Harris returns to GC&SU

After a short absence from Georgia College & State University, Dr. Robin O. Harris is back as Director of a new department, the Office of Experiential Learning.

Harris received her undergraduate and master’s degrees in History from GS&SU, in 1991 and 1993, and her PhD in the History of Technology from Georgia Tech in 1998. She served on the faculty of the GC&SU, first as an adjunct instructor, then in a temporary full-time position, from 1993 through Spring Semester 2001. During that time, Harris was extremely active in many facets of campus life.

In January 2001, Harris became the Executive Director of Georgia’s Antebellum Capitol Museum, a newly emerging independent museum located on the ground floor of the renovated Old State Capitol building on the Georgia Military College campus. First on a part-time basis, while she fulfilled her responsibilities at GC&SU, and then full time, Harris threw herself into the many tasks necessary to take the museum from the long-time dream of a group of Milledgeville citizens to reality.

This included developing policies and procedures, setting up office facilities, working with a design team on plans and construction necessary to implement the exhibits, and other vital spaces necessary for the Museum’s planned Grand Opening in 2003, as well as beginning public programs and tours for the approximately three hundred visitors who came to the Museum every month during her time there. Harris credits the community members whose vision resulted in the funding for the Museum and the Museum Staff, Candise Curlee and Rick Mayfield (a GC&SU alumnae) for what she knows will be the Museum’s great success and valued contribution to Milledgeville.

Harris returns to GC&SU because of the students.

“While I think the Museum will greatly benefit the entire community,” said Harris, “this new position at GC&SU allows me greater opportunity to help more students, and that is my real passion.”

When Harris heard about the new position, she applied, “…but only after some real struggle. I felt a deep commitment to the Museum and to the staff, yet I wanted to be where I could make the most difference.”

Her new position as Director of the Office of Experiential Learning allows her to impact a wide variety of students.

“Experiential learning is the umbrella under which all of the learning that takes place outside of the classroom falls,” said Harris. “That includes service learning, internships, study abroad, and community service.”

Her job is to bring together all of the people that have already been heading these sorts of projects so that all the different areas of campus are aware of what others are doing.

“So many good things are already going on across campus. We want to bring some cohesion to the outside-the-classroom learning experiences our students are already having, and to identify these as beneficial to the preparation GC&SU offers students, not only for their profession, but for a lifetime of civic engagement,” said Harris. “We want to expand upon the quality experiences already offered on campus and make them readily accessible to as many students as possible.”

Another part of her job is to oversee an experiential transcript to go along with students’ academic transcripts. This new transcript, first developed last year by a committee headed by Teresa Taylor, the Service Learning Coordinator, will provide written documentation of a student’s involvement in community service, internships, etc.

“We are one of the first schools in the country to have an experiential transcript,” said Harris. “Some institutions claim to provide one, but a closer examination indicates otherwise. Ours will be well-documented and will follow throughout the student’s college career, beginning as a first-semester freshman and ending at graduation.”

Harris is positive about the effect this will have on student involvement on campus.

“I think this will get more students involved on campus,” said Harris, “as we try to develop a more seamless educational experience, by tying in such opportunities to things already in place, such as the Student Road Map, the Freshman Experience, and our Undergraduate Research program. The purpose is to assure that all our students have
the opportunity to receive a quality education in every way.”

Harris sees her position as “a bridge between numerous areas on campus” and has been busy meeting with individuals and offices to identify what is already out there and what can be successfully applied to the whole campus.

“For example, the Business Department has a required course on writing resumes, an experience that would benefit all students
preparing for graduation,” said Harris. “Several departments consistently engage in numerous undergraduate/faculty research projects. Several faculty members routinely include service learning as a means of connecting majors to real-life’s professional experiences.”

Harris is particularly appreciative of Teresa Taylor, the coordinator of Service Learning.

“Service Learning is the one aspect of this new position that is clearly defined, and Teresa’s experience has already been invaluable to me as I try to get a sense of what the Office of Experiential Learning is all about,” said Harris.

She looks forward to continuing to work with Taylor.

Harris also expressed the practical importance of this new program upon students’ post-college careers.

“The main goal of the Office of Experiential Learning is to connect learning in the real world to learning in the classroom, a proven method of increasing student success both during college and beyond,” said Harris. “We want our graduates to leave with more than just memorized facts, theories, and procedures. We want to send them off to a lifetime of learning and contributing to every community of life to which they become a part. In addition, Experiential Learning allows a future employer, or Graduate School, to know that a GC&SU graduate has enhanced and expanded upon classroom knowledge in very real and practical ways, and thus has experience in addition to knowledge.”

If you have any questions or want to know more about this new program, please contact Dr. Robin O. Harris at her office in Lanier 130 or email her at rharris@mail.gcsu.edu.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Sep 7 2001. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry