes in ways we can't outright see at first. My love for literature has also given me a contempt for subtext, as I frequently misinterpret symbolic themes and hidden references, but Kai's way of weaving the language translation barrier in was especially interesting. It made me realize that there's SO many different words (not to mention different dialects, languages, etc.) that are contingent on their respective meanings, but can also create a brand new context through specific interpretation.

Samuel Monteiro

2025-04-24 12:41:14 UTC

To start off, I wanted to say that I enjoyed Kai’s way of involving us in his story. He incorporated us into his story through games and interaction with our fellow classmates. I never thought that I could get so much out of a class, but I truly did here with Kai. I felt like so much information about the Japanese language and Christian history really clicked with me. Having us write our sentence and make it sound like what we thought it would be was my favorite part. During this, we had to take a Japanese sentence and break it down into something that was easier for us to understand. Then we learned what it really meant and how it is truly said in its actual language.

Erumosele

2025-04-24 14:10:39 UTC

This special guest was very interacting and very interesting when it comes to it, and this was very fun to do when it comes to the class and having the translations when we had to break down the haiku it was very interesting to break or try and break it down in our own language and learning what they mean was very interesting. It was cool to learn what he did for studies and what he has learned from it which was also cool as well. It was a very good topic to talk about and bring up.

Jamie LaValley

2025-04-24 14:21:17 UTC

Kia Fay talked about some very interesting topics in the hidden groups of Christianity in Japan. The stories about how they would practice Christianity in secret so they wouldn't get in trouble were really cool. I thought it was very smart how they would interpret the text into something that doesn't really relate to it as a way to hide it because if you didn't know what the interpretation was then you would have not know what it was actually about. The last part of his topics that I thought was interesting was the fact that when Christianity was reallowed back in Japan a lot of these groups had strayed so far away from basic Christianity that they kind of formed their own religious sub group. This was because of all the interpretations of the bible and other text and how these interpretations changed over time.

Hannah Hartman

2025-04-24 17:29:58 UTC

I personally had no idea that Christianity was outlawed in Japan at any point in history. I think it’s fascinating that the translations and reinterpretations of religious texts are like a game of telephone. What starts as one phrase or story can evolve significantly based on the cultural, political, and/or personal lenses through which the text is filtered. I noticed that the steps of a text being translated is followed by a reinterpretation and lastly is retold as a story. The guest speaker, Kai Fay, helped us understand that through reinterpretations, such as the ones of Christian scriptures, stories and texts can be remembered. The outlaw of Christian practices in Japan helped reinforce the art of storytelling. The in-class assignment showed a good example of the reconstruction of a story through personal and cultural interpretations. The exercise also showed us how extreme the results of these translations, and distortions can be over time. It’s so important to remember the hidden story behind a story. The deeper meaning of what a story is trying to convey may be different than the initial understanding of a text.

Daniel Somers

dsomers1_1 — 2025-04-24 18:03:40 UTC

Kai Fay's presentation on Japanese haiku culture and history was particularly fascinating to me, due to its connections and overlaps with western culture. I had little knowledge prior to Kai's presentation pertaining to the influence of Christianity and Christian missionaries present in Japan centuries prior. The language barrier in presenting Christian texts to Japanese speakers was a particularly trying hurdle to overcome in 15-16th century Japan, and Kai's interactive way of presenting their traditional methods of translation solidified that fact. Kai had noted that the Christian sects of Japan that had lived in secrecy, and held unique traditions, continued to exist even after practicing Christianity was legalized in Japan. These sects had long been branched off from the church of Christianity; where they experienced a strong disconnect in traditions, as Kai noted. This was a point I was particularly keen on following up on, as such a specific class of Christian Japanese citizens upholding a unique tradition was quite fascinating to me. Lastly, Kai's activity made it clear how traditions can easily split off from one another due to a variety of factors. This linguistic activity made that aspect of the divide abundantly clear to me in participating.

Devin Lebron

2025-04-25 12:37:03 UTC

Kai Fay taught a really cool and interesting idea about hidden religion in Japan. I never knew anything about that before, so it definitely got my attention. He talked about how Japan was closed off from the world for a while and how religion wasn’t allowed people could actually get punished for it. So they had to hide it through secret texts, symbols, and even secret meetings. One thing he said that stuck with me was how people used words that sounded like other words to create a hidden story that made sense to the people around them but not to the officials. The activity we did in class really showed how that worked, and it was actually kind of funny trying to make our own haiku with hidden meanings. I didn’t think I’d ever do something like that, and it’s definitely something I won’t forget. He also made a good point if everyone was using different code words, it could get so hidden that even they might not understand it anymore. I liked how he broke down the poems too, it made it easier to get what was going on.

jduchar3 — 2025-04-27 23:24:05 UTC

Kai is awesome! It was a pleasure to have him! I very much enjoyed learning about hidden Christianity in Japan, as well as the activity we did about decoding words and assigning them new meanings. In a time where we unfortunately as people have to be mindful of what we say and how we show up in certain places because of the dangers of what could happen, this activity was a light hearted access point into a topic that is particularly heavy. In a world where education, accessibility, agency among so many other things are under fire this activity in a small way showed me ways we can cope. Speaking out is so important, but being able to mobilize and meet together over a common goal to keep a belief alive is amazing too.

Angel V

2025-04-28 13:51:26 UTC

This was a fun class, I found the idea of Japanese interpretation was fun yet very complex at the same time, it was interesting because it focused on the personal translation, which in this case are completely wrong. I think it was important to do this activity because it shows the difference between our form of storytelling in comparison to them, I also feel like the way that they write the stories, including the format which I feel is different which made a difficult as a whole. She also gave a backstory on it and how Christianity was banned all throughout their country therefore they couldn't express religious beliefs and could possibly face prosecution. Kai Fay gave an in depth overview. It was a presentation I really enjoyed and would be willing to listen to again thank you. It was Top 5!!!!

Kensley

2025-04-28 14:53:37 UTC

I found your discussion on the importance of understanding and embracing diverse cultural perspectives particularly thought provoking. The examples you shared about how cultural differences can influence communication, work styles, and social interactions highlighted the need for a more inclusive approach in both personal and professional settings. I especially appreciated how you touched on the benefits of diversity, not only in terms of broader perspectives but also how it can drive innovation and creativity. Your talk made me more aware of the complexities of cultural dynamics and the importance of fostering an environment that values diversity in all its forms.

Kensley

2025-04-28 14:55:13 UTC

First of all, thank you for showing me the archives it was really interesting! I was amazed by the wealth of historical materials and the depth of the university’s past. It was fascinating to see how much history is preserved and how each item, from old yearbooks to photographs, tells a unique story about the institution’s growth and the people who shaped it. I feel like I gained a much deeper understanding of the university’s evolution, and it was an eye opening experience to connect the past with the present. I’m definitely eager to explore more of what the archives have to offer!

Kensley

2025-04-28 14:56:34 UTC

I found it fascinating how you explored the symbiotic relationship between the academic community and the surrounding urban environment. The idea that students and faculty both influence and are influenced by the city was particularly striking. It made me think about how the university is not just an isolated institution but a vibrant part of the city's social, cultural, and economic fabric.

Kensley

2025-04-28 14:58:09 UTC

Thank you Professor Renée, your presentation on accessing library tools. I found it really helpful to learn about the various resources and tools the library provides, especially how they can enhance our research and academic work. The way you explained the process for accessing online databases, citation tools, and specialized software was very clear and made me realize how many valuable resources are at our disposal. I especially appreciated the tips on how to effectively navigate the library’s website and the importance of utilizing library staff for support. It’s clear that mastering these tools can make a significant difference in the quality and efficiency of our research

Timothy Dewey

tdewey5 — 2025-04-28 16:34:58 UTC

Kai Fay's presentation on Japan's Hidden Christians was something completely new to me. I wasn't expecting such a long and complex history on Christianity to come from Japan especially from 1549. During the 250 year long ban of outsiders and other religions, bore an almost completely different branch of religion that identified as Cristian. While listening that was one of my main questions when thinking about how they would preserve these ideas. Just from the activity I did with my group, the thought I had was almost completely confirmed with how badly we translated our texts (Which I thought was really funny). I thought about how unreliable our brains can be when remembering information since every time we remember something we actually change it in our brains. I know there were some local communities that could more openly cultivate the religion which makes me question how long that took to happen. One question I have is how they translated this religion in the very beginning? Did the teachings of Christianity truly get translated correctly from the beginning? How different was the two groups when Japan was opened? How did these stories differ from the originals? This topic was super interesting and I would be interested in finding more information on this topic.

Timothy Dewey

tdewey5 — 2025-04-28 17:11:10 UTC

Patrice Todisco's presentation on her work and what she does left me with some mixed feelings. The work she does with her organization are amazing and requires more work to keep alive than most things. The website and app has a lot of information that doesn't get brought to peoples attention as much as it should be. I will personally say that my knowledge on history is very poor and it was very much felt in this presentation. Much of this has come form my own personal disinterest when learning about history though my life. These stories about our local surrounding towns give the feeling that there is so much more to our environment around us than we think there is. That's about all I can say about the positives because I felt somewhat judged on some ideas that I presented. I will say now that I don't agree with how our society has developed this necessity for short form entertainment. BUT that doesn't mean that since I disagree with it that it should be thrown out all together. There is so much information that I learned about from this type of entertainment that planted the seed for some of my favorite activities. If you are struggling to get information out with the platforms you have right now, then adapt you strategies to what we know works. It was said by the presenter themselves. Since we aren't as "verbose" as generations before us, they adapted their manner of speaking to accommodated the platform they were presenting their information on. Overall the presentation brings to peoples attention many good resources and ideas to people that are looking for it.

Coean Blankenship

2025-04-28 21:28:02 UTC

Patrice showed her strong views on the work she does and you could tell she genuinely cares about the conservation work. New England monuments or places that show culture and where we came from is interesting because as we move into the digital age its important to preserve the physical world.

Hannah Free

2025-04-28 23:46:13 UTC

I think that what Patrice said had me feel kind of awkward and uncomfortable. It sounded like she was acting like we didn't know what we were doing and it made me feel low on my self-esteem. I felt like she was talking down to us when trying to teach us on what we needed to do. For the first time ever a presentation was a good one but made me feel in a negative way. I hope that I never feel like this again in future presentations that I might need to watch.

Hannah Hartman

2025-04-29 00:25:27 UTC

Freedom’s Way National Parks strives to tell stories of the region through diversity and heritage as all of these worlds come together through storytelling. The guest speaker, Patrice Todisco, emphasized the use of communication and collaboration to connect these stories into the region and make the stories more accessable to people through ebooks and podcasts. An interesting thing I learned during the presentation was that you can trace back heritage to stories from the regions rich heritage by creating an understanding of what the people of the past were seeing and what they were experiencing. I personally believe that with the current state of the world today, it is important to think also of how these historical events have impacted the world and contributed to todays world. However, she also highlights the disbelief in historical storytelling. Some historical events are so unbelievably difficult for modern society to comprehend. Storytelling helps to convey the true societal impact and cultural significance of these historic events. I feel more intrigued to visit some of these national monuments and landmarks for a reason beyond a cool photo opp or something like that. I feel like things such as Mount Rushmore, the Grand Canyon, and Yellowstone Valley, though not being necessarily part of our region, are seen by many as a cool road trip sight or place to post on social media. I feel more enthusiastic about knowing the importance and significance of these landmarks as well as going to see them in real life.

Erisbel

2025-04-29 12:17:13 UTC

For this presentation, I was able to note that Ms. Patrice did seem to really care about the work she was doing and even sharing. I was interested to learn about some new places to look into, I was also interested in seeing the way she presented, by this I mean her hand movements, which is what I’ve been told good speakers have. Though it did seem she was a bit disappointed in our class, possibly thinking that we had not been paying attention or did not care too much?

Mike Sauvageau

2025-04-29 12:38:42 UTC

A few things stood out to me about Patrice’s presentation. On one hand, I thought she gave an interesting insight to the challenges surrounding accessibility of resources in a digital age, especially when it comes to older generations who may not be as technologically savvy as they’d like to be. I think the importance of presentation style, along with the conscious effort to ensure information is easily approachable for all audiences, was a factor that I had never really considered before Patrice’s presentation. It will definitely be something I am mindful of going forward with my podcast, and in life relationships, too. However, on the other hand, I felt that Patrice did an excellent job at unintentionally exemplifying how that same lack of audience consideration can hinder information accessibility. Upon hearing her third, fourth, or even fifth, insult about intellectual credibility hurled at our audience, I was overcome with the sudden sensation of wanting to tune out the rest of her presentation. Patrice’s tendency to repeatedly denigrate our classroom made for palpable moments of disdain and disinterest from me, and from the looks of my peer’s responses here, from the audience, as well. Insulting the intelligence of a college student feels equivalent to condemning a doctor for getting sick. In a positive spin, I think her conceited verbosity helped convey the notion that audience awareness plays such a huge role in information retention. I will absolutely refrain from offending my podcast audience, as I would like for them to enjoy my presentation and hopefully feel invited and equal enough to finish hearing the story I want to tell.

Jamie LaValley

2025-04-29 13:53:07 UTC

Throughout Patrice’s presentation I thought the information she was giving us about the Historical spots and stories from this area of New England were very cool. But her presentation skills were a little bit lackluster and at some points it felt a little bit rude. I liked that she showed us the app and website that they have because those are cool ways to learn about and see some of New England's history. It is also cool how detailed the website and app are and how much stuff they have collected and have in their database.

One reason #3

2025-04-29 14:04:45 UTC

What makes Story telling important? There are a lot of things that bring value to studying story telling. It's a way of spreading knowledge, warnings and overall life lessons. A powerful tool for linking generations, cultures, and even people is storytelling. It allows people to communicate principles, emotions and knowledge in a way that relates with others. Storytelling has an effective teaching and learning tool which makes tricky ideas easier to understand. By allowing the viewers to see the world from a different viewpoint, it builds empathy, compassion, and open-mindedness. Storytelling helps maintain and create identities in groups of people by retaining customs and history. It helps improves dialog, involvement and encourages actions. They maintain the common good while giving laughter, knowledge, and persuasion. Basically, storytelling is a vital part of what allows us to connect, grow, and relate to one another it is not simply an avenue of expression.

Instructions

aquitaine1980 — 2025-04-30 22:25:26 UTC

Attend and post a response here!

"Scholars on Tap"

Tuesday May 6th, 7 - 9:30PM

Falcon Hub

Free food with alcohol for purchase.

The scholars:

Dr. J.J. Sylvia IV: Fascism Then and Now

Dr. Eric Budd: The State of Democracy

Dr. Ben Railton: History of American Immigration Law & Policy

Dr. Eileen Kirk: Due Process 101

Dr. Zachary Miner: The Stigmatization of Trans Folx and How We Can Hasten Equality

Dr. Chris Picone: Environmental Impacts of the Most Scientifically Illiterate POTUS in History

Dr. Heather Urbanski: Organizational Responses to Destructive Executive Orders

Olivia Rossetti and Lori Steckervetz: Executive Orders, Access to Information, and Local Impacts

Dr. Kisha Tracy and Reneé Fratantonio: Modern (Mis)appropriations of Ancient and Medieval Symbols

Dr. Katy Covino and Reneé Fratantonio: Critical Curriculum Design and AI

Dr. DeMisty Bellinger: Alternative Avenues of Funding on Campus

Dr. Kyle Moody: Social Media for Democratic Rhetoric

Jaleel Jackson

2025-05-01 16:18:53 UTC

Kai Fay's topic was very interesting. The mix of Japanese culture with the culture of religion, specifically being Christianity this go around. Through the many images and connections that Kai made we were clearly able to see this sort of faith that Japan had in Christ in these earlier time periods. Also when Kai mentioned how they express these faiths through many forms of tangible things that you could make your own interpretation out of it. I also can not forget about the hiku we performed as well. This ties back to us being able to make our own perspective and have our own understanding of just one item.

Jaleel Jackson

2025-05-01 16:27:15 UTC

I definitely enjoyed Mr Goodwin's company and speaking. You can tell her is a showman and is overall a joy to be around. I could tell he is very prideful and wants the best out of those who are genuine. My favorite part about this visit was his family car journey. From when his father had the car to when they sold the car, even when they had to track the car down which took them some time to do. They did it though and through what they did they made a living out of it. With their infamous license plate and green car as their logo, he puts his family pride on display and that, I was grateful for.

Samuel Monteiro

2025-05-06 00:26:13 UTC

To start, I want to say how amazing I think she is! Putting so much effort and time into music can be hard but she does it for the love of it. She also has a great way of presenting herself by the moves when she dances or just the visual look she puts out there. It is amazing for me to see as someone who loves that kinda stuff. Besides all that though, her work is getting her out there and getting awards, which is so cool and inspiring due to the fact that she is doing what she loves truly. Lastly, I think the whole message of what she is doing and why is really important and can even get overlooked sometimes when an artist doesn’t realise, but Red Shaydes makes it clear what her message is through all that she does.

Erumosele

2025-05-06 15:44:50 UTC

It was very interesting to get to know red Shaydez and knowing that she was just starting her music career and she was a Fitchburg student during the time when she freshly started it, and it would make sense when it came to her music selection and inspirations which was the 90's era and her heritage and mix in her background into the interview.

Kensley Antoine

2025-05-06 22:37:49 UTC

Thank you, Patrice, for engaging the class in such a thoughtful discussion on cultural landscapes and public memory. Your emphasis on storytelling in public spaces and the importance of exploring our surroundings to uncover hidden histories was especially impactful. Encouraging us to go out and engage with the landscape firsthand added a valuable, practical layer to the conversation.

Kensley Antoine

2025-05-06 22:39:05 UTC

Thank you, Kai, for sharing your insights on how storytelling evolves overtime. It was fascinating to consider how narratives shift depending on who is telling them, when, and why. Your discussion highlighted the fluid nature of history and memory, and how stories can be reclaimed, reinterpreted, or even silenced across generations. It reminded me of the responsibility we have to question dominant narratives and seek out voices that have been left out.

Kensley Antoine

2025-05-06 22:40:58 UTC

Thank you for sharing your story with us in such a creative and engaging way. Using music to introduce yourself and inviting us to sing along helped show how powerful shared experiences and storytelling can be in building connections. Your story about you, your brothers, and your dad’s old car highlighted how personal memories can carry deeper meanings and reflect broader themes like family, identity, and heritage. It was a great reminder of how storytelling especially when interactive can make history and memory come alive.

Coean Blankenship

2025-05-07 12:51:23 UTC

It is always interesting to learn about Fitchburg State alumni and definitely sparks motivation to finish the semester strong. It is cool to see someone use their interests to also advocate for change and raise awareness on things you are passionate about. She mentions her music is catchy and that sometimes you have to listen more closely to understand what she is talking about which is similar to other stories that have so many different meanings below the surface.

Erisbel

2025-05-08 13:31:14 UTC

For the podcast event of Red Shaydez, I did enjoy seeing it. I did like some topics that were brought up like the connection she had with Fitchburg and her shades, but if I remember correctly then there were I think three points where I think did not need to be brought up, and instead of these points, these points should have been more about her. I did like that she said that things were made in the past and to amplify it. I also think that we should be wary of being influenced, she mentioned that we are influenced, but I am on the side that I think we should be careful with this as we can unknowingly be impacted in a bad way.

Hannah Free

2025-05-08 14:05:10 UTC

So many things that I have learned and mainly about the different presentations from all the guests were impactful. I would honestly just want to continue to work on my writing and storytelling skills.That this is one of my favorite classes that I have taken over my time at Fitchburg State.

Hannah Free

2025-05-08 14:14:59 UTC

Just to introduce that she is an amazing artist and Red has had a lot of impact as an alumni. Shaydez, always obsessed with hip-hop, wrote poetry as a teen and produced homemade mixtapes exploring different musical styles. She has won so many awards and showed how much of an impact and was really important towards working hard with all her work. she’s a community advocate, business strategist for arts organizations, and educator, currently teaching a Hip-Hop collaboration course at MIT. Beyond her music career, Shaydez is also an entrepreneur and public speaker.

Samuel Monteiro

2025-05-08 14:20:07 UTC

For my summary, I want to start by saying how much I loved this class and how it really amazed me with how much I learned! I feel like all course goals were met for me, storytelling has impacted me a lot this semester, and I even saw myself outside of this class using the things I learned in class in many different ways out of class. I feel like I have definitely improved in writing as a whole, and on top of that, I think my way of telling/showcasing a story has improved a lot as well. I thank Dr. Tracy and all my classmates for such an enjoyable class and a great learning experience.

Erumosele

2025-05-08 16:08:12 UTC

I did learn a lot and being in a class that is called oral storytelling I would have thought of this class as something that would be a class were its just telling stories. But in this class, it opened my eyes when it comes to storytelling and there is more than just telling a story by reading but you can create with your mind on how you can tell a story even more than I expected I am glad that I took this class because I was more interested in how interactive this class is.

Timothy Dewey

tdewey5 — 2025-05-09 13:06:10 UTC

Red Shaydez is a great example of an FSU Alumni. Not only is she driven and passionate about her work, she also does what she can to give back to the community that fostered her creativity. Shaydez has an wealth of knowledge in her field and seems very open to anyone who would have questions for doing what she does. As someone who is trying to learn about the students that come to FSU, She is someone that I would point to as a great example of the mindset and passion you can find here in this community. I really appreciated her open honesty with the question that were asked from the audience. Overall I'm glad that I could make it to the live podcast since it gave me a clear idea as to the culture FSU cultivates.

Timothy Dewey

tdewey5 — 2025-05-09 13:13:10 UTC

When I started this course I wasn't sure what to expect. I can say now that I am glad that I took this class. I enjoyed talking with my class mates about the different stories, and the opportunity it gave me to look into some topics I was interested in. I wish I had told a story of my own. One of my goals was to gain a better idea as to how I should tell my own stories. Overall there were some amazing people that I got to meet and questions I've never considered before this, and to that I'm glad I did this.

Dexter Brown

2025-05-12 18:20:13 UTC

When I first started this class, I wasn't sure what we were going to be doing. I at first thought it was just a better way to improve my speaking skills as a business major. But I soon learned it was much more through the stories and interactions we shared. This class helped me a lot with my writing skills and my interpretation skills, especially when guest speakers were involved. It was also very interesting to see how people went about certain things, like drawing or even acted stuff out. But overall, I really enjoyed this class.

Justin Swaine

2025-05-14 21:45:13 UTC

Over the course of the semester, I feel the learning outcome that I learned the most about is how important it is to study storytelling and oral traditions. Hearing about how vital of a role it plays in various cultures and in people's lives. I would say I do need to continue to develop my skills on identifying aspects of storytelling so I can better analyze stories and how they are told. I did my best to adapt what we learned of how to tell stories to my podcast when writing the script. I am excited to see what more I can learn about this new lens that I have acquired from this course.

Justin Swaine

2025-05-14 21:49:07 UTC

I really enjoyed hearing some of the speakers discussing various subjects. I will admit, I did not go into it thinking it would be as political as it was. The two presentations that stuck out to me the most were Executive Orders, Access to Information, and Local Impacts and Modern (Mis)Appropriations of Ancient and Medieval Symbols. I know we had discusses the misappropriations in class before, but I did find it enlightening to see the audiences reactions and see content that would have never been shown in class (like the tweet.) As for the other presentation, it was disheartening to hear how limited access may come from our current government and political atmosphere. I hope this becomes an annual event so more people can attend in the future years.

Justin Swaine

2025-05-14 21:59:07 UTC

Getting to hear from Red Shydez and also to read about her is inspiring. To see that an Alumni from Fitchburg State University get so far into the music industry through time and effort. It shows that anyone is able to get where they want to in life by putting in the time and effort. From her interview in the Falcon Pub, she presented herself for who she is and not putting on a mask to hide her true identity. By doing this, I feel she was able to connect to the audience on a much more personal level and be more meaningful. Red Shydez will forever be an inspirational figure to anyone, showingg that they can do what their heart truly desires.

Jaleel Jackson

2025-05-15 17:49:07 UTC

Going through this course, the main thing I feel like I learned was how to appreciate where I came from. Going through so many different realms of life, seeing everyone appreciate and use their cultures to be themselves, and have a sense of belonging. I feel like I improved my levels of understanding and listening in terms of getting to know people's situations and why certain cultures have certain traditions. Ultimately, I learned how to be ok with being myself even if I wasn't the most confident.

Hannah Hartman

2025-05-15 20:25:33 UTC

Throughout this course, I feel that I have learned a lot about the importance of storytelling in preserving cultural heritage. Prior to taking this class, I never had any interest in history and always thought that it had its purpose, but not a purpose that had any relevance whatsoever to my life and future goals. This course showed me the complete opposite! From the activities, lectures, and lessons in the past semester, I have gained much greater knowledge of the importance of history in relation to storytelling and the development of a story’s contents. I have found that history not only shapes the narratives we tell but also provides a deeper understanding of the cultural values and societal norms that influence these stories. I now feel more inspired to listen to the stories of others to understand that underlying message. We learn from each other, so by listening and observing more, I hope to learn more ways to improve my own storytelling abilities.

I am getting all emotional on you but...

jduchar3 — 2025-05-16 14:25:35 UTC

I am old! And I have spent a long time here at FSU, and this course was one of my absolute favorites I have taken! I not only learned about how other cultures tell their stories, but how they preserve them. I learned so much about what makes one an effective communicator and storyteller. I also learned a great deal about research, especially after digging around in the archives and newspapers. This course also gave me a new found passion for being a falcon. At the end of four years where I struggled immensely, and ultimately found out I would have to come back for an additional semester and graduate in Spring 2026, rather than with my class and my cohort, the last thing I wanted to be truthfully was a falcon. But learning about our history as an institution and as a department (because we are cool & trail blazers!) I found a new passion and motivation to make the best of my time here. I also learned that every story we have no matter how big or small is a place to invite people in, to gather and to connect. In a world where we are disconnected from each other, this class was a pocket of peace and inspiration in many ways. Grateful isn't enough of a word!

Devin Lebron

2025-05-16 19:38:06 UTC

Coming into this class, I wasn’t sure about how long I would last. It felt like the workload was crazy, and things weren’t gonna go as planned, but as time went on, I grew to enjoy the process, and the podcast itself was a pleasure.

The addition of in class activities compared to my other classes was something I enjoyed. It took the overall pressure of sitting in class for an hour or so off our shoulders and it made classes more bearable.

So thank you.

Julian Morley

2025-05-16 20:45:41 UTC

Coming into the class, I didn't really know what to expect or what I would improve on. I initially thought that it would mostly help with oral presentation, but the big skill for me was improving my ability to research and put together an in depth discussion on a topic.

Coean Blankenship

2025-05-17 01:34:45 UTC

This course has expanded my mind and brought me new opportunities to build on my knowledge. I really enjoyed studying the different stories we looked at and took away important information regarding how stories are told all around the world. I definitely got the learning outcomes through the podcast assignment which I also enjoyed letting my creativity flow through storytelling. The research process was different than I have done in the past because of the specific nature of the class. Overall it taught me the importance of storytelling and the preservation of knowledge. Having the finished podcast result to take with me as a reminder of this course aligns with that preservation. Having the different speakers throughout the course while also reading different stories was nice to intake all sorts of different information and trying to make sense of it all.

Daniel Somers

2025-05-17 03:45:46 UTC

When I had initially signed up for this course, I was unsure of what to expect in the long term. From previous class experiences regarding oral history, I had a vague idea of some cultural aspects and histories we would discuss, but not to the extent that we ended up exploring them. I was continually impressed with the depth that each guest added to the overall course experience, in a variety of ways. Learning not just a deeper understanding of how oral tradition factors into different cultures, but within the class environment gave me a much better appreciation for storytelling as a practice. Overall, I can safely say I very much enjoyed the bulk of our course content, along with the collective experiences within the classroom.

Kensley

2025-05-17 14:45:09 UTC

This class has helped me grow in both my understanding of storytelling and my confidence in expressing myself. One of the most important things I’ve taken away is that stories are not just about what happens, but how they are told. I’ve learned how structure, character, voice, and other techniques work together to create meaning and emotion.

Angel

2025-05-17 18:54:08 UTC

Naturally in a time when trust in experts decreases, oral storytelling is still a key weapon in the hunt for knowledge and for the truth. In her article "The Essential Role of Storytelling in the Search for Truth," Lise Saffran points out the importance of authenticity and personal connection as society's trust in facts. The oral storytelling makes hard or general information easier to understand due to the presentation of the persons Pov and experiences. Some people are better at listening rather than reading.

Erisbel

2025-05-17 20:44:21 UTC

I do believe that I was able to understand storytelling and oral tradition in a different way after taking this class. I do like storytelling and learning about different cultures, but some of the presenters really helped me with this such as Mr. Todd Goodwin and Mr. Kai Fay. As for artifacts, another presenter helped me with this, I she had mentioned a bracelet that held special meaning and history, I know others hold something like this, I do as well. I mostly took this class to help me with my writing, and I don't know if it's because I like reading, because of once again Mr. Todd Goodwin, or past knowledge, but storytelling is something fun but also kind of hard for me to do, but it's still enjoyable. As for research, I do like it, and I have learned to use the library and the librarians more.

Angel V

2025-05-18 19:01:28 UTC

Learning about various cultures, the past, and values can be exciting and welcoming when accomplished through oral traditions. I figured out how people have passed down their skills and identities for years through oral tradition such as songs and stories. Making use of oral traditions to teach useful teachings was among the most interesting things I found. Folktales, for instance, often teach morals about reliability, bravery, or respect to elders, which makes learning both fun and important. Understanding how oral traditions vary across cultures yet retain general concepts like survival, family, and learning was a joy to me. It was amazing to observe how these customs, free of books or writing, connect people throughout time and space. I found that storytelling is an effective tool for keeping languages, remember the past, and passing traditions. The way oral traditions merge people was an aspect I valued. Singing songs or listening to stories together creates a feeling of community and shared identity. It proved to me the value of each person's story. I also discovered the significance of griots, or storytellers, who preserve history and culture by acting as living libraries.

Jordan Cummings

2025-05-18 19:45:12 UTC

This oral storytelling class felt like a fresh start. Other courses drained me with endless problem sets and heavy readings. Chemistry and statistics left me racing from one deadline to the next and I had nothing left for creativity.

Here I learned to slow down and connect. I discovered the power of a pause. Letting a moment breathe before the key line gave my story space to grow. Timing mattered more than I knew. A short wait before the climax made my words land with more weight.

Now I know that great storytelling lives in the silence between words the rhythm of each line and the truth I bring to every moment. This class taught me to breathe into each story and share it from the heart.

o4-mini

Jordan Cummings

2025-05-18 19:46:14 UTC

Listening to Red Shaydez at Fitchburg State felt like a spark in a dark room. She spoke from a place of struggle. She talked about growing up with doors slamming in her face and nights wondering if she would ever break free. She said she had to dig deep and pull herself out of the mud day after day.

Her voice was steady when she told us how she found hope in small wins. She spoke of that first moment she looked in the mirror and decided she was worth the fight. From there she built each step one at a time. She went back to school. She reached for every chance to learn. She refused to let her past define her future.

What hit me most was how she used her pain as fuel. She did not hide the scars. She held them up as proof she could survive. She showed us that no matter how deep we sink we can climb out. Now every time I face something hard I think of Red Shaydez and how she dug her way out of the mud and rose above.

Jordan Cummings

2025-05-18 19:48:22 UTC

After listening to Rob I look at my own family stuff differently. I wonder what small object holds our shared moments and which parts of it will become the fuel for my own memories. Rob Goodwin taught me that passion can turn the everyday into something unforgettable.