The OrangeLine Online

The OrangeLine Online, Vol. 2 Issue 2
February 4, 2005
An electronic newsletter for alumni and friends of West Virginia Wesleyan College
www.wvwc.edu

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Faculty Focus: Academic Partnership Established with WVU

West Virginia Wesleyan College participates in a partnership program, which provides teaching appointments at Wesleyan for minority doctoral students from West Virginia University. This program was established as a special initiative of the office of the Chancellor of Higher Education of West Virginia.

Wesleyan was the first private College in the state to enter into the WVU Academic Partnership Program for Minority Teaching Fellows. The program currently provides semester teaching appointments for WVU minority and international doctoral students, and brings excellent young teachers to Wesleyan.

The program has accomplished two important goals. It has helped WVU minority doctoral students gain valuable teaching experience, and it has made participating colleges the beneficiaries of a more diverse faculty. “The decision to participate in the program was made in the spring of 2004 under the leadership of former Dean of the College, Dr. Jeff Abernathy,” remarked current Dean of the College Dr. Larry Parsons. “We worked out an arrangement for four educators to come to our campus and teach.”

For the current semester, Wesleyan has two teaching fellows in the political science and history disciplines. M. Noelle Lee teaches retroactive justice and introduction to public policy and Ibrahim Iba N’Diaye is teaching the history of colonialism in Africa and multi-cultural history.

“The teachers who have come to Wesleyan have been excellent,” continued Parsons. “They are well-educated and bring varied experiences and enthusiasm to the classroom. It is an outstanding opportunity for us. The College benefits by having access to these bright and talented teachers, and the fellows get important experience teaching in a college environment, which is what they seek.”

For M. Noelle Lee, the partnership program experience has been a rewarding one.
She remarked, “The WVU Teaching Partnership has given me the space and the resources to improve my own pedagogy, while interacting with bright and committed groups of students. The administration at Wesleyan has also been very welcoming. My experience at Wesleyan has been very enriching and fulfilling.” Lee continues, “Last semester, I fell in love with the passion and intellectual curiosity of 14 students in the Retroactive Justice course. Their desire to engage in sustained discussion about issues of justice, ideologies and the human condition exceeded all my expectations. The work and dedication that they took in preparing for the simulated Redress Hearings was further testament that students do care about the world and the people around them.”

“M. Noelle Lee really exemplifies what the partnership is truly all about,” said Parsons. “She is just an incredible person. She taught a class on the American Holocaust. She has contacts in Washington D. C. Over Thanksgiving break, she took eight or nine of her students there, and they visited holocaust museums and other related sites.”

Parsons is optimistic that both sides will continue to reap the benefits of the partnership. “This program provides Wesleyan with energetic individuals who want to teach,” concluded Parsons. “Hopefully, this is a program we can continue for years.”

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