eassy paper

Meet your Faculty - Patricia Costello

Meet your Faculty - Patricia Costello Program Transcript

PATRICIA COSTELLO: Hello, I'm Patricia Costello. I'm the program director for the B.S. in psychology programs. That includes B.S. In psychology and B.S. in forensic psychology.

I've always worked with undergraduates. And I have no desire to change. I would say partly because they're at the beginning of their education journey, there's a lot to learn, there's a lot to introduce them to, the world is wide open at that point. The second part is, I like to provide a mentorship piece for students and feel that I'm being useful on their educational journey.

Advice for a new Walden student-- one, just be careful of information overload. There's a lot of information, a lot of emails, a lot of text to read. Be sure that you're paying attention and reading everything that you can, but make notes and just know that there's a lot of information that's going to be coming to you, especially at the beginning of your program.

When I was in graduate school, I was exploring various options. There was an option to be coming mainly a researcher, there's an option to go into industry, and there's an option to work with undergraduates in an undergraduate-specific way. And I decided probably toward the end of my graduate school program that I did want to work with undergraduates. So I took a class called Preparing Future Faculty.

And you learn specifically how to create a course, syllabus, instructional delivery. So you have access to the syllabus even a couple days before the class starts. I recommend looking at that syllabus, getting your readings all prepped. If there are any articles that you need to get from the library, perhaps get those in advance of the week that they are do.

There's also services available such as Grammarly, where you can enter your paper to the Grammarly site and have it checked for you and get feedback on the sentence structure and wording. And that's something do on your own without having to use someone from the writing center specifically. And instructors are going to give you feedback on your writing.

They want you to grow as writers and recognize that not every student comes in as an expert writer. I also recommend that students take the time and care to review the work. So after they get the feedback of their discussion, to go back and read the comments from the instructor, to download the paper that was given back by the instructor that has feedback. You're paying for your education.

This is your degree. So if you don't take the time to see what went wrong perhaps, why you were missing points, or what went well, that's only half the

©2014 Laureate Education, Inc. 1

Meet your Faculty - Patricia Costello

learning is doing the work. It's taking the time to go back and look at the feedback as well. Makes for a successful student.

Another, I think, a big piece is if you know you have an event coming up-- you have to go travel out of state, something family-related or you maybe even have something medically-related that you know is going to come up, but you're still able to take the course-- email the instructor and let them know as soon as possible. And then you can make a plan for that in advance, because if don't, if you just end up turning things in late, you're most likely going to incur relate points because you haven't made a plan.

So if you know something ahead of time, earlier you can be in touch with the instructor to let them know, the more you're likely to be successful in working out a plan with the instructor. They will be as accommodating as possible within reason. But the more the student can give a heads up about that, the better.

Don't just disappear. Instructors do know that things come up. Your internet might go out, someone in your family comes down sick, and you might not be able to alert them in time. But if you can let them know as soon as possible, that's the best way to not get behind, since the courses are so fast-paced.

Students can expect from their Walden instructors their presence in the classroom at least four times a week. They should be active on the discussion boards, answering your questions if you have any in the Ask the Instructor area, if you have questions of a more personal nature, answering your emails in a timely manner. They can expect an environment that is respectful to all students and viewpoints.

And students should feel welcome, and their ideas should feel that they're in collaboration with their fellow students, because a big part of the discussion board is not just interacting with the instructor, but interacting with the other students in the classroom. So the faculty should be monitoring what's going on on the discussion board and providing feedback and asking questions that spur your critical thinking.

Instructors are there to guide you and provide feedback as needed. So instructors should let you know what's going well, what you need to improve. You should be able to ask for more feedback as needed. And in short, they should be available to answer your questions as they come up.

If students are interested in graduate school, I encourage them to contact their instructors, work out a plan for how to apply, how to get their applications in in a timely manner. If they need help with their cover letter, I've written plenty of letters of recommendations for students. And I encourage students to ask me and that's also a preface on why it's good to get to know your instructor, is because you never know when you might need that letter of recommendation.

©2014 Laureate Education, Inc. 2

Meet your Faculty - Patricia Costello

I was a fairly motivated student. I wanted to do well. I came to class prepared. I had done all my readings. I had questions on my notebooks.

But I also realized that not every student is built like me and try to take that into account, that the motivation may be there, but the skills to organize and to keep on top of things. So I try to recognize that students come to the classroom with different backgrounds. Students might have discovered later in life that they had this passion for learning that wasn't always present, but they just need help getting there.

I think for me, I've always had that passion for learning. And I like to impart that into my students, just that enthusiasm for what's new, what questions can I ask, what's out there? So I hope that my experience as an undergraduate, as a motivated student that loved to learn is conveyed in the classroom as well.

Meet your Faculty - Patricia Costello Additional Content Attribution

Creative Support Services Los Angeles, CA

Dimension Sound Effects Library Newnan, GA

Narrator Tracks Music Library Stevens Point, WI

Signature Music, Inc. Chesterton, IN

Studio Cutz Music Library Carrollton, TX

©2014 Laureate Education, Inc. 3