Nine Ohio teachers chosen as Scripps Communication Fellows

The Ohio University Scripps College of Communication recently named nine PK-12 teachers in Ohio to the Communication Fellows Program. Designed to bolster innovation in communication curriculum at all levels of the education process, the program also provides professional development, mentorship and networking opportunities. Fellows receive a total of $2,500 in financial awards along with additional support for projects they complete over the course of their fellowship.

“Our aim is to promote the transformative power that strong communication education can have on students in the classroom and beyond,” said Dean Scott Titsworth. “The first five cohorts of communication fellows have seen lasting impact in their schools and formed abiding relationships with each other in the process. I can’t wait to see what the 2023 group accomplishes together.”

Communication Fellows are named annually, with an equal number of spaces available for educators from rural Appalachian districts and urban districts in the state of Ohio. This program was established as part of the Scripps College of Communication’s fiftieth anniversary in 2018.

Selected fellows receive free tuition for a graduate-level online course, a $1,500 stipend and a $1,000 classroom stipend. College faculty members serve as mentors, supporting the teachers as they develop and complete their project proposals during the residential experience and throughout the year.

The 2023 Communication Fellows cohort:

• April Brown teaches seventh grade English at Zane Trace High School. Brown’s proposed project will be a podcast exploring the history of the community, featuring a local historian with whom Brown has worked for other classroom projects. From Brown’s Communication Fellows application: “Fostering a strong and tangible bridge between generations is essential for a society to sustain and thrive.”
• Darlene Burks is a ninth-grade English Language Arts teacher at Davis Aerospace & Maritime High School in Cleveland whose project centers on public speaking training. “During the Covid pandemic,” Burks explained, “there was a noticeable change during online schooling in the number of students interested in talking in front of their peers or in smaller breakout chat rooms.” Burks plans to incorporate VR headsets for public speaking practice, allowing students to gain confidence and familiarity in a virtual environment.
• Olivia Detamore is an English teacher at Franklin High School in Franklin. Her project will develop a broadcast news program in the senior English class, covering topics related to the school district. “This project will increase communication and pride in the district, develop students’ communication skills, give students the chance to share their successes, and build community support for our schools.”
• Jessica Dunn is an eighth-grade science teacher in Portsmouth City Schools who plans to create a podcast with her students. The program would tell stories about people who are improving the local community through science. From Dunn’s project proposal: “I am very active in our local science community and partnered with the Shawnee State University Science department. This involvement has allowed me to meet many interesting locals who want to see our students more involved and better informed.”
• Dennis Forman, a seventh-grade science teacher at Zane Trace Middle School, will focus his Communication Fellows experience on obtaining updated science equipment for the classroom. From Forman’s project proposal: “With the proper technology in the classroom, the students will have constant access to their projects to master and perfect them, creating a product they are proud of and are willing and eager to share with the world.”
• Taylor Kohler is an English and journalism teacher at Mid-East Career & Technology Centers in Zanesville whose project will create a bi-weekly student-produced newsletter that will include a social media presence. From Kohler’s proposal: “Our main goal here is to provide real-world experiences that will help students be successful in today’s economy. My goal is to further enhance the communication curriculum at our school to include a more diversified set of skills that students can apply to their chosen career field.”
• Molly Maloof is an English teacher at Bishop Hartley High School in Columbus. Her project will focus on creating a news literacy curriculum. From Maloof’s proposal: “As a school which prides itself on holistic education, we are providing students with the means to be smart consumers, voters, and citizens. Tangentially, we can encourage them to be responsible producers of information as well.”
• Lucas Strohm, an English teacher at Grand Valley High School in Orwell, proposed a project that will incorporate communication technology to teach students about using research methods and credible sources in various communication formats. If students can learn to “appropriately modify their message in multimodal formats where they can say the same thing at various levels of formality, that can only strengthen and stretch their communication abilities while establishing a real-world anchor and context,” Strohm wrote in his proposal.
• Shana Varner is an eleventh-grade A&P, Health and PE teacher at the Bio-Med Science Academy in Rootstown. Varner’s project will have students create children’s books, audiobooks, podcasts or public service announcements to raise awareness about teenage health issues, along with a website where the student projects will be accessible. “This project will allow students the opportunity to create authentic resources that can be used to educate other students as well as community members over various health topics of their choice,” Varner wrote in her proposal.