WSNH: to Keep It a Buck in the Higher Education Classrooms
Work Smarter, Not Harder (WSNH) is an intellectual framework I started applying in my scholarship that helps setting realistic expectations to both students and instructors in the classrooms, particularly in Higher Education (undergraduate and graduate schools).
As a recent Masters graduate and freelance media professional, I’ve been pondering on the future of media, its intersection with the creative industries, and the education system that produces the skillset of literacy that will cater future readers and writers. There are lots of negative things that the American schools have, such as poor geography knowledge, self-centered White History curricula, and unhealthy food programs, but there’s a lot of emphasis on manual activities - sports and theatre at the top of the list. Extracurricular activities are much more emphasized in American schools compared to Europe, specifically in the Southern region - Spain, France, Italy, Greece, and nearby countries. This is not a race on who’s doing better or worse. The absolute takes on these educational models are faulty and the best solution would be to have a bit of both, or a better proposed and smarter approach to include academic integrity and pragmatism in the classroom.
The WSNH discourse was born out of a personal necessity: to turn my experience as a graduate student on an international student a bit more manageable and less depressing. Yes, I said depressing. Confined in my own limitations, unable to expand and cultivate career opportunities within the American corporate calendar, and encompassing unconscious bias judgments, life as an international student made me realize how difficult is the immigrant journey in the United States. Immigrants don’t have the luxury to “wait”, “manifest”, or even “dream” sometimes. In my experience I came to the conclusion that working smarter always pays off more than working harder, by showing compassion, valuing community relationships, and turning all the losses and missed opportunities into lessons notes for the future.
Even though the USA formally recognizes international students as non-immigrants, the expat category made of hard-working from lower to middle class students share a great deal of experiences with the immigrant community. Since the US government doesn’t allow international students to work and earn a living as they please like their American citizens or Green Card holders, but only though work study programs or unpaid (or very low-paid) internships, often I’m still under the impression that I’ve wasted so much potential and faith in my career during my early 20s. Not even for lack of willingness and hard work, but simply due to the nature of my identity. No matter the small victories or achievements I keep obtaining, there’s still a tiny voice inside of me that says: "you could have started working ealrier in life” and “people around you can do and demonstrate their skills and you’re still in school, at your big age.”
The reality is that if you’re in media or in the fashion industry and you’re still in school, media professionals might look at you in a certain way. The good news is that now that I’ve graduated from grad school, life has been a little bit sweeter on me. Honestly, grad school was a much better education experience from undergrad in terms of content, academic relationships, job opportunities, and just more people around me believing in what I could bring to the executive rooms, both in education and in media. Still, It wasn’t easy, but I made it to graduation and landed a job right afterwards. This was the kind of luck and faith I was hoping to get in fashion media, but I stopped believing in that very soon and instead of working hard to show off my abilities, I started going where I was wanted, celebrated, and respected.
Who knows where would I have been and what kind of skillsets I could have developed by now, had I had what my heart desired right after earning my BA. I certainly would have never met the wonderful people I got to come across in the non-profit sector (NYC Fair Trade Coalition), many Latinx writers, Black media professionals (AMAKA Studio, CIAFE), and inspiring BIPOC educators (mainly at CUNY).
With the subsequent series of media and tech layoffs between 2021 and 2024, education turned to be a safe space for me and diving into research while leading my safe haven, FOTB, and writing for other publications has been a much needed testimony that life for me can also be stable. Stability is what I’ve been searching for since graduating from college in 2020. Today I catch myself thinking how much stability for careers in media and in education are and will be more non-existent. I don’t remember the exact moment when I switched my mentality, from spending time on formal networking within the industry to enhancing the intellectual demands of myself to others. I just know that once I started becoming much more pragmatic about the intentions and plans for my desired career path, I began feeling very good about myself and my accomplishments. And my students could see that too.
After graduating from undergrad, in journalism I got extremely disappointed by a series of soul-crushing encounters disguised as mentorship talks that pushed me to self-doubt. In higher education, during both undergrad and grad school, I was lost trying to find enticing stimuli that could help me crafting academic products while taking charge of my voice and knowing my rights as an expat. In the meantime, life of an early and mid-20-years-old had been developing: family matters, heartbreaks in friendships, and overall a constant change in people’s behaviour in the fashion and media industry. Lots of facades, lots of inertia, lots of close-mindedness. Throughout my first semster as an adjunct lecturer I found myself with a crowd of late teenagers and upper freshmen students, hungry for success and career prospects. With a hindsight, instead of sulking in these memories and simply just spitting the collection of notions from my syllabus, I took this teaching opportunity to translate what I’ve done out of spite and in response to find community through FOTB since 2020 into a practical experience, so that students could find honesty and transparency in their learning process. The outcome was a honest and grounding learning experience for both myself and the students.
I plan to develop this framework and intellectual philosophy to be applied in the classroom, as it turned out to be very successful, not only for the students but also for my own mental health as a media educator. Let’s all work smarter and not necessarily harder.
Context
Always be punctual with what you bring to the class. Time is money, students invest money to be in the classroom. Present to the students your material with the clear intention of what kind of engagement you’re expecting in your course and what soft skills can they learn from this curriculum you’re using. Just like a journalist, you want to make sure to provide a smooth experience to the readers. deliver your content by respecting the context you’re in.
Ungrading
It is time to celebrate the results over the process, just as much as it is right to take into consideration the quality of in-class interventions compared to the frequency of questions, concerns, or other issues raised in class. Grade students based on what they learned and formulate a dialogue with them throughout the length of the course. You can still pass a class even if you’re not the most talkative or if you missed a few classes, compared to a person who’s always in the class but never listening to you and their peers.
Kanju
The Yoruba people identify kanju as a hustling activity, more often present in informal economies and entrepreneurial settings. Creativity that celebrates generative resources and successful endeavors are the way-to-go. Anyone can be creative, but not everyone can be an artist. Despite such thing, how can you sharpen your creativity? How can you get to reflect on the coursework material and apply yourself to expand your knowledge?
Physical Wellness
Why can’t we teach how to nourish the body in the classroom, no matter the course we’re teaching? Mens sana in corpore sana. Your body matters much more than a grade. It is fundamental to share this with students, if we care of their well-being and our own academic integrity as experienced scholars.
Love
If only more students knew how to interpret love languages and love as a civic engagement discourse, the students themselves would enjoy school better. As I keep developing this framework, I have a strong feeling that WSNH can bring lots to the table of higher education.
