The TCC Connection

Podcast for a Day - Hollywood Sunrise

Podcast for a Day presents Hollywood Sunrise. Shane Turner and Briiz Brown, best friends since high school who are obsessed with celebrities and the history of Hollywood! In this podcast we will dive into some interesting topics on the ins and outs of the media industry!

The following episode is part of a series produced by the Electronic Communication course at Tulsa Community College during the 2022 spring semester. To find more episodes, visit tccconnection.com/podcast/ or most streaming platforms. 

 

Recorded during the Spring 2022 semester at TCC.

 

Podcast for a Day - Points of You

Podcast for a Day presents Points of You. Points of You is a one-on-one podcast hosted by Kathy Silva, joined by guest. Today's guest is Isabel, a college student recovering from an eating disorder.

The following episode is part of a series produced by the Electronic Communication course at Tulsa Community College during the 2022 spring semester. To find more episodes, visit tccconnection.com/podcast/ or most streaming platforms. 

 

Recorded during the Spring 2022 semester at TCC.

Podcast for a Day - Now That’s Unique

Podcast for a Day presents Now That's Unique. Now That's Unique is a  podcast focused on speaking with unique individuals about the interesting lives in which only they can provide the proper insight. Their insight into a world many people may not know about or may have an interest to learn.

The episode is hosted by Ethan Gray, featuring guest Johnny Kove, an independent wrestler trying to make a name for himself.

The following episode is part of a series produced by the Electronic Communication course at Tulsa Community College during the 2022 spring semester. To find more episodes, visit tccconnection.com/podcast/ or most streaming platforms. 

 

Recorded during the Spring 2022 semester at TCC.

Podcast for a Day - Community Ties

Podcast for a Day presents Community Ties. Community Ties is a one-on-one podcast on the topic of community. The episode is hosted by Cannon Cox, joined by guest, Tyler Burger.

The following episode is part of a series produced by the Electronic Communication course at Tulsa Community College during the 2022 spring semester. To find more episodes, visit tccconnection.com/podcast/ or most streaming platforms. 

 

Recorded during the Spring 2022 semester at TCC.

Podcast for a Day - Artisans Online

Podcast for a Day presents Artisans Online. Hosted by Haley Newby, Etsy Seller, Artisans Online is for those who partake in a creative hobby and may consider starting a small online business to sell their products. Joined by guest, Matthew Roberts, Etsy seller who recently opened his own shop, discussions are held on art, Etsy as a selling platform, and the process of starting an online shop.

 

The following episode is part of a series produced by the Electronic Communication course at Tulsa Community College during the 2022 spring semester. To find more episodes, visit tccconnection.com/podcast/ or most streaming platforms. 

 

Recorded on April 27, 2022.

Connection Conversations: Hospitality with Andrew Leonard

Connection Conversations: Hospitality with Andrew Leonard

Overview: Host Anna Fuhrmeister interviews Andrew "Andy" Leonard over the affects and changes in the hospitality industry due to COVID-19 the past year and for upcoming travel seasons.

 

Running time: 7:02 minutes

 

EDITOR'S NOTE: The following transcript has been edited for clarity.

 

Anna Fuhrmeister:

Welcome to the TCC Connection. I'm your host, Anna Fuhrmeister. On this episode, I have a special guest, Andy Leonard, who recently graduated from Lynn University with a bachelor's degree in hospitality. On this episode, we will discuss how hospitality has [been] affected by COVID-19 as well as [the] individuals who work in the industry. So, Andy, welcome. Thank you for having me. So, Andy, how did you get involved in hospitality?

 

Andy Leonard:

So, it started when I was a lot younger, I used to watch all the cooking shows House Kitchen, Kitchen Nightmares, and I watched hotel impossible all those shows, it started getting on the track of hospitality, as well as going to hotels experiencing what they offer to the guests and making them feel comfortable. It's how I got started in the field.

 

Nice. Okay, it's pretty cool. And could you just like describe what the industry like was like prior to 2020?

So, the industry prior to 2020, we have to look back after 9/11, we have to take back how the travel industry and hospitality industry has changed as focus more on security and tightening up personnel and making sure all the guests feel comfortable while traveling. And having them feel like they have a sense of security, or more hotels or heightened security and security guards, putting more protection in line with them, so that they feel comfortable while arriving. And as much as technology has changed as well, we've been able to use Apple Pay chips and credit cards now so people can pay easier and quicker. So, it's been a more effective system over the coming years. 

 

That's pretty interesting. Are you still able to work in the hospitality industry during the pandemic?

Yes, I'm still working in the hospitality industry as a guest service agent right now at a hotel in Delaware. Now to the people who are looking to get into the hospitality industry at the moment during this whole pandemic: I say keep reaching out to the hotels, and they're always looking for people to hire, no matter what they're looking for people to work during Christmas break, even though [in] the slow season, they're always looking for people to hire. I think it's a great industry. It's growing. It's one of the brilliant industries in America, it could be used basically anywhere in the world. So, I think it's a great way to build up connections and a great way to build up people meet new people explore how they see the world and how they see the culture of the hotel and get to know the coworkers, get to know your house keepers, get to know your general manager, because those are going to help the foundation of networks to build [and] to get you into a longer career in the field.

 

What are some of the changes made at your workplace in order to adjust?

So, I’m at a fairly small hotel, it's about 72 rooms. So, what we have to adjust is how we do our housekeeping pretty much we don't do stay-over cleaning anymore, where they go in and change your bedding and all that we decided to do a refresher which is basically make your bed, redo your bathroom and take out the trash. That's pretty much it. We have cut out our breakfast, but we have done it to be breakfast to go bags. And all employees are required to wear masks throughout the entire time and washing your hands. And we have provided - we're making the coffee behind the front desk as just for cross contamination issues, just to be safe with gloves as always to be protective. We have hand sanitizers throughout the whole property to make sure that everyone keeps their hands nice and clean and sanitized throughout the workspace.

 

Have working hours been affected at your job?

It has been up and down at the moment we are in a bit of a slow season we're going to “heads and beds.” Our rates are so low that we're again, we're trying to get more people into the hotel so we can sell more rooms at the moment we've had peak. So, we have three times been reached 100% occupancy rate, which is great. And we've been getting a lot of sports teams, it's been helping us throughout our work, which is good and gorgeous and we’re a hotel in the middle and on a highway near a highway, which is incredible. We stick out like a sore thumb which is great. When people come in, we greet them, and they feel comfortable coming in and staying at our property.

 

Are there any major changes in place staff wide? 

Staff wide. Speaking of that, we just got bought by a new management company called New Port Hospitality Group. So, we just got to do a whole rehire process. And that means that some of our housekeepers have been cut out due to the fact that they didn't have the right paperwork and all that. So that's why we were short on housekeepers, and we're looking for housekeepers at the moment. Which is good for us because that means we're getting more people and we're getting more interested. And same thing with our sister property. That's about 20 minutes south from us, they had to get rid of their entire housekeeping staff as well. So, it's been it's been a massive change throughout our entire works for us. But it gives us time for us to grow and build a stronger community of housekeepers as well.

 

That's pretty cool. It's interesting. Yeah. From a hospitality standpoint, is there anything you want a client, the consumer or the general public to know?

It’s okay to travel. But be very cautious of the travel advisories from each state, it varies from each state, make sure that you're fully aware of what travel advisories are, make sure that you're following the regulations and restrictions that are placed in each state. So that you're following the proper guidelines from [the] CDC. And making sure that you're following everything that's being presented to you. Make sure you have all the facts and make sure you go to the government website and make sure you follow all this information for that it will give you the best benefit when to travel and how safely to travel.

 

[Is] there anything else you would like to add?

I’d like to add that no matter how grim it seems right now, in the hospitality industry, there are places that are still hiring, and we are looking for more people. It's a great industry. I know there's a lot of young people who want to get into the industry and ready to work. But that's good, because we are looking for new people, all these to get into this industry, and make sure that they're fully ready to be prepared to be in a post COVID world and see how it differs from being in a post 9/11 world. It's going to be a major difference between those two. We're going to get a lot of comparisons between those two, which is going to be an incredible thing to see and see how the difference is going to be.

 

Well, Andy, thank you for joining me today. Again, our guest Andy Leonard and I'm your host, Anna Fuhrmeister at the TCC Connection. To discover us more on our website at TCC Connection.com. and visit us on our social media on Instagram and Facebook. Thanks again for listening and stay safe. Thank you.

Connection Conversations - COVID Care Force - Dr. Paul Fuhrmeister

Connection Conversations: COVID Care Force

Date Recorded: 12/15/2020

Overview: Host Sam Levrault interviews Dr. Paul Fuhrmeister over his experience volunteering with the COVID Care Force and the Navajo Nation.

Running time: 18:12 minutes

 

The following transcript has been edited for clarity.

Sam Levrault

Welcome to the TCC connection. I'm Sam Levrault. I'm the managing editor here at the TCC connection. On this episode, we have special guests, Dr. Paul Fuhrmeister, thank you for joining me today. And on this episode, we'll be talking about your experience as a medical doctor who volunteered on Navajo Nation a couple of times now in New Mexico during the covid 19 pandemic. And so why don't we start up with just kind of brief ideas, a little bit background, about your experiences, doctor and your time there on the Navajo Nation.

 

Dr. Paul Fuhrmeister

All right, I normally do urgent care clinic here. So that's the kind of work I do. As it turned out in the spring, we were seeing very few patients here. So, our workload had was very light, but they were very, very heavy out of New Mexico in the Navajo area. So they were asking for volunteers, this organization, the COVID Care Force put out a call for volunteers. So, I answered that, and went out there for two weeks in May and two weeks in June, out to the Navajo reservation, I used to work out on the Indian Reservation before I moved to Oklahoma. So, I was familiar with that area. They were asking just for doctors and nurses to help out in all different places. They had extra work out there in the reservation, partly because they had a lot of sick people with the COVID.

 

At the same time, some of their staff was getting burnt out or sick and not able to work. So, they had this strange situation where they had a lot of extra work, but then fewer and fewer people to do it. And that's why they needed some volunteers to come and help out. Plus, they had to set up a whole new clinic to do the COVID testing and things like that. In the follow ups, the contact tracing, there was just a lot of extra work. And so, they were very happy to have us come as volunteers.

 

I went there with a team in May and worked at Shiprock Indian Hospital in Shiprock, New Mexico, and worked mostly outdoors doing the COVID testing in the parking lot of sick people for two weeks. Then in June, I went back out I went to Gallup New Mexico and worked at Rehoboth McKinley Christian Hospital, where they were also doing COVID testing in the parking lot. And I did a lot of interviewing of the patients by phone, people who were coming to be tested.

 

So, on the phone, was it just kind of going over the symptom checklist before they get there?

 

 

I asked them what their symptoms were, we asked them if they had been exposed. We asked them if they'd been around anybody that had a positive test, or if they had any deaths in their family or hospitalizations. And then we arranged for the test. And then we also gave them some recommendations and advice about how to keep well and whether or not depending on their symptoms, whether or not they should quarantine, whether they should wear masks all the time just reminding with some of those things and telling them when to expect the results of the tests and what to do if it was going to be positive or negative. So, there was a lot of information for us to give them as well.

 

And sounds like reassurance to not just the information but the reassurance of here's the next step. Because not everybody knows what to do while you're waiting for that result.

 

We had a script to tell them because a lot of people really didn't, you're right. They just did not know what they were going to do if it was positive. So, we just outline the steps to them and told them somebody would call them. And if, when they might need to get tested again, and so on.

 

For the COVID care force, How did you hear about it and how did you join?

 

The COVID care force was started by a doctor up in Kansas City in the spring, specifically to help find volunteers. He's done this before he did this before for like the Ebola outbreak in Africa and set volunteers there. So, he's very familiar with it. He happened to have I happen to have a friend My pastor's wife that was following him on Facebook. She told me about it when I had just chatted with her about that I wasn't working. And she told me about this. So, I went on there to the COVID Care Force website, became very interested, especially when they were needing volunteers out in the Navajo reservation, because that's a familiar place to me. So, I felt I felt comfortable going out there. So, I just put my name in on their website. And they contacted me, and we made arrangements, I had to send in lots of paperwork and fill out forms to get my credentials on file and apply for the right the right to work in these hospitals in New Mexico. They had to get an emergency medical license for me out there. Plus, I had to just sign so many papers and send copies of my licenses and that kind of thing to them. And they took care of that very, very quickly. So that everything was arranged before I got there

 

When you started work for the Care Force, as this was just developed in response to COVID, How does it compare to your past experiences with either working with the military or other things help organizations?

 

Well, I have to say the COVID care forces taken very, very good care of us. They made sure we had everything that we needed, and they took care of the paperwork for us. When I worked in the army, they weren't quite as nice. We had to do a lot of things ourselves in the COVID care for us. They made our airline reservations. They made hotel reservations, they provided our meals and everything we needed. And there was somebody there, when we got there to meet us, and they kept in touch with us, if we had any problems, they would take care of everything. And myself and some others who went with me on the team, we were almost spoiled. By all of the arrangements that they made, we were able to just spend our time working.

 

The care force help gather the volunteers, who exactly was in charge? Was at the hospital, still kind of leading the charge. Did you have your own team?

 

When we when we arrived at the hospital, we were we were volunteers. And so, every hospital has a volunteer program in which they have a system and some people whose responsibility is to receive the volunteers and make sure they get various things done. The hospital has an office that handles volunteers. In fact, hospital and Shiprock had what they called an incident command center that they set up right when the COVID outbreak began, it's part of their disaster plan, they set up a disaster command center. And that center was staffed by people whose job it was to coordinate volunteers. We weren't the only volunteers; they did have onto from other organizations as well. And just individuals who volunteered. So, they funneled us all through the same system. The chairman of the Department of Family Practice whose job it was to assign us where we were going to work each day. And she made sure that we had everything we needed checked on us to make sure we were there, gave us the training, we needed to do our job. And then she sent us a very nice thank you note after we came home

 

When they were assigning you, did you have a specific department or area? I know you mentioned testing, but since you were two different locations, what were the specific areas you worked on?

 

The first time I went, I went to Shiprock Indian hospital. And there I joined the family practice department where they were responsible for the outpatient clinics and also responsible for the COVID testing site. And so that's why and they were the ones that really needed the additional help. And that's why I was assigned into the COVID testing site. I also volunteered to do some contact tracing, or some follow up phone calls to people to work with the public health nurses on the weekends, because they spend a lot of time calling people who are sick, checking on them at home, they provide oxygen for them at home, and so on. So, I spent some time working with them and making some calls as well. And that was part of the part of my assignment there. The second place I went, they had already decided they get our information in advance. So, they had already talked it over and decided that I and one of the other nurse practitioners who was with me, we would both be assigned to work in the urgent care office doing the COVID testing, especially since they only had one nurse practitioner there who was having to do all the work seven days a week. So, she was very glad that we came and once we got to train, she was able to at least have the weekend off.

 

That's great that they were able to kind of make a system where, especially those who are there permanently or on a long term basis, as far as providing service, to give them a chance to rest. They can get their energy back so that they're able to provide that care back.

 

Out of everyone you worked with, can you kind of give an estimate of how many were also volunteers or are just from outside of that area?

 

My first trip I went, we in fact had probably about six or seven volunteer people at any one time, my team, there were four of us. But there were at least maybe even four or five from other places that were there volunteering as well. And they would arrive and work and then one group of volunteers would leave, and another group would come in. So, we were kind of overlapping and we were helping each other. So normally in the testing clinic, we would have probably two of the regular staff and then some of the nursing staff who were the regular staff to help everything go properly. And we would also have maybe two volunteers although on the weekends, sometimes it would just the volunteers only taking care of things along with the nursing assistance from the hospital. Once we learn how to do things, we could pretty well run the clinic ourselves and give the regular staff a break. Likewise, I think the second time I was there in in Gallup. We had a Two of us, three of us who are volunteers and about three, also who are the regular staff,

 

We're focusing kind of on your visits there. But also, since you have come back between those visits, what goes through your mind, both as a doctor, professionally, but also just coming back personally here in Oklahoma?

 

The thing that I noticed a lot is that people back here in Oklahoma are, are don't they don't see as much of the disease, at least back in the summer, they weren't seeing so much of the disease. And so, it was strange and kind of sad to see that people in Oklahoma, we're not taking things seriously. Very, very much not wearing masks and social distancing and thinking, thinking it's really not nothing. But I became a little bit of a preacher telling them, no, I've been there. And I've seen it seen people dying. And I've seen people sick, and people who can hardly breathe at all. It's something that's very real. And eventually, it's going to come here to Oklahoma to, so I became a little bit of an advocate for people to try to take it more seriously. When I did get home, I really appreciated the fact we didn't have as much. A lot of the staff here, the nurses and doctors were not really burned out yet. Although now this fall, it's getting more and more prevalent here in Oklahoma to so many of them are starting to have the same kind of problems getting burned out and overwhelmed.

 

Since things are still going on, I mean, we've heard in the news recently, they're coming out with new developments with as far as the vaccine and giving it to some of the frontline workers, would you say it is still important to be kind of preventative? If you don't have it, if you are able to quarantine or stay safe, at least in social distance, or to volunteer if you have the expertise and are able to?

 

Well, the first thing: Yes, I think that even though the vaccine is on the horizon, we have to be kind of double down on our wearing masks and our social distancing, and really trying to stay home and not go places that we don't need to go to, I think we need to stay away from crowds, especially indoors, crowds, or large gatherings of people. Because the virus is going to continue to spread. It's highly contagious.

 

And even with the vaccine, it's still going to be spreading, maybe not quite as fast, but it will still be spreading for many months until it finally begins to fizzle out. And so, I think especially if we want to keep our hospitals from being overwhelmed, if we want our schools to be able to stay open, because all the teachers aren't getting sick, then we all need to be especially careful in our own personal lives. I know some people do have to go to work. But I encourage people to try to wear that mask all the time, which I try to do myself, wear the mask all the time and keep that social distance. Because the virus is still a very aggressive and it's and there are many more cases in the community than there used to be.

 

In fact, there are more cases than we even know about. I'm sure there are a lot of people we don't even know about who are carrying the illness without having any symptoms. Even when the vaccine comes it won't be 100% protective. I have not received the vaccine yet. But after I do, I will still continue to wear my mask as much as I can just and nothing will really change for me, I just may feel a little bit more confident. I'm not so susceptible. We need to look forward to many months at least, and probably a whole other year of wearing masks and doing our social distancing until we're able to let our guard down

 

For the COVID Care Force, are they still accepting volunteers? And are they still needing help in some of these other areas? Or even here in Oklahoma?

 

Yes, the COVID care force is still asking for volunteers. In fact, I'm leaving this weekend to go back out to New Mexico to volunteer with them. They have a lot of time during this fall. They have been asking for volunteers to work at the Shawnee nation in southern Oklahoma. And they're they've been asking mostly for nurses to help with the COVID testing there. And so, they've placed several teams, I believe they've placed at least 50 teams since March in various places around the country and also in Mexico. And they are still in need of volunteers.

 

In fact, they're trying to do one week volunteer trips to help relieve some of the busiest hospital some of the some of the hardest working hospitals help give the nurses or the doctors a week off. And they just started a program doing that most of the volunteer tours are two to three weeks in length. And that's what I've been doing as a two week but yes, they're still very much in need of volunteers and they're anticipating needing volunteers all through the winter and the spring. And it's amazing. The teams that I worked with, it's amazing to see medical people who are in between jobs or in between classes. Some of them are working at universities and have some time in the summer. Some of them work on a temporary basis in various places. And they've decided to take two weeks and, and go and volunteer, it's amazing to see the spirit of the volunteers able to go and willing to go and give two weeks of their time off.

 

Do you have any lessons that you have taken with you?

 

One thing that I really noticed is, when I went on my volunteer trips, is we were we were welcomed not only by the hospital staff, but we were very much welcomed by the community to the Navajo people, the people who live in Gallup, they were very friendly and welcoming to us and with thank us when they would see us on the street. So, we were very pleased with that.

 

But I also recognize that the Navajo Nation has a very strong sense of responsibility for its own people. And they had organized a lot of relief efforts. They the ladies were sewing masks for all the people, they had big food distribution programs that were organized by the Navajo Nation. In fact, the tribal chairman was out there helping distribute food. It's not as though they're sitting there helpless, they have a very strong sense of working together. To address the issue. We were very pleased to see how much they were taking responsibility and for them, for their own people. And yet there's only so much they could do. And the especially the technical things that the that the doctors and nurses could provide. Those were the harder things for them to provide.

 

But much of relief activities were not being done by outsiders. They were being done by the Navajo people themselves. And the people, the Navajo people were very, very strict about wearing their masks. And they were very strict about standing six feet apart wearing their masks, I think they were much more making a much greater effort than we Oklahomans do, to follow the guidelines and to help prevent the spread of the of the virus. So, they were taking it very seriously. They even had a curfew at night and all weekend long. And I could see that they were they were working very hard and taking things seriously. It wasn't as though they were just expecting someone else to take care of themselves. But the Navajo people were very strong and independent minded, and they were taking responsibility for things themselves.

 

Well, thank you so much for joining me today, again, my guest is Dr. Paul Fuhrmeister. I am Sam Levrault, here at the TCC connection. If people want to know more about the COVID Care Force, they can visit the website at https://covidcareforce.org/. They are also all-over social media. So, you can check all the different links. We are on social media as well. And you can visit our website or YouTube page which is where this podcast is going to be. So, thank you so much for listening and thank you for joining me.

 

 

 

Connection Conversations -A Study Abroad to Japan - Trent Gleason

Connection Conversations: A Study Abroad to Japan

Date Recorded: 10/28/2020

Overview: Host Anna Fuhrmeister interviews Trent Gleason as he elaborates on his experience as a global student to Japan and what life lessons he brought back.

Running time: 29:46 minutes

 

Transcript from Interview:

 

Anna Fuhrmeister 0:00

 

Welcome to the TCC Connection. I'm your host, Anna Fuhrmeister. On this episode, I have a special guest, Trent Gleason. So, Trent, welcome to the podcast. Happy to be here. So, on this episode, we will discuss your study abroad trip to Japan along his interest in Japanese culture, talking about his experience along with touching different elements of Japanese culture. So, Trent, what drew you to Japanese culture?

 

 

Trent Gleason 0:31

 

It's a very good question. So, while I was studying at Tulsa Community College, I was mainly focusing on English studies, you know, creative writing, literature, composition, the such, but I needed to take an elective class. And as you know, you know, language studies are a commonly chosen elective. And, you know, among the options available, I thought, hey, Japanese seems interesting. You know, I'll admit, there was some nerdy interest there, like, I like video games a lot. And a lot of great games come out of Japan, I had watched some anime and I was like, hey, yeah, but, uh, but between all the options, Japanese seemed like the most fun. And I had a buddy, who was interested in doing it with me. So I was like, hey, this could be a fun little thing, you know, whatever. So I take it and I ended up like, taking it really seriously. And like passing the class with an A, and like, really walking away from that, like semester, in like, Hey, this is like an actual thing that I like, maybe want to do, like, long term. So from there, you know, my interest is continued to develop naturally, whether that be me, you know, watching more anime or even just, like doing more research, and having conversations with my teacher or like seeking out community events, like one thing I did was that the circle cinema hosted like a documentary night, where is like some Tulsa filmmakers had made a like, documentary about Japanese musicians. I can't remember if it was like there in Oklahoma or something. It was some deal. And so I went out of my way to go to that. And like, my Japanese teacher was there like, unexpectedly and there's this whole thing, and I was just like, okay, but anyway, so like, around that time, like, I realized that Hey, no, with me, looking at finishing my associate's degree here in the next year or so at TCC. Anyway, so, uh, yeah, like, I saw a window of opportunity for me to go to Japan, with me, looking at finishing my associate's degree within the next year or so. So I was like, hey, yeah, I'll start saving money. I'll, you know, start doing research about what kind of stuff I don't want to do on there, where I want to go. And all of it is kind of fell into place. And kind of what I was looking at that trip as like, it was an experiment, right? It was like, Okay, if I spend three months in Japan, and I study abroad, and I really like challenge myself, it'll like inform me of whether or not this is something I actually want to do. Or if it's just like, a fleet of fancy if it's just like, I'm still in the honeymoon phase. And it's not something I actually want to go through. You know, I figured, hey, three months is enough time for me to really get a taste of like the true challenge of studying Japanese and also like whether or not I even really want to know if whether or not I'm really seriously interested in this country. It just kind of felt like a natural next step. If I were to take this seriously, and I did it, and I had the experiences I had, and I'm sure you'll ask me more questions. But that so

 

 

 

Anna Fuhrmeister 3:32

 

So what programs did you associate with to go on this study abroad trip to Japan?

 

 

Trent Gleason 3:37

 

It was very independent. I didn't like seek out any specific programs. So it kind of my connection was that, like, my folks work in a church here in Owasso. And we had a missionary come by who, like I had been planning to go to Japan, and I had met him and his family a couple of years prior to my developing interest. And I was like, hey, like, I could reach out to him and like, ask him for advice. I knew that he was going to a language school and stuff like that. So basically, like I used that connection, as kind of my way in. And I kind of wrapped it up into like me kind of being able to get a little bit of like church support and stuff like that, because it's like a valuable, like, thing for send somebody from a church to like, build a relationship with a missionary, regardless of like, whether or not there be any real, like, church type activities, which there really weren't, like, I just spent time with him and hung out. It was great, great time, and it helped me get a little extra support. But yeah, so like, through that connection, I became aware of the language school that I ended up going to so that was, you know, what that basically looked like was me reaching out to the language school sending emails, you know, like, Hey, I'm a student if he's interested in doing a short term study, abroad trip, you know, and basically, it would be like, you know, figuring out what time it would becoming like what months it becoming, how to pay for my apartment, stuff. know all this type stuff. And it was it wasn't interesting back and forth. I wouldn't say it was the easiest thing in the world. But I did do it.

 

 

Anna Fuhrmeister 5:07

 

During your stay, how long was your trip there?

 

 

Trent Gleason 5:10

 

So I left Oklahoma, I left Tulsa. I believe it was like July 1^st, if not like June 31^st. So basically like, by July 2^nd, I was like in Japan. Okay. And I left Japan, I'm pretty sure September 27^th and returned in Tulsa. September 28^th. So it was like a three month deal.

 

 

Anna Fuhrmeister 5:34

 

Okay, cool. And then, where did you visit in Japan? Like did you visit like small towns or like multiple cities or something like that.

 

 

Trent Gleason 5:41

 

So where I lived, it was Sakado, Saitama, Saitama is a prefecture. Prefecture is basically like a state in Japan. And the Saitama prefecture is the prefecture that is directly west of Tokyo. So from where I was, I can get on a train and, and 40 minutes be in Tokyo. So what that meant was that basically where I was function, sort of like a suburb of Tokyo, you know, so a lot of people that work in my Tokyo would live in that area, you know, cheaper housing, all that stuff. And, you know, and and you have a relatively short commute. So what that meant was that I had kind of the smaller town, feel where I lived. And I could even just kind of like, stay in that area, and like, walk past the train station and be in the rural countryside. And then, so I had that taste, right, I had that access. But the second I got on the train, I could go anywhere, which meant that I had access to the big cities and stuff like that, too. So for me, it was kind of like the perfect place. Because, you know, something I wanted, I didn't really want like a tourist type experience. I really wanted to, like feel what it meant to like, live in the shoes of Japanese person, like really experienced that daily life and the most organic way possible. So I am happy that I kind of got a taste of, you know, rural living, suburban living and city living, you know, it was all at my fingertips. So it really was. Yeah, experience. Size. Right. Right.

 

 

Anna Fuhrmeister 7:12

 

And what were, huh were there any holidays to celebrate? During your three months of stay?

 

 

Trent Gleason 7:18

 

Um, I, I attended a couple like fireworks festivals. And that's kind of tied to like their summer type experiences.

 

 

Anna Fuhrmeister 7:31

 

Didn't it? Did they know like what was like, what, what did they celebrate?

 

 

Trent Gleason 7:36

 

Man, I need to do more research on that. But it there it's always some kind of like holiday or something going on? I can't really distinctly remember like any specific holidays I like actively engaged in. But I know that like they're pretty commonly like festivals and stuff being held for whatever reason, because you know it could just be like a small little thing is enough to warrant a street parade or Yeah, I don't know, I don't think I was there for anything super huge. Or my memory is just blinking because boy did I experience a lot in three months and songs that is fading away.

 

 

Anna Fuhrmeister 8:16

 

What was something that you find is different when hanging out in Japan versus here in Tulsa.

 

 

Trent Gleason 8:23

 

Um, so let's just boil it down to like, American culture and Japanese culture, there's definitely a different way to speak to somebody in Japan than in America, or Western culture in general. And, you know, to provide some level of context, you know, I wasn't hanging out with a ton of Japanese people, most of the, like a Japanese people that I spent time with were like the teachers and the faculty of the language school. Most of my pretty much all of my classmates were either Chinese or Vietnamese. So I didn't talk to them a bunch because they didn't speak very good English. And they also didn't speak very good Japanese. So it's very difficult to communicate with them. There are a couple that I spend time with, specifically, like one upper classmen, Chinese girl who wanted to like, hang out with me to learn English, and I went to hang out with her to learn Japanese, and also because she was very attractive, so. But I got a little taste of like, a different culture there, because I'd be joking around and being goofy. And she'd be like, you need to take this more seriously. And I'm like, Okay. And also, she would like, get onto me if I were using a lot of like digital tools for studying and like, No, you need pen and paper. It's like very traditional, right? So you kind of experience like a slightly different slice of culture, but in terms of a more specific Japanese example. They are very mindful of like, where you stand in a hierarchical like, a ladder. So like, if you're talking to someone who's theoretically like, above you, you have to shift your language and your tone to like, lower yourself to them, right. Right. And the opposite is true. Like, if you're talking to someone who is an under classmen, you can speak with more authority and be more assertive and all this. So there wasn't a specific example where I was talking to one of my teachers, about the American guy, the missionary guy, you know, cuz we're like friends. So like, I was talking about him, like, behind his back as, like a friend would say, like, yeah, you know, there's some things he does, I just don't like that much. Now, it can be a little bit of a doom and gloom type guy or whatever. And my teacher is like, Wow, I can't believe you're so openly criticizing your elder. And I was like, huh. he's like he's just my buddy. What you talking about. You know America It's like, yeah, of course, they're just gonna speak their mind you know. just lambaste people like, for whatever reason, but in Japan, it's like, No, you must be mindful of someone having authority over you or being better than you, and you must be respectful in it. And I do, like respect that. And I think that's like a good thing. You know, I think America would be improved by maybe being a little more courteous and respectful of people maybe not on such a strict hierarchical standard, but just in general.

 

 

Anna Fuhrmeister 10:58

 

So Japan is well known for anime style of media, it's any type you find yourself interested in.

 

 

Trent Gleason 11:07

 

Yes. Specifically, specifically, for me, kind of a like genre of anime and manga, and whatever, because like manga is Japanese comics. And a lot of anime comes directly from those Japanese comics the same way that like a lot of our movies come from our books, you know, it's an adaptation type cycle. But there is a, a genre of manga genre of anime called Shounen. And that's the Japanese word for like, a young boy, or whatever. So basically, it's, it's media, it's it's entertainment that's specifically designed for a younger male audience. Although like people of all ages, and all genders read it, you know, it's just that it provides us a specific experience. And that experience is often one where the main character is like an underdog and he really wants to become like the best at something. And what you'll find in those stories is like very uplifting, very positive, like a very positive story of someone like, literally, like working as hard as a human can possibly work to achieve like their goal. And when you're reading a story like that, or watching a story like that, it just, it just is very uplifting. So I watch one show that is very popular here in the West, called My Hero Academia.

 

 

Unknown 12:21

 

Mm hmm.

 

 

Trent Gleason 12:22

 

That's My Hero Academia. Most people would know it. But I watched that with my siblings. And it's one of those things where my younger sister tells me that she'll rewatch the show, and we'll make her want to work out. It gives it just like pure raw energy. And that's something that I just think is very unique. And that kind of showing that kind of experience that the West doesn't have as much. I mean, we do have our superhero media, but I don't think you know, and that and that and that media, you don't necessarily get such a raw like, straight forward, kind of emotional experience the same way that you get from like, it's shown in anime experience.

 

 

Anna Fuhrmeister 13:03

 

How is Japan and sushi in Japan different from the US? Like, ramen, ramen, ramen and sushi in Japan different from the US?

 

 

Trent Gleason 13:15

 

So I'll admit, I only had like actual ramen one time while I was there. Most of my ramen eating experiences have been in Tulsa at Roppongi. You know, people that go to TCC, specifically at the Metro Campus might know Roppongi, it's on that screen. Very good. Well, my takeaway from that experience, just the one time that I had ramen in Japan was like, yep, it tastes like the ramen. I haven't I was in Tulsa. And it's cheaper, you know, so that was great. But at the same time, I was like, Yeah, I mean, look like, I don't know, like, of all the food that I could experience in Japan, like ramen isn't the most exciting. I did eat a lot of like cup noodle, which is like kind of their leading, like, cheap, you know, Robin brand. So like, I buy these little Styrofoam cups basically that have the Robin stuff in them, and I just pour boiling water and there was like a buck. You know, it's like if I need like 300 calories to help me survive when I have no money, which was a very frequent occurrence. I got a cup noodle. On the sushi side of things. I did eat a lot more sushi and ramen. There specifically a kind of chain sushi place at this outlet mall. That was like 10 minutes away from me. And I'd go there a lot. And the cool thing about that is basically so you get seated at like, kind of a bar type thing or like a booth whatever. And basically have like a touchscreen like an iPad, and which has the menu on it. And basically, I can order as much food as I want for as long as I want. I just felt like every role or whatever role being like two to three pieces of sushi or whatever cost like a buck. So we'll say like, okay, I didn't want like a Roll of salmon, sushi or whatever. So I just tap that little thing. And there's a little like conveyor belt in front of me and it just zip out and like a minute. And then I'm like, Yeah, I could do for another, so I’ll get another, tap the button on there, I'll come out. So usually what I do is I go in there with like, a $6 budget, and I just like, like, it's kind of piecemeal. Like, just keep bringing things and of course, there's like, there was like, more than seriously, if I wasn't like a little basket of french fries. For two bucks, I could do that. I wanted an alcoholic beverage. I could do that. If I wanted, like, you know, whatever. Yeah. And that was very cool. You know, in terms of like, the quality of the sushi, like, it was good. I wouldn't call myself a sushi expert. I don't know that I could compare it to the experiences that I had in America, I will say that, like in America, you can see a lot more like deep fried, like unhealthy crap. And that's usually what I end up eating in America. It's not what I ate in Japan. And if you want like flavor, probably the best thing that you know, in terms of like, comfort food type stuff, the best you're going to get is like a seared piece of raw fish, instead of just a plain old raw fish. And it was good. The the most premium sushi experience I had, I went to Enoshima, which is like this fancy, touristy Island type spot, I think kind of south of Tokyo. Mm hmm. Really great place. But we went to this like, super high end like sushi establishment. And the whole conceit was that, you know, all the sushi, all the fish involved in the sushi had been caught, like that day, like as fresh as possible, like, you know, so I didn't pay for it. So I can tell you how much it was. If I had to guess it's probably like 20 bucks. Okay, for my little plate. It was very good. But again, it's like, I'm just not knowledgeable enough in the sushi experience for to really explain to you why it was as fancy as it was all I can tell you is that Yep, it was it was fresh, you know?

 

 

Anna Fuhrmeister 17:01

 

So how are you maintaining your Japanese language skills during COVID.

 

 

Trent Gleason 17:06

 

So, for the longest time, I've been using a service called iTalki. And it's a little like app I downloaded on my phone. And basically what that is, is like a free market for tutors. So I go on there and I'm like, hey, I want to find a Japanese tutor at a certain price at a certain level of experience. And on this app, I can see like all these different tutors that are have signed up on the service to like, take students. So I found one lady who's doing lessons for like, $11 an hour, obviously, you know, native, fully fluent in Japanese, but also had like, just enough English experience where like, if I were in a total, you know, bind, I could ask questions in English, but also, I wanted, I wanted to make sure that I found someone who wasn't like fluent in English. Yeah, because I wanted to avoid like using that as a crutch. You know, I wanted it to be a situation or a situation where if I really wanted to fully communicate with this person, I needed to use Japanese, I couldn't rely on English. So I found someone that was exactly to that level of criteria that I had. And it was amazing. your noticing I'm using past tense here, but I, I studied with them for probably like five months, from pretty early on, like when COVID all kind of took hold of America and all that until probably like August ish. The main reason it stopped is that she needed to do like some type of physical therapy rehab type stuff, because like kid injured your knee or something. But for the longest time, I had been doing that, like, at least once a week, usually multiple, multiple times a week. It was mostly like conversation practice, just like chatting. She had a little Google Docs thing opened and she would like take notes. So I could study that all that she sometimes would give me homework and all that. But anyway, so that was like a very affordable thing for me to do a post post study abroad trip. And it was great, you know it and it really honestly, like I improved a lot just over that, like, chunk of time when I was studying with her because you'd be surprised like just conversing with somebody like conversing with a native alone. Like, is enough really to like, you know, if you have the foundation right? Now, if you if you have the language Foundation, and all all you have left, right is to grow and to improve, you know, am I listening comprehension was good enough where I can, you know, hear everything she was telling me and if I heard something I didn't understand, I could specifically pinpoint that and ask, Hey, what is this? You know, that's like all the tools you need to like, function and the conversation is like, Oh, can I at least Can I at least understand the basics of what you're trying to tell me and then can I ask Do I have the ability to pinpoint what I don't understand and ask you what that is? You're gonna kill it, right? Like you've already made it. so far. We're like, growing is really going to come pretty naturally. There's always gonna be like, the challenging grammar type stuff, you know, and we We've studied stuff like that during our lessons together. But I think that's a really satisfying, like place to be when you're studying a foreign language is that, you know, once you've established kind of the base skills, the base understanding the foundation is like all it. Like, it's just you're just a sponge, you're just soaking up stuff constantly. And, you know, my, my study abroad trip established a lot of listening comprehension, and also established a lot of confidence. Because as I was getting, having daily opportunities to speak Japanese and to hear Japanese, it just makes you a lot more comfortable, like trying, even if you're going to mess up, right, because that's the thing, I talked to a lot of people that studied, like Spanish or something. And they're like, yeah, you know, I've studied it in college for four years, or whatever, but I just, I have no confidence, I have no idea how to speak it. It's like, Look, it's like, you just need to speak it. It's like, don't be afraid of messing up like,

 

 

Anna Fuhrmeister 20:53

 

like, you need to immerse yourself in the culture. Um,

 

 

Trent Gleason 20:55

 

no, totally. Yeah. And yeah, and ideally, you want to be talking to somebody who's going to tell you whenever you mess up, because, you know, you don't want to be stuck in my bad habits and stuff like that. But I definitely recommend that people for, you know, to people that are studying foreign language, you know, even if they haven't yet made it out to the country that they're interested in, like, doing a service like I talkie and that's spelled, like lowercase I the word talk. And then alert is I you know, a very cool service, you know, you don't have to worry about, like throwing down a bunch of money all at once, or like signing up, like signing a contract or something that just like, Hey, you know, whenever you want to do it, just pay whatever rates per hour that you think is good for you. So

 

 

Anna Fuhrmeister 21:35

 

What lessons or takeaway did you have that you would like to bring back in the US?

 

 

Trent Gleason 21:41

 

You know, a lot of that like, cultural type stuff in terms of like, functioning as a society, right. Like, I think probably the clearest culture shock that I had was like, in Japan, everyone has this, like, ever present sense of courtesy. And, and all this stuff, like being very conscious of like, how your actions affect other people, and I make someone uncomfortable right now, am I being selfish, you know, or whatever. And that's something that I really, I've been, I've always kind of like, tried to be that way with people even before I was interested in Japanese culture, and Japan in general. So it's cool to go to a country where like, my ideals are just kind of shared by everyone. And obviously, there's always gonna be the outliers, right? But the general norm, right, the societal expectation is that people are being very mindful of everyone around them. And what that looks like, you know, I think like, the best example is like, on the train, for example, like, if you're on the train, you know, don't speak very loudly, if at all, don't answer a phone call, you know, if you have to be standing up, like not, if you're on a really busy train, and there's no room for you to sit down, and you have a backpack or something, it's best for you to put the backpack in front of you. So you're not hitting people, like unknowingly with your backpack, or stuff like that. It's also good like not to use wired headphones, wired headphones on a really busy train, because that can get caught on people. And I've had that happen to me before. You know, and just like stuff like that, like, like, what can you do to make somebody as comfortable as possible and not like interrupting their day? Right? Or be a burden? Yeah, so I mean, that's cool. Another like, interesting example is, like, don't stare at people. Yeah. But like, you know, I can't tell you people are staring at me, because I wasn't like, like, pretty early on, like, I like trained my brain to just look ahead to just like, everyone just melts away, they all become shadows around me. I'm just focused on where I'm going. I'm focused on the scenery, my surroundings. I did, I did hardly any people watching, you know, which is, you know, in America, I feel like, it's more like expected that like, oh, yeah, you know, we pretend like we're not looking at people. But ultimately, everyone's like, looking at everybody. We're all just judging each other. And, you know, that can be fun, in a weird way, like getting a little taste of other people's lives or whatever. But ultimately, like, I do think it's kind of cool. And also, it really relieves a lot of tension on yourself. If you're not looking at other people, if you not having to worry about whatever you know, and people don't have to worry about whatever. Yeah, because you're just minding your own business. So that was a cool thing. And I do find myself by doing that more in America than I used to, although I have fallen back slightly into the people watching tendency it just, yeah, since I, since there isn't like societal expectation. It's easier to like, just fall back into old habits. Yeah. But yeah, huh I honestly just think the biggest thing is like that whole, being conscientious being courteous thing, I just kind of enhanced that. And, you know, I think in America, we could really benefit from people being more, you know, empathetic towards each other's experiences, you know, with everything that's happened this year. In between, you know, George Floyd, the BLM stuff. Now even just COVID, in general, have people have handled that situation in terms of like whether or not they want to wear a mask or not, or follow certain health guidelines. I mean, so much of people's like, you know, opinions on that are so self-centered, you know, it's like, oh, well, I don't want to wear a mask, because it makes me uncomfortable, or, oh, I don't want to do follow these health guidelines, because it's not a threat to me, I'm young or whatever, you know, it's all, you know, they're basing all of their experiences and their opinions on their own experience without being mindful of like how their actions affect other people. And, you know, I don't want to like say that, like, Japan is like, so much better than we are, you know, that they haven't had any issues with COVID. Because they have, but ultimately, I do think that you've seen them, like, cut bounce back a lot faster than we have, like, people are still working somehow. Right? They went back to work pretty quickly, like, and you can also say that the problem, right, because there's this whole, like work culture thing in Japan, that is a problem. So I don't, I don't, I wouldn't be quick to like, say, that's a super great thing that they did. But also it does sort of reflect, like, the difference and the kind of state of their society that, you know, there's enough trust, and also enough responsibility, embellished and the Japanese people already that's like, yeah, I mean, we already had it understood that if we're sick, or something, we wear a mask, like, there's just a thing that we already do. Right. So, yeah, there's a lot of things that Japan does that I think America could learn from all of that,

 

 

Anna Fuhrmeister 26:35

 

Well, Trent, anything else you would like to add, in general?

 

 

Trent Gleason 26:39

 

I think, you know, obviously experienced a whole lot, you know, a lot of my experiences in Japan weren't even, like, directly related to learning the language is just like, being a minority, like being in a different place, you know, challenging yourself to interact with different people, you know, challenging, challenging myself to, like, go out on my own, you know, potentially, like, be completely by myself completely isolated, you know, there's a lot of challenges in my, my trip, you know, there's times where I wanted to go to a neighborhood festival, but I was worried about walking in as the only white guy or whatever, you know, and those are really like humbling, and, you know, great experiences that have as any person, right, like going into adulthood, just like that, to learn and understand, like, what it feels like, right to be like a minority, you know, and, and, after everything that's happened is here with, you know, Black Lives Matter and all that it's like, walking away from that with the experiences I've had, like, being a like a person that would only very rarely see white people like in my area, like it, you know, it wasn't like super dramatic, it wasn't having cops like chasing me. But it was just enough, right of an experience for me to like, I can now have some level of understanding right, of what it feels like to not be like the majority. So there's that, right. And then there's also just the experience of doing something independently, it builds a lot of maturity and responsibility. And also, I mean, just expanding your cultural understanding your, like, getting a taste of how the world functions outside of America, or wherever you may be, you know, just really helps you be able to process information that is unfamiliar to you, you know, it expands your brain and your potential for receiving new information. And, you know, all this stuff, it's just a great challenge for anyone to do, I think, and it's a risky thing, you know, especially when you're not doing it through a program or something, I think it really is a great like, thing to go through, you know, for your own personal development. So I'd recommend anyone that has the ability to do it, which I know that's not very many people and very fortunate, very grateful, they got the opportunity. And I saved a lot of money over the course of like a whole year. And yes, I did get a decent amount of support team, but it was a lot of hard work on my part. You know, like, I wasn't buying any $60 shoes, I can assure you that there's like a lot of

 

 

Anna Fuhrmeister 29:03

 

You’re on a budget.

 

 

Trent Gleason 29:04

 

Exactly. Yes. So no, I just think it's a great thing to do. And for anyone, regardless of how old you are, how young you are, whatever, like, have you had the opportunity, whether through a program or independently, I'd say yeah, definitely pursue it.

 

 

Anna Fuhrmeister 29:19

 

Well, thank you for joining me today. Appreciate it. Again, guest, Trent Gleason and I'm your host Anna Fuhrmeister, at the TCC connection. To discover us more, visit our website TCC connection.com. And follow us on social media you can follow us through Instagram and Facebook. Again, thanks for watching, and tune in for future more episode. Thanks

 

Connection Conversations - Rhoda Smietanski - ASL Interpreting

Podcast Director Sam Levrault talks with Rhoda Smietanski about her experiences with American Sign Language (ASL,) the ASLE and Interpreting Programs, and opportunities available to students through Tulsa Community College (TCC) and in our very community.

Connection Conversations is an ongoing series by the TCC Connection, TCC's student newspaper based at Tulsa Community College in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

 

NOTE: The episode was originally recorded in FALL 2019.

Music by The Odyssey, "75 to Ramona" 

 

Episode edited by Sam Levrault 

Check out The TCC Connection online at http://tccconnection.com/

The TCC Connection is a student newspaper based at Tulsa Community College in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Connection Conversations - with Dr. Kendra Reynolds - Fulbright Scholar-In-Residence

Podcast Director Sam Levrault talks with TCC's Fulbright Scholar-In-Residence, Dr. Kendra Reynolds. Dr. Reynolds is visiting from Northern Ireland and will teach a Composition II course in Spring 2020.

To learn more about the Fulbright Scholar-In-Residence Program, visit https://www.cies.org/program/fulbright-scholar-residence-program. 

You can follow Dr. Reynolds on Facebook, as @KendraReynoldsWriter, and Twitter, at @Dr_K_Reynolds.

Connection Conversations is an ongoing series by the TCC Connection, TCC's student newspaper based at Tulsa Community College in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

 

Episode edited by Sam Levrault 

Check out The TCC Connection online at http://tccconnection.com/

The TCC Connection is a student newspaper based at Tulsa Community College in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Connection Conversations - Pam Chew - Associate Professor of Italian

Podcast Director Sam Levrault talks with Associate Professor of Italian, Pamela Chew about her experiences abroad, the World Languages Program, specifically the Italian courses and opportunities available to Tulsa Community College.

Connection Conversations is an ongoing series by the TCC Connection, TCC's student newspaper based at Tulsa Community College in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Music by The Odyssey, "75 to Ramona" 

 

Episode edited by Sam Levrault 

Check out The TCC Connection online at http://tccconnection.com/

The TCC Connection is a student newspaper based at Tulsa Community College in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Concert Connection - Alexis Onyango - LEX

Podcast Host Sam Levrault talks with Alexis Onyango, also known as LEX, when she stopped by the TCC Connection office on Sept. 13, 2019. This episode features a full interview, as well as an inside look for and performance of her new original song, "Skin Off My Back" releasing on Sept. 20, 2019 under her new project and alias, LEX. She also shares about her upcoming plans, including her headline show at The Vanguard on September 20.

 

 

Follow Alexis!

 

Instagram: @alexisonyango 

Facebook:  @lexionyango

 

Check out her new project, LEX:

Instagram: @thisislex_

 

Watch the interview on our Youtube channel as well as exclusive videos featuring more performances.

 

 

 

Concert Connection is a series by the TCC Connection which focuses on local artists in the Tulsa Community College community with an emphasis on student musicians.

Check out The TCC Connection online at http://tccconnection.com/

The TCC Connection is a student newspaper based at Tulsa Community College in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

 

Produced by Sam Levrault

Edited by Sam Levrault

Concert Connection - Spotless Mind

Podcast Host Sam Levrault talks with the Spotless Mind when they stopped by the TCC Connection office on Aug 1, 2019. This episode features a full interview, as well as an inside look for and performance of their original song, "Peachy" off their EP "A Matter of Opinion" (2019).

Formed by members Jake Bosch and Trenton Smothermon in 2015, Spotless Mind have seen a lot of change, in only a short amount of time. But whether it was a change of name, lineup, or the evolution of the songs themselves, Spotless Mind have always strived to give their all in live shows and in their songwriting. They released their debut self-titled EP in 2018 and followed it up with 2019’s “A Matter of Opinion”. This is just the beginning for this small band with big ambitions.

 

Jake Bosch - Vocals, Guitar

Trenton Smothermon - Vocals, Bass

Bryton Hill - Drums

Band's Instagram: @spotless_mind_band

Facebook: @spotlessmindtheband

 

Watch the interview on our Youtube channel as well as exclusive videos featuring more performances.

 

 

 

Concert Connection is a series by the TCC Connection which focuses on local artists in the Tulsa Community College community with an emphasis on student musicians.

Check out The TCC Connection online at http://tccconnection.com/

The TCC Connection is a student newspaper based at Tulsa Community College in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

 

Produced by Sam Levrault

Edited by Sam Levrault

Semester Sneak Peek - Jeff Smith - Recording Studio Instructor

Semester Sneak Peek is a new series that provides a preview of courses available at Tulsa Community College (TCC) this coming fall semester. 

As a series about upcoming classes, these episodes will feature interviews with many of the instructors tasked with teaching them. 

Today's episode features Jeff Smith, Recording Studio Instructor at TCC.

 

Edited by Sam Levrault

Music by The Odyssey, "75 to Ramona"

Transcript by Bethany Solomon

 

TCC CONNECTION PODCAST | SEMESTER SNEEK PEAK | FT. JEFF SMITH

Bethany: Welcome to semester sneak peak, our special summer series that provides a preview of courses available this coming fall semester. I am your host Bethany Solomon, associate editor of the north east campus here at the TCC connection.

Today we have a very special guest, Jeff Smith, he is a TCC adjunct professor, TCC signature symphony violist, and president of song smith records.

Jeff Smith: Hi! Good afternoon, how are ya?

B: Good, how are you?

J: I’m doing great.

B: Can you start off by telling us a little about yourself?

J: Sure. I was born and raised in Tulsa, OK. I started playing violin at 10 years old because my brother and sister played the violin. The summer of my 6^th grade year my teacher came to me and said “you know you’re kinda beefy, husky boy, you need to play the viola.

I said, viola? It rhymes with granola, I don’t want to play the viola, I said what am I getting myself into here?

She said ‘Oh, no you’re not going to quit the violin, you’re going to learn how to double.

Double. It rhymes with trouble, she said ‘oh no, you’ll be fine.’

So, I got to take two instruments to school, the violin and the viola. Uh, learned how to play the both of them, not long after that the beetles were popular, and I got a guitar. I started going on in.

B: Very cool, very cool, so how did you find your way into the education as far as like, your music. Did you study in undergrad, music specifically, or did you have a broad range of interests beyond music?

J: Oh, gosh. You look back on pivotal points in your life. One pivotal point in my life was, I guess I was in Jr high, early high school, and I had an electric guitar. Dad had come home with a Wollensak, as a German tape recorded. And it had an auxiliary input on it and I learned at a young age I could take the guitar output and plug it into the auxiliary input, crank it all the way up, play the guitar, turn its sound all the way up and it would sound something like:

[makes loud buzzing noises mimicking guitar sound]

Coolest sound I had every heard…. for about 13 seconds. I blew out the 8’ inch paper cone speakers and a couple of power tubes. Its kind of left a mark on me, like this is a cool sound, I gotta get into this.

I was going to be an aeronautical engineer, all through high school, my dad was a fighter pilot in world war II, he had 96 missions over France. My grandfather had his PHD in mechanical engineering and actually wrote the maintenance Manuel for the B25 Mitchel bomber. So, I was going to be an aeronautical engineer, until, calculus first hour happened. Kay, I had a morning paper out, and an evening paper out.

Okay! Take your XY X’s, translate it, rotate it, draw a hyperbola, spin the hyperbola, cut a hole in the hyperbola, and now find the volume and generate it. At that point I figured, you know, I’d rather play the wrong note, I couldn’t see myself designing something that will have someone else get killed because I misplaced a decimal point. But, all throughout high school I played in the youth symphony. My senior year, I audition Id and got first chair of the viola of the youth symphony. And I auditioned for the Tulsa Philharmonic. I guess they were desperate, and I turned pro when I was 17. Uh, went to the University of Kansas, was a Viola Major. A double major in Viola performance and music education. And at KU they had a computer music lab, and they had, we’re talking early-mid 1970’s. And they had an ARP 26 hardener. This is a synthesizer, analog synthesizer. You have never seen so many buttons, knobs, dials, flashing lights, flash chords, slider, path chords I was like ‘gollee’ what does this thing do, what does this thing do? I actually had a blast in that course, it got me down here.

From there I came down to TU, finished up a bachelor’s in music ed, finished up a master’s in music ed, taught in Wichita, Kansas for three years, went back to school, picked up a master in viola performance. I have always believed that if are going to be a teacher, you must be able to do it. There is the old joke that can do, those that can’t teach, those that can’t teach become administrators. Um, nah, I kind of believe that if you’re going to teach, you ought to be able to produce. You ought to be able to do it.

Does that make sense?

B: It certainly does! So, moving into, as far like, the technical aspect of music, recording studio techniques, you have a lot of orchestra experience. How does that translate into the studio?

J: Sure. Well I was a band and orchestra director for 27 years and the times that I wasn’t playing classical music with the orchestra, I was playing fiddle, guitar, keyboards, (unintelligible), for rock and roll bands.

And that was an awful lot of fun, setting that stuff up, it gets really tiring after 15 years of lugging all that’s stuff around the back of a pick-up truck. It dawned on me, you know, that I can make music instead of lugging around all this PA gear and power amplifiers and all this other junk. Why don’t I just build a house, have recording studio, and have them come to me to make music, and I don’t have to lug all this stuff around. So I started SongSmith records in the mid-eighties back when we had, they were called ADAT machines. They recorded on a VHS cassette, and they would theoretically, and I say theoretically, synchronize together by two ADAT machines – and you could have, wow, 16 channels of digital audio. You could have a grand total of 34 minutes of digital audio.

B: Wow.

J: Of course, you could format the tape first before you had to record on to it, and that is about as much fun as having paint dry. But it was there, and we had 16 channels of digital audio. I’ve still got those ADAT machines and once in a while we’ll get an artist in the back of the studio that recorded with me 20 year ago say

‘Jeff! Do you still have to ADAT tapes?’ I say yeah.

‘Could we dump them into pro tools and clean them up a bit and rerelease?

And I say sure.

B: Fun stuff. Definitely. That’s really cool. So, what do you think, as far your students, and what you teach here, what has been the most challenging for your students? In terms of getting comfortable with technology or for musicians in general.

J: Wow. That is kind of a tough questions. Each student is different, each student has their own strengths and weaknesses. On day one, I had to fill out a little, I call it a student data sheet. Tell me a little about yourself so I know who I am dealing with. A lot of times I will get students in the class who have already had pro tools experience they might run sound at their church. And I’ve got kids, ‘well I have sang in choir, but I want to learn how to record myself.’ And they don’t know anything about the technology. So, the challenge, for me as an instructor, is to teach on two or three different levels. So, I try to teach to the very, very raw beginner, to the kid who has had some experience, to those kids who could probably teach me a thing or two.

I guess that’s the fun part about the teaching. In the class, I have to make sure that each kid knows we will only be playing with three things in audio.

Frequency, amplitude, and time.

 

And all the buttons, and knobs, and dials,

[mimics with higher pitch] Buttons, and knobs, and dials, oh my!

All have to do with either frequency, amplitude, or time.

If you understand that basic concept than you go through ‘okay well what does this button do, how does it change the sound?

B: So, a lot of it is experimenting, as you’re in the course.

J: Yeah. And that’s how they learn. We tell them, for example, once we define frequency, amplitude or time are, we go into signal flow. We go, okay, what happens, how does the ear work. How does the microphone work? We trace the audio from vibrations of your voice, or your guitar or whatever, through your microphone, line, inputs…..into. What happens next?

[jeff starts laughing….]

It all goes in from the patch bay, and the patch bay goes into the microphones, and the micros to the IO’S, IO into the computer and we explain all that stuff in signal flow, signal flow, signal flow.

All an audio engineer does, all day long is.

I don’t hear the guitar in my left ear, why not? Or, I plugged this in, and I don’t hear anything.

B: Right.

J: Or I turn this knob, and nothing happened. Back up and figure out why.

B: And that is what you give your student leeway to do. Figure out why they made a mistake, to figure out why and backtrack.

J: If you tell them what they did wrong, they’ll never figure it out themselves. If they go throughout, and your cohort here, can attest to this. I will rarely just tell a kid an answer, I say, do you have an iPhone on ya? There’s this thing called google, look it up!

I’ll wait.

And then for example, when they learn the measurements, and what decibels are to measure frequency.

I’ll ask them questions like ‘what’s the unit of measurement for frequency?’ and they’ll say, uhm, decibels? No that is the measure for amplitude. Man, it hertz if you don’t know this. Hertz being cycles per second.

B: Right.

J: Hertz being, you know, cycles per second. Hertz is the measurement. So, it hertz if you don’t know this!

[both laugh…]

B: That’s a good one actually!

J: The stupider or funnier something is, they’ll remember it.

B: It sticks better! Definitly it helps it stick. So as far as walking away from the class, how important is it for students after, in the aftermath, are these techniques that can easily be forgotten if they are not applied immediately.

J: Oh gosh, I hope not.

B: If you have students that come for, let’s say, do you teach a second course as well?

J: Yes. There’s a Recording Studios Technique II (RST II) class, theoretically there are two sections of RST I, which will have 16 kids total, 32. Out of those 32 kids, if RST II is offered, we only take 8. So it’s like ¼ of those two classes, if they wanted, we are limited to 8.

We did a really cool thing this last semester. The students had to produce a video and they had to literally, we shot it on a gopro camera, and it was actually pretty terrible, but they learned the process. They had to get a video program onto their computer, there are several free ones, and just experiment there, here’s the scene we shot. And the whole theme of the video was, and this is terrible, once again, I love my wife, but she has a problem with collecting small electrical appliances. If there is small electrical appliance made, she has it. She’s got four or five crockpots, I don’t know how many mixers she’s got, toasters, curling irons, you name it, those little vacuum thingies, if it is a small electrical appliance she has it.

So the format of the class was, we’re going to make a video and you all have seen these videos of the poor animals you know, for the charities, and there’s this poor dog with one eye and its snowing outside and he’s missing a paw or something and there is a choke collar behind this poor animal.

And well the idea was, we’re going to have small appliances, and they need a home. And they produce something absolutely hilarious.

“Do you know a small appliance that needs a home that’s been abused? We’re sorry. SARI, the small appliance rights institute, so we made a video, and we got t-shirts with irons. One of the appliances was an iron that burned a hole in the t-shirt, so the kids were like no, no bad iron! Flatten it with the newspaper, and later on we use that same shirt with sorry with this big old iron burn on it, we’ll give you this shirt if we give us $19 a month. That is only 63 cents a day.”

 

So I hope the kids learned a lot from that. Uh, they learned how to put it together, how to edit, how to synchronize the audio. One student actually wrote this really cool darkish sounding sad piano music that everyone wanted to use because it was so cool.

B: So you have different types of projects and assignments in the class, of various ways.

J: Oh yeah.

B: So for exams, what should students expect for an exam, in a studio techniques class? How will their knowledge be tested?

[Jeff laughs…]

J: Exams! I figured kids are not in JR high school or elementary school anymore, I do not use true or false, multiple choice. Most of the tests and quizzes are done with fill in the blank and short answer. You know, hopefully using correct English and spelling things correctly.

It’s not like ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” we’ll give you four choices, and you pick through the answers up here. I want you to go a little bit beyond that.

B: Right.

J: We also give the kids all kinds of interesting ways to help memorize things like that. For example, can you name the planets in order from the sun out?

B: Probably not in order.

J: Okay. I can.

B: You can?

J: My wife took an astronomy class once, kay, and if you take the first letter of each planets. If take the first letter of each planet, ‘M’ for Mercury, ‘V’ for Venus, ‘E’ for Earth, ‘M’ Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, back then Pluto. So, she came up with a very simple sentence. My very enormous man Jeff Smith understands nothing.

B: She came up with that?

J: She came up with that! Totally originally, and OH! Okay. So, you take all that information, you condense all that down. It is like taking all 5 great lakes. Heroin, Ontario, Michigan, siria, and superior. Spell the word HOMES, take that data and condense it. It is like putting it in a ZIP files for your brain where they can memorize some of these techniques, and hopefully it will not only help them in audio engineering but in life.

B: Right.

J: You know, if you’re on stage running sound for a band somewhere or in a church situation and all of a sudden thing die. You don’t want to turn to the guy next to you. Good gosh what do we do? As an audio engineer, you got to figure it out, quickly.

B: Right. It is about application, not just knowing the what, or how, it is about knowing the why, the why you are doing what you’re doing. That is what differentiates it from a lot of other subjects.

J: That’s the thing, if you know anything about Bloom’s Taxonomy of Education.

Harking back to many, many years ago. If you have just a knowledge level question:

‘Who invented the telephone?’

You know? That’s knowledge level. If you have a question like, we’re gonna form a band, you’re gonna come up with a song, you’re gonna cover a song or something and you are are gonna form a single here in the class. We’re gonna pick members for the band, and you’re gonna go from there. That takes a lot more brains to be able to do that.

B: It takes creativity!

J: Absolutely. You gotta coordinate your schedule together, you gotta pick a song, come up with an original cover song, do the rehearsals, figure out how you’re gonna mic the drums. I’ll show you how to mic them, but you do it! And why you might do it this way.

B: Right. It takes a lot of brain power to figure out what you’re going to do, how you’re going to do it, and why you’re going to do it.

J: The more you use it the stronger it gets.

B: Yeah. That’s really good. That’s actually a really good way of doing it. So, for current line up of courses, beyond Studio Techniques I and then II.

J: Two happens in the spring. I teach private lessons on violin and viola through TCC. That’s only a handful of students, like two or three.

B: Oh okay!

J: I also teach private guitar out of my house, but that’s a different story.

B: Do you have anything like a semester split? What do you teach during what semester?

J: Oh okay. In the first semester, the fall semester, we only offer Studio Techniques I, and hopefully there will be two sections. Then from that, we’ll offer in the spring, studio techniques I and II.

B: Oh cool! So, advice for students as well, for anyone who does not have experience. What should they expect going to class and what should they expect coming out of the class?

J: Bring a pencil and a notepad! You’d be amazed on day one that sometimes there is not a whole lot of different between first graders and college kids. You write something on the board, and some kid in the back will say, is this going to be on the test?

[Bethany laughs…]

J: Ummm, YEAH!

The idea is if it is on the board, I feel it is important enough that you need to know it. Because if you are successful in music, you know, you could make a lot of money. Pay all that taxes and social security and support me when I’m old…..er.

B: Very good point! So, if you want to be successful, for musicians specifically, how important is it to learn studio techniques for your own music?

J: Oh gosh! In the music business especially, what has been relatively successful for me, I call it a multiple income source.

My main income for many, many years was teaching in public schools. On the side, I was playing classical music in two different Orchestras. The (unintelligible} Symphony and the Signature Symphony and occasionally the Tulsa Harmonic. The Tulsa Opera and the Tulsa Ballet. On the weekends, we were not doing classical, we were rocking and rolling in establishments. We call them gun and knife clubs.

[Both laugh…]

Bring your own, within a hundred miles of Tulsa. You know, within 200 miles. So you had money coming in from the rock n’ roll side, money coming in from teaching lessons on the weekends, money coming in from your teaching job, money coming in from your symphony gigs, then if you write music, you can create it that way, and get royalties from that. That way if any one leg of that collapses you have something else to depend on.

It the music business, to really make it big, you have to be extremely good at ONE thing. And then you can afford everyone else to pay them to record your CD for you, to book you here and there, but the more you know about every aspect of music. How do you finger a saxophone, where’s the best way to mic a saxophone, or a flue, or a guitar, or a cello, or a base? Where does their sound come out from? Where does it sound the best? What kind of mic do you use?

All of that stuff, the more you know, the more you’re worth. You apply everything in music. There was a time when my teaching career, where the school I was teaching, I had been there for five years, and they were going to close the school due to a reorganization plan. My last year teaching there they’d lost all the electives. The only elective you could take at this school was band, orchestra, or gym. No home ED, no foreign languages, nothing. That was it. They closed the school next year to reorganize. Orchestras fold, right or left sometimes. Schools change.

And in the music business especially, you’ve got to have a backup plan. You get smart, by a house, accelerate the principle on that, so you pay it off early. We paid our first house off in 8 and a half years by accelerating the principle. If you anything about financing, that is a different topic. But that’s how you get successful.

B: Very cool. So I hear it is important to be multifaceted but to also master one area.

J: Well. If you wanna be really successful in music, you got to be able to sing like Garth Brooks, or Whitney Houston. Or, you have to be able to play that violin like Itzhak Perlman. That’s all he does. For me, I can’t do that. I am too much Attention Deficit Disorder. I get attracted by all the flashing lights. Wow, cool, we are recording this in garage band right? Neat stuff! And I’m watching all these little lights flashing over here and she turns around smiling listening to us on her headphones running through the, and I am wandering GEE! What is that knob do, OH, that is the interface there she’s running through. So for me, you know, I’ve done the six hours of practice everyday when I was at the Cleveland institute of music getting my viola masters.

Six hours a day of the viola? Gee I hate the viola sometimes! You know? It’s like too much. Put it down, play the guitar sometimes, go play the fiddle in a country band somewhere and make it fun.

B: But you put a lot of time into it.

J: Oh yeah!

B: That’s awesome! Just to go over an overview on your courses one more time. Studio Techniques I, Studio Techniques II, Viola…

J: And violin..

B: Oh, you teach violin as well.

J: Yeah.

B: So those are private lessons.

J: For both majors and non-majors.

B: Do you have a special email address that your students can reach you at? And potential students as well.

J: I have the TCC email, but I have had more luck with my own personal email. Would it be okay to do that one?

B: YEAH

J: My personal email is songsmithrecords@cox.net.

Now  if you go on the web and go to songsmithrecords.com, understand that I have been busy and haven’t updated the website for 15 or 17 years. It’s on my list of things to do I’m working on it but I’ve been busy.

B: Alright, great, so where are your classes based at? What campus?

J: We are based at the southeast campus.

B: Sounds great, this has been Bethany Solomon and Jeff Smith at the TCC Connection. Thank you for listening and we hope to continue this series for the summer.

J: Thank you Bethany, I appreciate your time.

B: We appreciate you as well!

 

 

 

Semester Sneak Peek - Dr. Gay Phillips - Associate Professor

Semester Sneak Peek is a new series that provides a preview of courses available at Tulsa Community College (TCC) this coming fall semester. 

As a series about upcoming classes, these episodes will feature interviews with many of the instructors tasked with teaching them. 

Today's episode features Dr. Gay Phillips, Associate Professor at TCC.

 

Edited by Sam Levrault

Music by The Odyssey, "75 to Ramona"

Transcript: Bethany Solomon

 

 

Bethany: Welcome to Semester Sneak peak, a new series that highlights instructors that are tasked with teaching fall courses. We thought it would be best to highlight these courses to educate students! 

I am your host, Bethany Solomon, associate editor of the Northeast campus and today we have a special guest, Gay Phillips, who is teaching several interesting courses this upcoming semester. It is a pleasure to have you Ms. Phillips! 

Tell us about yourself. You may start with your childhood or educational experiences. 

Gay Phillips: Thank you!  

I grew up in west Texas, in the oil fields with my father. We traveled a lot. And that peaked my interest, traveling through the nation and getting to know different areas and different people. I was always interested in how we are similar as people, and how we are different. How culture gets created and shared. How we influence cultural changes, and why us humans do what we do. Those combined helped me fall in love with sociology. That is my primary discipline. 

We got to Oklahoma and it felt like we moved to a foreign country and looking back I know that is not the case, but when I was 10 years old that is what it felt like. 

B: [Laughs…] 

G: And we stayed in Oklahoma ever since. 

B: Very nice! I can see how that is the underlying inspiration for sociology and how it relates to even anthropology. Did you go from finding inspiration to sociology into finding interest in anthropology? Was that a later discovery? 

G: While I was studying sociology in my undergrad I had options of taking anthropology courses along with sociology, a lot on native studies and indigenous population. It extends what we study about culture a little bit into the anthropological theme 

B: Interesting! Let’s go to into your experiences prior to TCC as far as being in the workforce.  

G: Sure. After I completed my bachelor’s degree I went to work in social services. I thought I wanted to be a social worker, and discovered I was not adept to doing that. I worried about people too much. After working for five years in social services I made a change. I went into professional development for people who work in social services. Predominately, people who work with homeless youth who have been abused and neglected.  

That was the field I was in. I knew people and knew what the ongoing training needs were, so professional development 20/25 years doing lots of training workshops and all kinds of topics and how to deal with kids that live on the streets.  

How to teach people how to be trauma informed. Kids and families that go through trauma. We did hundreds of training workshops, and so that is what I did. While I was doing that I went back and got my master’s degree. I knew I did not want another direct service degree, so I continued with sociology to work with people in social structures and cultures. So, I did that and after several years I decided I really wanted to teach at the college university level. I went back and got my PHD and became a private consultant doing training, workshops, and program development. 

I had done quite a bit of programs for a lot of different organizations. I went back and got my PHD. I started as an adjunct. I was an adjunct at Rogers State, OSU, and now TCC. I have been involved with TCC since 2000, and a full-time position came open by 2012. 

B: Wow, quite the experience. With TCC specifically, I know you mentioned trauma evaluation, that is something currently being developed here at TCC. Mental Health Awareness and how trauma effects people even in the realm of education, how it effects the individual’s rate of success, and their ability to learn. To me it is fascinating and I recently interviewed Shatia Stephens, she coordinates mental health awareness plans. I know it is not necessarily understood by many, and people don’t often see its effect.  

In these specific programs, have you been able to reach out to individuals and help them understand the importance? 

G: In many of my courses I try to talk about how human development is something we do over our lifespan and then talk about the consequences when you don’t have basic needs met like attachment bonding, and or you experience some sort of life trauma, which almost everybody does. 

B: Right. 

G: If you don’t have those foundational bases of attachment of being in a secure environment it is much harder to deal with those traumas. You might not have that basic support system.  

I try to give basic education in all my classes about human development and what we need as humans. And then I talk of introducing ideas with trauma which helps to explain some of the crime rates we have, the homelessness we have, it connects to so many topics I teach in sociology and those fields.  

B: How has that experience been for you? What has that taught you about students. Their willingness or unwillingness to address problems that they may not really understanding to how it correlates with their own success. 

G: Two or three things. One, I hope they feel like ok, somebody cares. And that gets to as much for me not only what I teach but how I teach. Because I want to be respectful, where they are, what they are living with. I was a student at many different points in my life. I understand some of those struggles but not all of it. I was not raising two or three kids at the same time I was in school, but I try to make a connection to help them feel like somebody does care, I think that is critically important. I try to respect where they are at the time, not everybody is ready to seek assistance or know how to do that. If they want help I will make a phone call or give them somebody’s card and say “tell them I said I want to talk to you.” Some students feel a little bit of relief of ‘ok somebody is trying to understand my situation and seems to care’ that does not change their situation. A lot of it That is up to them to seek support, I just try to encourage and be there to help them wherever they are and with what they want to do. 

I also talk then about what resources students here at TCC, and in fact just yesterday was organizing materials I have about student assistance programs we have.  

I try to bring those in to my class about what is available. I encourage them, that if they need any kind of connection, if they are struggling not just academically, emotionally or supporting their family to make contact. So, I try to get to that and some of the issues people are dealing with and then help them make connections.  

And I also talk then, about connections outside of TCC. I do some service learning in some of my courses and we go visit places. I take my classes to family safety centers that deal with domestic abuse. Not just couples, but anyone with family who have experienced some sort of violence or abuse can go to family safety centers, we tour that.  

I talk a lot about the community resources in Tulsa, we have great community services here. 

I also try to respect where they are at the time. Not everyone is ready to seek assistance. If they want help I will give them someone’s card and tell them to say, “I talked to them.” Most students experiencing this find relief and see that someone seems to care but that in of itself does not change their situation. It is up to them. I try to encourage and help them where they are. 

B: Very good. Would you say this is something you implement in all your courses regardless? 

G: Pretty much. Even on my online classes, because I have students who communicate through email. And I have done referrals for students. Something happens during the semester for three or two students. I try to be empathetic and help them out with referrals.  

B: That is good! You are essentially practicing what you teach and bringing to students’ awareness, human development. That seems like that is the core connection between all your courses. 

G: Yes. I tell my students in all my classes that we are pack animals. It is kind of an odd way to say it. Because of those social connections, we need each other.  What we do to each other, how we communicate, how we understand each other, all those things matter. 

B: That is a very good point. That brings up a very interesting questions involving your course Interdisciplinary Diversity & Inclusion, how have you found the differences that people may have on the surface, be it socioeconomic status, culture, ethnicity, or anything that divides people and causes them to communicate in different ways. How does that prevent people from running in packs? 

G: It really is a matter of expanding our packs. There are basic components all cultures share. Every culture has a family, who is included in that family, how the family dynamic is lived out can be very different, but everyone has got one. We have a family of origin. I try to teach what is common amongst us as humans. We all have family and need to feel connected. We all need to have a predictable world and sense of safety. I try to teach all those common elements. 

Once you dive deeper into what people are doing and why they are doing it, usually you can find the common ground. And secondly a lot of how people live it out becomes less important. 

B: Very good. Taking these courses, I can see how important it is to seek to understanding people versus just focusing on our differences.  

So, with the four courses you teach: Anthropology, Sociology, Marriage and family, and finally, Diversity and Inclusion, which is a new course by the way... 

G: Yes, it has been revised! 

B: So can you explain the revision? 

G: Social Inequalities historically has been a discipline of sociology. The focus is a lot on studying race, ethnicity, gender and class. In our global society, in our broader human world, we need to look beyond just social inequalities. There are a lot of aspects in those four. Issues of people living with disabilities, intergenerational issues, that is a big one today. We always here older people disgruntle about younger people and what they do but we have our version of it today. 

So change one is to expand the topic. 

The second, to talk about inclusion and talk about cultural competency. How do you become a culturally competent person and why is that important? The primary reason is employers really want people to deal with diverse population. That is their number one issue, what is important in an employee. If you are not comfortable as an employee dealing with diverse populations, you are not going to make it as far. So, learning to do that and getting comfortable to talking to people who talk different, act different, and look different from you is important. You got to be able to understand beyond surface explanation, and beyond what you don’t like. To understand why there may be a dislike, is it a core issue that is important to you that may shape. 

Getting comfortable with diverse populations, whether it is families, cities, or school. 

This course is looking at very interactive and experimental in terms of talking and discussing and going to visit places. We have lots of organization with social justice issues. We will hear from people who are doing the work.  

Overall, just looking at what kind of skills and attitudes you need to develop to be more culturally competent. 

B: With social inequalities did you have students challenge your perspective or challenge new ideas or inputs that surprised you or caused you to see something in a different way? 

G: Sure. In all my classes. I have had students challenge me as to people’s abilities to change their views. Particularly in changing their bigotries. Really wondering if our institutionalisms, such as ageism, or racism can really be changed or made better. I have seen people with extreme bigotry change, so I believe in people being able and willing. It does not always happen, but it is possible. Getting some students to believe that change can occur for the better is sometimes a challenge.  

They key in all my courses is helping students have a voice.  

I have values and I can express those hopefully, in a way that is not offensive to other people. Now there are some things that are inevitable. I want us to be able to know where we stand and do it respectfully. And, where does that come from a person? Every value and belief come from somewhere. There is a basis as to where that came from.  

It comes down to the human components for need for safety, take care of your own, those common things we have in common. 

I may not like uncle Joe’s viewpoint on something, but I can understand where it came from and why he is attached to it. And sometimes it makes it better for me. 

B: Exactly. It gives you a sense of compassion. From my perspective that would help, I try to understand the origin of others believe what they believe and when you do it is easier to forgive or to deal with it. It is  

G: Right! Not to simply see them as their bigotry and just see the humanness in that person. 

B: Yes! That is powerful. Have you seen your students walk away different in your class, or their ability to see potential? To me, this is relevant to life and the key component of success, which is relationships. 

G: Because we’re pack animals! 

B: Exactly. We can’t survive on our own. Specifically, with you can say, the younger generation, Millennials or with what they would call Generation Z, do you find technology changing the way we relate with one another, do you find that they are less likely to know how to develop relationships? It is a common stigma.  

G: It presents different challenges. We have had other things that have gotten in our way and those relationships. Whether it be have to spend our time just surviving, therefor the quality of my relationships is not as deep or emotional as we expect today. 

Today we have tech, they are great. I love technology and how we use it! If it is impacting us negatively I am not sure, I am ready to answer that. I the top of somebody’s head in my classroom. To be honest about it. 

B: [Laughs…] 

G: What it tells me is I must get better at how to connect, maybe send that person a message. There is always going to be something that gets in the way of relationships. We just need to figure out how to communicate and break those barriers. I am not someone that does not like Gen Z or Millennials. I love you guys! 

B: Good to hear! [Laughs…]  

G: You’re fun, you’re creative and you’re aware of the world around you in ways my generation was not. I think it is just a matter of figuring out how to navigate it all, for all of us. 

B: How to adapt! 

G: Exactly. How to adapt. It’s a new adaptation. 

B: Okay. As far as classrooms, what are your classroom expectations? How do you handle assignments? Are they consistent? 

G: Close to it, I teach online and on-campus classes. For instance, in the fall I am teaching introduction to sociology, marriage and family, and cultural anthropology all online. They are 8 weeks and fast paced. I set up assignments weekly. The longer ones are every other week. I always have some form of reading or textbook. Usually a quiz over 1 or 2 chapters and they are usually analysis papers, a topic issues related to one of these courses. Papers are usually 2-5 pages.  

On campus I teach intro to sociology, at west and in the fall and metro, during the spring. Diversity of Inclusion is on campus as well. I like block courses that are a little bit longer. If I need to cover 50 minutes topics, I want 3 hours. Or if we are going to do a field trip, so I like those longer courses. I teach aging and dying, and social problems. Assignments are all typical. As far as quizzes and analysis papers.  

B: What are the best ways to contact you? 

G: It would be email which is gay.phillips@tulsacc.edu and my phone number is (918) 595-8842. My office is located at Metro Campus, Academic building in room 514.  

B: And your typical hours? 

G: I am usually here like, 11pm-2pm ( 3pm), Monday-Thursdays, for sure. I am willing to set up appointments when it is convenient. If I need to meet at West I will.  

B: Alright! We have covered a lot of information. Thank you for joining us on our show. 

G: Thank you for giving me the opportunity to talk about sociology and my other courses! 

B: Of course! It is exciting and innovative stuff. I believe the foundational lesson we can all learn is how important it is to understand human development.  

G: Thank you so much. 

B: No problem, Gay we wish you an incredible semester! You can check us out on our website at tccconnection.com or our podcast that is hosted by pod bean on iTunes.  

 

Check out The TCC Connection online at http://tccconnection.com/

The TCC Connection is a student newspaper based at Tulsa Community College in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Special Concert Preview - End of Summer Bash - The Odyssey & Hoarseman

Local Tulsa bands, The Odyssey and Hoarseman (Hoarseman & The Heard), stop by the TCC Connection office at Tulsa Community College to talk about the local music scene, the challenges of creating an exciting and interesting atmosphere for audiences during stage performances, as well as provide a preview for their upcoming End of Summer Bash at The Vanguard in the Tulsa Arts District on August 9th.

The Odyssey (Cobey Brown & Derek Johnson) are an alternative blues band from Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Hoarseman (Quinton Hoagland) is the frontman and founding member of Hoarseman and the Heard, an alternative art rock band based in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Check out The TCC Connection online at http://tccconnection.com/

The TCC Connection is a student newspaper based at Tulsa Community College in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Directed & Edited by: Sam Levrault
Sound: Sam Levrault

The Gaming Connection - E3 Rundown

TCC Connection staff members Trent, Sam, and Joe gather to discuss the rising prominence of live service games.

 

The Gaming Connection is a TCC Connection Podcast series that centers on the game and entertainment industry.

 

 

Hosted By Trent Gleason

 

Check out The TCC Connection online at http://tccconnection.com/

Episodes edited by Sam Levrault

Recorded on June 20, 2019

The TCC Connection is a student newspaper based at Tulsa Community College in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Semester Sneak Peek - Jerry Goodwin - TCC Connection

 

Semester Sneak Peak is a new series that provides a preview of courses available at Tulsa Community College (TCC) this coming fall semester. 

As a series about upcoming classes, these episodes will feature interviews with many of the instructors tasked with teaching them. 

Today's episode features Jerry Goodwin, TCC Connection Advisor.

 

Edited by Sam Levrault

Music by The Odyssey, "75 to Ramona"

 

Check out The TCC Connection online at http://tccconnection.com/

The TCC Connection is a student newspaper based at Tulsa Community College in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

 

Transcript by: Bethany Solomon

 

Bethany: Welcome to semester Sneak Peek, a new series that provides a preview of courses that are provided this coming semester. I am your host, Bethany Solomon, associate editor of the Northeast Campus at the TCC connection.

Since this series is about upcoming courses, we thought it would be best to the interview instructors tasked with teaching them.

Today we have a special guest, our very own faculty advisor, Jerry Goodwin.

How are you Jerry Goodwin?

 

Jerry Goodwin: I’m doing great Ms. Solomon, how are you?

 

I’m good. Thank you for joining us today.

 

Thank you for the invitation.

 

We’re going to be learning a bit about your background, your history in one of Tulsa’s most historic communities, how you came to be involved in your field, TCC, and the classes and programs you are involved in this coming fall.

Let’s start with your background and earlier years in education that lead up to your professional pursuits and accomplishments.

 

I started in 2000, teaching as an adjunct at TCC. I had a partner teaching at TCC as an adjunct and recommended I consider applying or at least working at TCC and I did. I served as an adjunct for seven years and then an opportunity presented itself for me to apply for a full-time position.

Others reached out to me and let me know that this full-time position was available to teach in the journalism field. In 2007, I applied to serve as an assistant professor in journalism and mass communications.

If you take into consideration my adjunct years, next year, that would have been two decades. Prior to that I was working for my family’s business, the OK eagle newspaper, and I was with them for 15 years professionally. That was the foundation that lead me to pursuing what turned out to be a career in journalism and communications.

 

Okay. Good, so without that foundation do you believe you would have studied mass communications or journalism at all?

 

Perhaps not, I had aspired to go into law and have been involved with politics, and so it was blessing and what better opportunity to work in a field, and from those experience in the field, then go and teach the next generation of young people what you have learned. It was natural and it’s a blessing and I could not be any more pleased and excited with this trajectory and course I am on.

 

So you enjoy politics and just ran for city council. Can you tell us a little about your experience?

 

Yes I was not new to politics, fortunately in my early years, worked for a congress man so I truly appreciate the value of public service. That experience was eye opening in more ways than one. What I enjoyed the most about that experience is meeting and becoming acquainted with the individuals of the community. I did a lot of door to door knocking and ended up falling short of a three-person race and came in second. When we combined my results and the results of the person that came in third the outcome was 55% of the winner and 45% to the remaining two candidates. It had been determined the candidate, or at least the city counsel is vulnerable, so I am looking at here in the near future rerunning and just trying to put together the recipe of victory, what I can learn from this previous experience, and how I can use that to my benefit so that I will be more successful this next go around.

 

What can you tell us about The Connection and you leading as the faculty advisor? What experience has helped you see communication differently or understand how to lead students to what they eventually want to pursue?

 

Very good! What I did when I worked for my family’s newspaper. When I started working with them at a full-time capacity and graded by other newspapers in the state, we were ranked as number 13. Just recognition and awards and things of that nature.

 By the time I left we were ranked number 3 in comparison to awards received in recognition. I brought that experience to the TCC connection, where I would like to see each and every one of you as members of the staff, leave with some degree of recognition and value from this experience because I believe it adds so much more to your resume, and your level of confidence whether you pursue a career in journalism or any other career.

When you demonstrate excellence, it prepares you for greater opportunities in the future, so it has always been my mission and my commitment to make sure each one of you, as members of the newspapers staff receive as much as you can get out of it. If you can get recognition with your peers, state, and region I have done my job.

 

So, for your current lineup of courses, what do you have planned for the fall semester?

 

For the fall semester I will be teaching Intro to Business, Public Speaking, Broadcasting, and of course the TCC Connection Honors course. I am probably one of the few professors here at the college that teaches in three different divisions. I am in the Business & Information Technology school, Liberal Arts, and I am also in the Performing and Visual Arts department, that now is where the journalism program is housed.

So I feel very fortunate to be able to teach across a variety of discipline. Hopefully that experience and that knowledge, I can share with each of you in my classrooms in any of those areas.

 

That is interesting. Since you are teaching in three different divisions, did you find that they integrate in any way?

 

Absolutely.

The most important in all three is interacting and engaging and then understand to the best of my ability while putting myself where the students are. Having non-traditional students, in addition to traditional students, I just try to go as far as I can to where the students are so I can relate to each and every one of them.

What I find so fascinating is that, and you can appreciate this, when I come into a classroom and ask them what they saw on TV last night, what they listened to on the radio, what they read in the newspaper, the chances are slim to none that any of them could understand what I am saying. I always must talk to them in terms of what I think is trending and what is in their newsfeed.

I find it fascinating that I must make the modifications to what I have traditionally and customarily have been used to. So now when I come in and talk about what I saw in the evening news I will be talking to myself, because the chances are very good that no one will be able to identify.

[both laugh…]

At least if I could say I saw it on a feed somewhere, it would increase the likelihood that they will understand what I am saying, and I won’t be just a man on an island by myself. So, it has been interesting to make that transition from the traditional forms of media to where each one of you are getting your information. I make sure I am relevant and pertinent to our discussion and I am not just out here and by myself trying to communicate with you.

 

What do you believe is a pro and con of mass communications today, and media in general, compared to the way you grew up and what you have learned?

 

Traditions individuals were taught to either be in the print discipline, tv broadcast discipline, or radio discipline. Right now, those going into the field of communication are being called upon to be an expert in all those different fields. They developed this new concept called backpack journalism whereby on the spot, you can interview someone, record an event, and type a story to appear online. You can basically do all of that in one setting.

Before you have designated people to write print articles, specific people for television, and specified people for radio, but now we must develop the next generation going into communication that each one of you going into every scenario can do it all.

For those pursuing careers journalism, you need to be as multi-dimensional and multi-qualified to experience. You need to demonstrate a level of competency on a variety of different platforms and cannot think if I go down this track exclusively or that track exclusively, I’m going to be good.

No, you must be, as best as possible, qualified in multiple platforms for the times to come.

 

Since you teach three different divisions it looks like you have put that practice in your own life so in a way, you can relate with your students and be an example for them. As far as your information what are the best ways students can reach you. Email? Office hours?

 

Email, office hours, bat signal, just whatever way that they can, wait, I wasn’t supposed to tell them I was Bruce Wayne Jr.?

[both laugh…]

But if they can’t give me bat signal, they can reach me by way of email, or my office number (918) 595-7086. I spend quite a bit of time in the TCC Connection office, more than I spend in my own office, for a variety of reasons. The TCC Connection office is another way to reach me.

 

Alright, that’s great. Well, we thank you for your time Mr. Goodwin!

This has been Jerry Goodwin and Bethany Solomon at the TCC Connection. You can check us out online and, on our website, tccconnection.com, our podcast hosted by pod bean, which is also available on iTunes.

Thanks for listening!

 

 

 

 

 

Semester Sneak Peek - Ethan Rolan - Video Services Supervisor

Semester Sneak Peek is a new series that provides a preview of courses available at Tulsa Community College (TCC) this coming fall semester. 

As a series about upcoming classes, these episodes will feature interviews with many of the instructors tasked with teaching them. 

Today's episode features Ethan Rolen, Video Services Supervisor.

 

Edited by Sam Levrault

Music by The Odyssey, "75 to Ramona"

 

Check out The TCC Connection online at http://tccconnection.com/

The TCC Connection is a student newspaper based at Tulsa Community College in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Podcast for a Day - Josiah Salas

Podcast for a Day is a series a part of the TCC Connection. The Series provides an opportunity and platform for fellow TCC students, faculty, as well as community members to host a podcast for a day. 

This episode is hosted by fellow TCC student, Josiah Salas as part of their electronic communication class.

 

Edited by Sam Levrault

Music by The Odyssey, "75 to Ramona"

Check out The TCC Connection online at http://tccconnection.com/

The TCC Connection is a student newspaper based at Tulsa Community College in Tulsa, Oklahoma.