Using our past to prepare students for the present

Last fall, as Heath Furrow prepared to teach the First-Year Experiences course for history majors for the first time, he drew from his other role on campus, an academic advisor at the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences, as he planned the course. 

Each semester he works with about 300 students from the Department of History and the Kellogg Center for Philosophy, Politics and Economics. Those interactions have had a big impact on how he approaches teaching an FYE course. 

“As an advisor, I built the course around the academic calendar and when different topics would be most impactful,” said Furrow, who has a master’s degree in history from Virginia Tech. “For example, when they get their first exams back we do a session on sources available to them for academic support, such as the Student Success Center and Cook Counseling Center. We also incorporated a four-year planning activity that fell right before course registration.”

The course, History 1004, is taught each fall and requires students to work in groups for a digital poster session in Newman Library that serves as their final project. 

The assignment’s prompt asked the students to explore the history of Virginia Tech during the 1970s, a period of significant change for both the university and American society. Peter Wallenstein, a professor in the Department of History who wrote the definitive history of Virginia Tech’s first 125 years, spoke to the class to introduce students to possible topics for consideration. 

The project, Furrow says, is valuable for his students for several reasons while supporting the FYE program’s goals. 

Introducing the discipline

“This project lets them know what history really is about, which is digging for sources, analyzing them, and then presenting your perspective to an audience,” said Furrow. “Some students come into history thinking it’s just about listening to a lecture or reading a textbook then memorizing and regurgitating the information.” 

For one student, the course expanded their understanding of the field, creating a possible new career path. 

“Getting to meet different subject matter experts that use history in a variety of ways help me to see the depth of options that this degree offers,” said a student in a FYE survey. “Getting to go to special collections was really neat and meeting the archivist there got me excited to look at primary sources and potentially research being an archivist.”

Facing our history

“Dealing with difficult topics is part of the discipline of history, getting into what may be uncomfortable spaces, being honest about what’s out there and not trying to sugarcoat the past,” said Furrow. “It’s something the department values and being able to let students see all aspects of the university - both the positive and negative - is an important part of a historian’s craft.”

These discussions become a valuable way to understand and connect with broader goals of the campus community. For example, students chose to examine the stories of  the first woman to join the Corps of Cadets and campus life for African American students during that decade. 

“The project also ties into the DEI component of the FYE program and the university’s mission in general,” said Furrow. “It allows us to be very honest about where we’ve been, see how the university has changed over the years, and where we’re going as an institution.”

Building community, post-pandemic

For many faculty, the aftereffects of the pandemic on our students will be something educators will be working through for years to come.  

“I think students are really confused about expectations now because expectations shifted so much,” said Furrow. “We were in the middle of a global pandemic and we were meeting in different formats, so they weren’t held to the same standards.”

“For a lot of students, the pandemic is a big chunk of what they know about college-level learning,” he said. “So re-educating them on what the expectations are is a big part of this course and project.”

Faculty are also concerned about the lack of engagement between students.

“I have heard a lot of faculty point out that students aren’t talking to each other before or after class, they aren’t communicating and building community as much as they did before COVID-19,” said Furrow. “The hope is group projects like this one help get students reengaged with each other.”

Ultimately, the FYE course is intended to fit in with the university’s current push for student retention and its ongoing goal of supporting underrepresented students. 

“On the first day I explained to my students what this course was about in these terms: You’ll learn to navigate the university and make the ‘hidden rules’ unhidden,” said Heath. “There’s a lot of jargon and unknowns that disproportionately hurt under-represented students, particularly first-generation students in particular.” 

“I think a big part of the FYE course for me was to explain those things so students start on an equal playing field, whether or not they have a parent or older sibling that have already experienced a university setting.”

The course, History 1004, is taught each fall and requires students to work in groups on a hands-on historical project that is presented to the community at the end of the semester. In the future, Furrow said, he expects the projects to change year-to-year to meet the needs of students. 

At the end of last fall’s course, the feedback from students was positive.

“There's so much more to history than just teaching and I don't think that's something that I realized before,” said one student in a FYE survey.