By AMEARA DITSCHE
Executive Editor
The “Dear Neighbor” podcast made its way on campus throughout this semester, releasing two episodes so far, as well as hosting a launch party Dec. 2, 2021 in Studio G3.
Before the podcast, Professor Liz Richards hosted a faculty development session called Provisions, which aimed at discussing teaching strategies that did and didn’t work and helping professors excel in the classroom with and for their students.
“You can listen to it at any time.” said Richards, “you can interact with it on your schedule.” Provisions was a series of meetings that were on a mostly invite only basis, so the goal of this podcast is to create a resource accessible to all.
The first episode of “Dear Neighbor” features hosts Richards and Dr. Emily Pinkerton sitting down with students and their professors to discuss their relationships in and out of the classrooms. Students were able to sit with their professors and discuss how their class affected them.
The first guests were Camden Malone and Professor Silvia Mejia. They discussed the several classes Malone has taken with Mejia.
He expressed his appreciation for how she adapted to Zoom learning and called her ability to be engaging impressive. Professor Mejia even shared her own experiences as a current student of computer science.
She had always found the subject interesting but her studies took her elsewhere, so recently she decided to take a class. After being on the other side of the classroom for so long she found herself struggling in certain aspects, but turned that around to better herself as a teacher and relate to her students.
The next guests were Communication Science and Disorders students Liz D’agostino and Ali Rider along with professor Dr. Deirdre Muldoon. The two girls are now Graduate students at Saint Rose and discussed their decision to stay and how it helped them find community here. D’agostino shared her observations that students who come to the Graduate school from a different school are more intimidated. They discussed the kindness of the professors in the department and how that eases their anxieties.
Rider stressed the importance of open communication between students and professors.
With that being said, “Dear Neighbor” wants to communicate with you. Throughout this year they will continue to interview students and staff for their episodes. They created two episodes this semester and plan to do the same next semester, after that they will reevaluate and see if there is a demand for new content according to Richards.
The podcast is largely produced by Richards and Pinkerton, with the help of apprentice Christian Shear. Shear is a Communications major at Saint Rose with concentrations in Public Relations and Advertising, as well as Film and New Media. Richards approached him to help with this project after he expressed an interest in radio during her Digital Audio Production class.
“I honestly never really liked going to Saint Rose until now, and that’s just because I’ve been exposed to all the good things it has to offer through the interviews,” said Shear.
Shear hopes to continue working on projects like this. “Dear Neighbor” helped him get real world experiences sending back different drafts and working on the finer details of audio production.
The podcast is all about accessibility and connecting different members of the Saint Rose community to one another.
“I think the podcast is great for people who may feel they lack a sense of community on campus. I think it’s great for student engagement and for inspiring a sense of ‘school spirit’,” said Shear.
You can listen to the podcast on the Saint Rose website and keep up with them on Instagram @dear_neighbor_podcast.
