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New Media Lab Featured Writer: Dr. Megan Garvy Issue 8 05/07/2021

Dr. Megan Garvy is service faculty in the Center for Teaching and Learning. She enjoys doing the dishes these days.

In early spring 2020, my professional life and my home life were bursting at the seams. I was in the final semester of a five-year dissertation journey, working my full time gig in the CTL, serving the college on overload time as faculty liaison to dual enrollment, and wrestling through the critical expectations of year five PAR faculty. My three young children, all under the age of twelve, were in nine activities combined. Earlier in the year, my husband and I started a club baseball team. So, I was also managing the team website, player dues, apparel, and tournament schedule. When I wasn’t at work, I was shuffling kids to hockey, dance, baseball, and Awanas. I spent the weekends at hockey tournaments and dance competitions with my laptop in tow. And, I maintained our home--cleaning, laundry, grocery shopping, and packing lunches. Most of the time, we ate dinner on the road or at the ice den. My world was anxious. Wound up too tight.

During a CTL meeting in February, James mentioned a virus. I had no idea what he was talking about. The life I was living had no time for television or the news.

Enter COVID-19. My youngest son suffered from autoimmune illnesses for the first two years of his life. He is fierce yet delicate. I am not highly concerned about Henry and the virus, but it weighs into my thoughts. We live within ten miles of my parents and in-laws. Both sets are in their early to mid seventies. Both sets have underlying health conditions. Fragile children and parents make quarantining easy. We live in a cul de sac with two other families with young children. The kids adjusted quickly from sports and activities to swimming, video games, and playing kick the can in the street.

Enter racial pandemic. For five years, I was engrossed in literature relative to cultural responsiveness, transformative learning, and global perspective. I invested professional and personal time to better understand self with others. I traced the cultural norms that shaped my values and beliefs to reinforcers that perpetuate my behaviors and actions in the workplace. I grew intraracially and interracially alongside colleagues of color and European-American colleagues at the college. Personal investment in this work has caused me to more fully understand the magnitude of the physical and racial state of our college, which is merely a microcosm of our nation.

I am restless about our institution. My commitment to faculty and student success causes the letters to wear out on my keyboard. I am acutely aware of the diversity of needs in our community. Similar to student needs caused by a global pandemic, our colleagues have been impacted by COVID-19 illness, learning how to teach online, limited access to the internet, full confinement to home for underlying health conditions, and racial unrest. Yet, in these darker hours, the light begins to shine. There is an evolving commitment to believing the experiences of others and to personal and institutional transformation towards justice. I have experienced and observed a heightened level of collaboration within my own department and among others. People are showing up. Technology connected us differently by extending our capacity to meet one another without place. Experiencing COVID-19 together has revealed social inequity and ignited our purpose as a community college.

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We enrolled our kids into a flex model of school this semester. They attend live online instruction during school hours five days each week. Sports and activities are gradually returning with new health and safety protocols. My husband goes to the high school every day wearing an N95 mask for a hybrid model of instruction. I have been afforded the opportunity to work from home. Ironically, I feel more connected to my department and colleagues at the college, across the district, and at partner high school districts than before this change. Technology brings us together, and we continuously solve problems with urgency. Most importantly, my dishwasher is always full. It is remarkably peaceful settling into home.

Dr. Megan Garvy

Credits:

Created with an image by Anemone123 - "team spirit cohesion together"