Outside Engagements
The Pearce Center for Professional Communication participates in many events and initiatives on and off campus. While the Pearce Center does not organize or sponsor these events, the center is proud of the contributions made by the team as representatives of the department and Clemson University. Through a combination of roles supporting Clemson, the Pearce Center team realizes the center’s commitment to improving communication across campus and the community.
2023 Quality Enhancement Plan
During the summer of 2022 and throughout the 2022-2023 school year, Ashley Fisk and Allison Daniel participated in Clemson’s 2023 Quality Enhancement Plan. Fisk served on the QEP Steering Committee as co-chair of the Marketing and Communications Committee. Her role included participating in committee meetings, attending focus groups to learn more about students’ perspective on the proposed topic and providing support to the QEP director. Her experience as the assistant director of the Pearce Center made her a valuable part of the committee as the chosen topic was experiential learning at Clemson. As a part of Fisk’s committee, Daniel helped develop a style guide for the written report and compose part of the literature review. Fisk and Daniel also edited the entire report at the end of the writing process to ensure compliance with the style guide and other standards. Fisk also took part in several meetings with administrators and representatives from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges as part of the accreditation process. These meetings focused on presenting the topic of the QEP and answering questions about why the topic was chosen and its future implementation.
Graduate Research and Discovery Symposium
In Spring 2023, Cameron Bushnell assisted graduate students participating in Graduate Student Government’s virtual Graduate Research and Discovery Symposium. A conference-style research competition, GRADS showcases the innovative research being done by graduate students across
all of Clemson’s colleges. This year, the symposium’s theme was “Public Engagement through Creative Communication,” and students submitted three-minute videos about their research. Bushnell advised interested students on their video scripts, focusing on clarity, pacing, structure
and identifying the narrative they wanted to communicate to the audience.
Three-Minute Thesis
In Fall 2022, Cameron Bushnell assisted graduate students as they prepared for the annual 3MT competition organized by the Graduate Student Government. Participants prepared scripts and a single slide to present their theses, aiming to compete on local, regional and even national levels. Bushnell gave a presentation to the participants with advice on their scripts, focusing on structure, speech and speed. She also reviewed interested participants’ scripts and met individually with the students to discuss strategies for writing clear and concise scripts to present their research.
Chemistry Research Experience for Undergraduates
In June 2022, the Department of Chemistry held a summer research experience for undergraduates on campus. Over the course of six weeks, students performed research in advanced materials and chemical biology and advanced their personal and professional development through workshops, seminars and panel discussions on topics ranging from the fundamentals of instrumentation techniques, research in the various disciplines of chemistry, career preparation and the role of women and underrepresented groups in the sciences. As part of the summer experience, Cameron Bushnell was invited to present to the students about writing in the disciplines in chemistry and gave a talk entitled “Good Writing Makes Good Impressions.
NSF RED Consortium
In September 2022, Cameron Bushnell was invited to join colleagues from the Department of Civil Engineering at the Revolutionizing Engineering and Computer Science Departments Consortium meeting hosted by the American Society for Engineering Education. They traveled to Arlington,
Virginia, where they presented their panel entitled “Lessons Learned: Building Communication in Civil Engineering Courses.” Their presentation was part of ongoing discussions about revolutionizing civil engineering education.
Clemson Faculty Research Symposium
In May 2022, Cameron Bushnell and the Pearce Faculty Fellows presented virtually at the sixth annual Research Symposium. A gathering of faculty from all disciplines to share ideas, form research collaborations and celebrate successes in scholarship and discovery, the symposium featured interdisciplinary workshops, panel discussions, networking opportunities and awards ceremonies. The Faculty Fellows panel, “Communication Across the Curriculum,” focused on the research projects they completed as part of the Pearce program and the impacts they had on the Clemson community.
WAC Summer Institute
In June 2022, Cameron Bushnell attended the WAC Summer Institute held in Athens, Georgia. A professional development seminar focusing on writing across the curriculum, the summer institute’s primary goal is to assist new and prospective leaders of writing across the curriculum, writing in the disciplines or similar initiatives in planning and developing sustainable programs. The summer institute also supports experienced directors who face new challenges or wish to expand, update or revitalize their programs. The summer institute was limited to only 35 participants, which allowed the participants to work in small groups, as a whole group, individually and with facilitators to tailor the institute’s recommended WAC strategies and approach to program development to their specific institutional contexts and goals.
Conference on College Composition and Communication
The CCCC is an annual convention that is recognized around the world for being the largest professional organization for teaching and researching composition. Held in Chicago in February 2023, the theme of the hybrid conference was “Doing Hope in Desperate Times.” Cameron Bushnell was joined on a panel by RCID graduate Whitney Jordan Adams and Elizabeth McClure from the University of Maryland, College Park. Their panel was titled “Literature and Composition: Reading and Writing Toward Social Justice” and focused on potential productive entanglements between literature and rhetoric and assisting students to render complex thoughts into persuasive language that challenges master narratives.