Robert J. Nash – författare

Helping College Students Find Purpose

Today''s college students are demanding that their educational experiences address the core questions of meaning and purpose. . . What does it mean to be successful? How will I know what type of career is best for me? Why do I hurt so much when a relationship ends? Why do innocent people have to suffer?

Faculty and administrators are in the unique position to make special contributions to their students'' search for meaning, and when they work together, everyone on a college campus benefits. Helping College Students Find Purpose provides a theory-to-practice model of meaning-making that enables the entire campus community to participate in the process. Based on a practical how-to approach, the authors outline a series of concrete steps for applying the theory and practice of meaning-making to teaching, leading, administering, and advising.

Filled with real-life vignettes, this guidebook includes the background knowledge and proven tools that will help faculty and administrators act as effective mentors to students. While there is no single solution that can meet everyone''s needs, the authors provide a series of classroom and cross-campus strategies that are specifically designed to help students successfully navigate their diverse meaning-making activities and effectively enhance their quest for meaning.

Helping College Students Find Purpose

Today''s college students are demanding that their educational experiences address the core questions of meaning and purpose. . . What does it mean to be successful? How will I know what type of career is best for me? Why do I hurt so much when a relationship ends? Why do innocent people have to suffer?

Faculty and administrators are in the unique position to make special contributions to their students'' search for meaning, and when they work together, everyone on a college campus benefits. Helping College Students Find Purpose provides a theory-to-practice model of meaning-making that enables the entire campus community to participate in the process. Based on a practical how-to approach, the authors outline a series of concrete steps for applying the theory and practice of meaning-making to teaching, leading, administering, and advising.

Filled with real-life vignettes, this guidebook includes the background knowledge and proven tools that will help faculty and administrators act as effective mentors to students. While there is no single solution that can meet everyone''s needs, the authors provide a series of classroom and cross-campus strategies that are specifically designed to help students successfully navigate their diverse meaning-making activities and effectively enhance their quest for meaning.

At a time when STEM research and new technologies are dominating the curricula of colleges and universities, this important book refocuses the conversation on holistic education for all students. Organized around the most important and difficult questions that students face, Preparing Students for Life Beyond College explores a vision of education that will enable students to talk about universal issues openly and honestly, preparing them for life beyond their formal education. Featuring a variety of traditional and innovative pedagogies, strategies, recommendations, and case studies, this practical resource provides student affairs practitioners and higher education faculty in a variety of disciplines with concrete approaches for developing campuses and classes that encourage critical thinking and reflection. This exciting book prepares colleges and universities to help students create meaning in their lives—no matter the discipline, campus location or delivery system.

At a time when STEM research and new technologies are dominating the curricula of colleges and universities, this important book refocuses the conversation on holistic education for all students. Organized around the most important and difficult questions that students face, Preparing Students for Life Beyond College explores a vision of education that will enable students to talk about universal issues openly and honestly, preparing them for life beyond their formal education. Featuring a variety of traditional and innovative pedagogies, strategies, recommendations, and case studies, this practical resource provides student affairs practitioners and higher education faculty in a variety of disciplines with concrete approaches for developing campuses and classes that encourage critical thinking and reflection. This exciting book prepares colleges and universities to help students create meaning in their lives—no matter the discipline, campus location or delivery system.

What we intend to do in this book is to explain, and exemplify, in a nuts-and-bolts way, what we are calling Scholarly Personal Narrative (SPN) writing.

This is a genre created over 15 years ago by Robert, one of the co-authors of this book. The other co-author, DeMethra, has actually written a thesis and dissertation using this genre, so she brings an author''s direct SPN experience to the table. Both of us co-teach a course that we call "Scholarly Personal Narrative Writing for Pre-Professionals and Professionals."

In the chapters that follow, we will present a step-by-step approach for composing an SPN manuscript. The book will be comprised of four general parts, consisting of several short, practical chapters, written in non-technical language. We will write each of the chapters as a way of responding to the most common questions that our students have raised about SPN writing through the years. We will attempt to write as we teach, with no frills and with clarity, empathy, and understanding. We will also provide several SPN writing examples, as well as authorial toolbox tips, throughout the book. In addition, we will conclude with a bibliography of the most relevant personal narrative writing guides we have been able to muster.

Our desire is to minimize the number of in-text citations and references in order to maximize the space for us to present a useful, nuts-and-bolts guide to writing, as well as a realistic, down-to-earth rationale for scholarly personal narrative writing in the academy. After reading the book, and practicing the writing exercises, undergraduate and graduate students will be able to author research papers, theses, and dissertations using the Scholarly Personal Narrative research genre. Hundreds of students have done this already throughout the country.

As authors, we are convinced that the time has finally arrived in academe for an extensive, experience-based, firsthand, seamless examination of what we are calling crossover pedagogy. There is no book-length examination of facultystudent affairs administrators collaboration in the academic realm anywhere. Nobody has yet to produce a case-based, hands-on, book-length treatment of how (and why) faculty and student affairs administrators can co-teach, co-author, and co-consult with one another as co-equal educators and campus leaders—with each group complementing the other in terms of their special skills, knowledge, background, and experiences. Without coming to practical terms with the case for collaboration that the above authors make, the why rationale developed in these publications on the topic of faculty-administrator collaboration (sometimes referred to as ''blended'' efforts) around the teaching-learning venture is lost in the logistics of technical policy issues and challenges.