51ĀŅĀ×

On the third floor of Ellis Hall, only a few steps left of the elevator, sits the office suite 301, where graduate students and faculty alike grade studentā€™s work, discuss matters of the day and plan for the weeks ahead. Megan Russell, a second-year doctoral student in the English program, with a concentration in rhetoric and composition, sits at her section of the long desk that runs along the wall, iMac glowing with a full email inbox and several commitments that are vying for her attention. We discuss how funny it is that students that also serve as faculty or staff in some capacity, are not able to combine email inboxes, thus creating inherent personas.

Russell has managed her graduate student persona for 20 years now, as she originally came to 51ĀŅĀ× for a Masterā€™s in English in 2006. During that time, she was assigned to be a teaching assistant, and by the time of her graduation in 2008, Russell had fallen in love with teaching. Luckily, the English department was looking for adjuncts, so from 2008 to 2012, Russell was a full-time adjunct instructor.

ā€œMy background wasn't composition or rhetoric at the time,ā€ Russell said. ā€œA lot of it was self-taught, but self-taught with guidance from great directors of composition that have been here.ā€

Russellā€™s time as a graduate student was far from over. Over time, Russell realized that she wanted to learn more about working directly with college students. So, in the fall of 2012, she enrolled to pursue a Masterā€™s in College Student Personnel in the Patton College. During that time, Russell balanced her studies, still being an adjunct for the English department, and working in a graduate assistantship at the now defunct Pride Center, known in 2012 as the LGBT Center. All of this may seem a lot to juggle, and though it was, the roles played multiple roles for Russell, including informing what would become her teaching philosophy.

ā€œTo teach and be involved in the culture on a college campus with 18- to 24-year-olds felt like, this is the population I want to work with,ā€ Russell said. ā€œWhen you can tell that the student has felt heard, they are getting a chance to use their authentic voice and opinions, and those things are valued. I encourage them to share those things in my classroom.ā€

She graduated with the M.Ed. in 2014, continued to adjunct, and at this point, settled into the Athens community and decided this town was going to be home.

ā€œThere was a way for me to make teaching like my nine to five, and so, what do I do after five? I started volunteering with a friend of mine at Ohio Brew Week over the summer and got really involved in that. I started volunteering with her at Nelsonville Music Festival and the Paw Paw Festival.ā€

Through volunteering to help with different festivals and events, Russell was able to enjoy the community enrichment they brought; while also learning about the village it takes to create and run these events for the public. When the COVID-19 pandemic closed down much of Athens in 2020, Russell realized the impact the closure of public resources such as parks and public swimming had on her young son and newborn daughter.

ā€œRecreation just became a cornerstone of like my mom life, and so I got involved with Athens Parks and Rec. I am on their Advisory Board,ā€ Russell said. ā€œThe stuff that I think is easy to take for granted like that. Of course, we have a public park and a public pool. Because we're a city of course, but those things take work.ā€

Russell is also on the board for the . ā€œFair, accurate, free information being made available is really important to me.ā€

ā€œI think also having kids made what Iā€™m involved in more important to me. I want to be able to share with them. Not just that Athens is beautiful, Southeast Ohio is beautiful. There are all these opportunities. It's fun to look at all these fun things to do here, but also this is the hard work of creating those fun things.ā€

Dr. Talinn Phillips invited Russell back to graduate school for her doctoral degree, and two years later, here she is. Phillips, Dr. Paul Shovlin, Dr. Lynn Harter and Dr. Mike Hess were all campus faculty that Russell mentioned being ā€œtransformative and essentialā€ to her current journey. Russell is also currently working as a coordinator for revising a graduate internship program in the English department that, in time, could be transformational for the department. Transformational is the word that comes to mind when reflecting on Russellā€™s time at 51ĀŅĀ× and her impact as a graduate student, no matter which persona, as a student or instructor, she is taking on at any given moment.

ā€œI genuinely want to know what my students think, and they believe me,ā€ Russell said. ā€œI do get pretty consistent feedback from my students that that is one of the strengths of my classroom, that they do believe that I actually care what they think when I walk into the room and say, what did we think about this week's reading? I actually do want to know what they think.ā€