Allison Fernley
Associate
Professor
Humanities
and Social Sciences
English
What she teaches:
Intro to Writing,
Intro to Queer Studies, Intermediate Writing, Critical Intro to Literature,
Intro to Critical Theory
Number of years teaching at
SLCC:
29
Undergraduate degree:
University
of Utah
Master’s:
University
of Utah
Why working at SLCC matters:
We have the chance
to make a difference for all kinds of different students in all kinds of ways,
whether it be helping a desperate student in the Writing Center who doesn’t
know how to approach a psychology paper or encouraging a student not to give up
his/her/their dream to become a nurse because biology class is so difficult. We often serve as the first higher ed contact
for someone making a great change in their life or even in their family’s
history and prospects. That’s as close
as it comes for me to a sacred trust.
Greatest professional challenge:
Learning how to
work effectively with English Language Learners. Expectations of grammar mastery and crystal-clear
sentences block us from engaging students on the plane of their ideas and
communicative abilities. Mastery will
come over time and with experience—as it does for anyone learning another
language.
Greatest professional accomplishment:
Joining Jonathan
Stowers in his dream to offer one of the first queer studies courses at a
community college level, providing a space for open discourse that had not
previously existed to serve SLCC’s LGBT students and their allies. Learning to work with students where they are
“at”: eschewing one-size-fits-all in
favor of trying to help each student develop their writing abilities from where
they start.
Advice for students or others:
Show up. Understand that writing is revision. Go to the Student Writing Center. If you just keep coming to class and are
willing to write and rewrite, you will succeed.
Future plans:
Live
in the present. Seriously. In a meditative way.
Family:
I am married to
Judy Rose who is a software engineer. We have three godchildren and a cat named
Oscar.
Hobbies:
Guitar, piano, opera, American musical theater.
