The transition from high school to college can present with challenges for some students. Using her own expertise and experiences, Black Hawk College Psychology and Sociology Professor Dr. Traci Davis has published her first book ‘Dear Freshman: A Professor’s Guide to Getting it Right’ to help students feel more prepared, especially following the pandemic and teaching via Zoom:
“I had a student in a duck blind and that was hilarious because I had never taught to a duck blind before, but he was very gracious that he didn’t want to miss class, but this was the last year he would be able to be at the opening day with my dad because next year I will be away. I sat down after that class was over and I opened up a word document and I just wrote ‘Dear Freshman’ at the top. It was just an expression of everything I saw them losing in the socialization process of school. I wrote for five, six, seven pages, thought that was interesting, I may post that at the end of a syllabus somewhere, but then I woke up the next morning and thought I forgot this and this and this, so I just kept writing. I didn’t tell anyone I was writing it for a long time because I wasn’t sure if anyone would want to read it or if they thought it was valuable. So, when I was finally done with it, I sent it to two colleagues and they both said they wanted it in the hands of every freshman. We need to figure out how to get it there.”
Dr. Davis’s book is available for purchase in print or digitally on Amazon.
