Jacqueline Alnes ’13 talks about her relationship with Professor of English Jean Schwind and how it impacted her time at Elon and beyond.
A consummate teacher, Professor of English Jean Schwind is known for finding new and creative ways to make course materials relatable. She encourages students to take part in class discussions while challenging them to think critically. Her passion and dedication in the class-room have earned her the 2016 Daniels-Danieley Award for Excellence in Teaching and admiration from countless students whose lives she has touched throughout her 29 years at Elon.
During my fi rst year at Elon, I began experiencing neurological issues that produced symptoms of blurred vision, aphasia and memory loss. While the cause of these symptoms was — and still is — a mystery, their presence was all too real. Reading and writing became diffi cult. In classes, formerly quick to raise my hand and contribute, I feared my voice slipping into a series of incoherent words. When I took Dr. Schwind’s course about the writings of Mark Twain and Willa Cather in the spring of my sophomore year, I was afraid, both of becoming symptomatic in class and of never regaining my love for language.
I had no reason to fear either. Through a variety of inclusive and engaging teaching strategies, Dr. Schwind not only fostered deeper under-standing of an array of texts, but also cultivated a healthy, supportive community within the walls of her classroom. In Twain and Cather, and a year later in American Literature II, we played charades based on readings, participated in supportive yet rigorous peer-review sessions and gave presentations that prepared us for conferences. When my neurological symptoms returned, Dr. Schwind reassured me by her actions that she remained sure of my ability to succeed. I will forever remember Dr. Schwind’s classes
as being dynamic and accessible to a variety of learners, traits I now try to emulate when I teach. My experiences were not only meaningful because of the scholarship I produced, but also because I regained confidence in my own potential, a gift I’ll never fail to be grateful for.
In addition to her exceptional teaching practices, Dr. Schwind is a mentor who has always challenged me to grow. As a research adviser, she read innumerable drafts, asked productive questions and challenged me to continue honing my critical-thinking skills. She taught me how to write an abstract so I could present my research, and in later years wrote letters of recommendation for graduate schools and reviewed my résumé when I entered the job market.
Above all, Dr. Schwind has always made it clear that she cares about me and all of her students as fully complex humans, a kind of care that has sustained me in many ways throughout my years in academia. Because of who Dr. Schwind is and all that she taught me, I am a more empathetic and innovative professor, someone who hopes to nurture the same self-confidence in my students as she did — and continues doing — for me.
Jacqueline Alnes ’13 is an assistant professor of English (creative nonfiction) at West Chester University in Pennsylvania. Among other places, her work has been published in Th e New York Times, Guernica, Tin House, Th e Boston Globe and Longreads.