Citizenship 110: Bodies and Citizens

Going into college, I was honestly nervous about the classes that I would be taking. When I first got my schedule for my first semester of classes, I saw the title of this course and I was immediately interested. After a couple weeks of taking this course, I was fascinated by the material and by the professor, Dr. Dudley-Shotwell. Even though this course was required by every freshman entering Longwood, there were different sections focusing on various topics. For our class, we focused primarily on minorities and their freedoms. We discussed American Indians, African Americans, women, and more.

One of my favorite parts about this class was the discussion of women and their rights. In previous classes in high school I had learned about the women’s movement for freedom, but never in such detail. In addition to learning about their political freedoms, we discussed women’s rights to birth control and abortion. These are topics never discussed in class in high school or middle school. Being able to learn and discuss these topics was extremely interesting and empowering.

For our final project, Dr. Dudley-Shotwell asked us to brainstorm about our passions and possible future careers. She told us to use our majors and minors to begin. I am a Liberal Studies Elementary Education major and a Spanish minor. The purpose of the assignment was to create a syllabus for a class with a topic of our choice. My course was named “Breaking Down Language Barriers: Impacts on Education”. Throughout my ‘course’, I was planning on discussing the impacts of English Language Learners and bilingualism for Hispanic students in the American public school system. I have attached a copy of the final assignment.

(“Breaking Down Language Barriers: Impacts on Education”, Bailey Nixon, December 2018)

Education 245: Child Development

Going into this class, I was more than excited to learn about the material. My passion for education is so strong, and I was confident that I would be successful in this course. I took this class with Ms. Martelli, who is a graduate student at Virginia Commonwealth University studying various forms of psychology. Some of my friends had previously taken her course and recommended her style of teaching.  After the first few classes, it was clear that she was passionate about the material. Much of the content were topics that she was researching in her program. It was very interesting to hear about her real-world applications to the material.

Throughout the course, we discussed many topics related to child development. Primarily we discussed physical, cognitive, and socio-emotional development through the various ages. We learned how each of these play a role in early childhood, middle childhood, and the adolescent stage. Having gone through all of these stages, it was very interesting to connect the material to my own life experiences. Ms. Martelli did a great job giving us the definition of terms and providing examples to help connect with what we were learning.

For our final assignment in the class, we completed stages of interviews, a paper, and a presentation. For the “Three Ages Project”, we had to pick one individual from early childhood, middle childhood, and adolescence. Next, we had to conduct an interview asking them questions about their physical, cognitive, and socio-emotional development. Finally, we analyzed their responses and wrote a 10 page paper connecting their development to topics discussed in class. This was a very rewarding project and I was able to learn a lot about development that I can connect to my future classroom. Below I have attached the interview questions that I used, as well as the final paper.

(“Three Ages Project”, Bailey Nixon, April-May 2019)

History 222: US History 1877 to Modern Times

History has always been one of my favorite classes throughout school. After taking Dr. Dudley-Shotwell’s Citizenship course, I decided to take her History 222 section. Her views about humanity are very apparent in her class discussions and I found that very interesting and refreshing. Her set up for the class was also very organized and focused; every week had the same set up. Over the weekend, we watched videos and read secondary sources about the topic we would discuss. There would then be a lecture and a class discussion. Over the week, we would read more secondary sources as well as annotate primary sources. Following this, we would have lecture and interact with the primary sources that we read.

The topics discussed in this class were very raw and controversial. We looked at History through a lense that I was never taught. We discussed the good, bad, and ugly of various groups throughout 1877 to now. During the course we discussed slavery, industrialization, immigration, social reform movements, the Great Depression, various wars, minority freedom movements, and terrorism. There was not a topic that I was not interested in.

For our final project, we were asked to create a Buzzfeed article about a topic from our course. The article had to encompass a theme that we had discussed in numerous units throughout the semester. This was a 7-part article where each section had a title, picture, description, and citations. The title of my article was “7 Ways that Studying US History 1877 to Modern Times History Shapes the Way You Think About America’s Justification to Involvement in Wars”. I discussed the reasoning behind America’s decisions to join wars throughout history. For example, I talked about the World Wars, the Vietnam War, the Cold War, etc. Below I have attached a copy of the final project in ‘article’ form.

(“7 Ways that Studying US History 1877 to Modern Times History Shapes the Way You Think About America’s Justification to Involvement in Wars”, Bailey Nixon, May 2019)

Honors 495: Love, Sex, and Friendship

Coming into Love, Sex, and Friendship, I was very nervous about how I would perform. This is the first philosophy class I have taken, and the packed syllabus made me question if I could handle all of the readings. However, I took Dr. Blincoe’s advice in the beginning of the semester about reading and analyzing carefully, and not giving up if a selection was hard. Throughout the semester, this is exactly what I did. I didn’t find any reading particularly easy, yet I tackled each one as they came. In this sense, I have learned a lot about my own skills and surprised myself by how much I enjoyed the readings and learning about these topics. Without a doubt, this class was one that I looked forward to and felt motivated to do the work.

My short-term goal for this class was to analyze and appreciate each selection assigned. Once again, my long-term goal was to gain confidence in myself as a student. The artifact I chose for this class our final research assignment. Essentially, we were required to write a letter to “friends” about either forming a healthy friendship or maintaining a long-term marriage. Once we chose, we had to incorporate selections from class and do outside research to find sources that would bolster our argument. For me, I chose to write about friendship, and I found the process of the assignment to be fairly straightforward. I did not struggle to find sources or to compose the paper. In this sense, I was able to surpass my short-term goal of appreciating the selections, and I made large strides for my long-term goal of building confidence.

(“Final Research Assignment”, Bailey Nixon, April 2020)

Honors 490: Directed Study

Since coming to Longwood, this has by far been my favorite honors class that I have taken. Since I did not get the opportunity to participate in a typical study abroad experience, I came across this course to satisfy those requirements. In the course, we worked in groups of 4 to create and advertise a social innovation related to the pandemic. Our final project consisted of a visual advertisement, a podcast, and a trailer for the podcast. In the groups, two students were from Longwood and two were from the Netherlands. 

While this project was such a fun experience, there were definitely some challenges. First, communicating with our Dutch counterparts become difficult with the time differences and different technological platforms. Additionally, at times, it was difficult to evenly split up the work among group members to ensure that everyone was having a fulfilling experience. The project moved very quickly, so it was important to keep all group members on task from beginning to end.

Regardless of the challenges, however, many important skills were learned that can help me in my future. For example, coming into this project, one of my largest goals was to expand my cultural viewpoint. While I consider myself very openminded, I knew I had a biased perspective of what I thought a Dutch person would be like. Coming into the project, I wanted to eliminate this bias and get to learn about their culture in a deeper sense. I truly believe I did just this, as I made strong connections with my Dutch counterparts and learned an incredible amount about their lives and culture. In addition to this, I also strengthened my communication skills, time management skills, and creativity. Overall, this experience is something I will always look back on, and I am so grateful that I was able to be apart of it!

(Attached above is an artifact of my group’s visual infographic for our podcast, “Covid-19: Connecting the World Once Again”, Bailey Nixon, Jessica Donahue, Bas Feijen, & Leonie Smeding, April 2021).

Citizen 410

TBD