JUNE 24, 2021 — The year 2020 is considered by many to be the beginning of a new historical age. To showcase and preserve the unique lived experiences of UTSA students during this unrivaled time, faculty, staff and students collaborated on a groundbreaking interdisciplinary project called Defining Moments.
By empowering students to become their own authors and voice their individual experiences with COVID-19, as well as with personal and social issues, the project strengthens the UTSA community by amplifying its many voices.
Defining Moments showcases the creative and collaborative prowess of the Roadrunner community. Over the last academic year, more than 500 students across six disciplines were invited to participate in the project by reflecting on the events of 2020 and its impact on their lives.
UTSA dance students transformed the reflections, poems, music and art compositions of the Defining Moments project into movement.
The purpose of the project was threefold:
Students worked with faculty in the disciplines of history, English, art, music, dance and architecture to turn their reflections into creative and expressive works. Along the way, staff from Academic Innovation and the UTSA Libraries supported the project by helping students and faculty find ways to effectively collaborate in a primarily virtual environment and to document and share the work.
“I am so impressed with the faculty who are willing to try new modalities while continuing to focus on the quality of teaching and the learning experience for students,” said Melissa Vito, vice provost of academic innovation at UTSA. “My hope is that this project [with different areas of focus] becomes an educational point of distinction for our Roadrunners and an ongoing part of the undergraduate experience.”
The project came about as a recommendation of the Undergraduate and Masters Education Recovery Tactical Team (UME), one of several tactical teams created in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and charged with developing proposals to adapt to the blended and modified educational and campus life modalities. One of the UME’s priorities was to develop opportunities for experiential learning that would distinguish UTSA. Claudia Arcolin, director of digital learning; Jodi Peterson, assistant professor of instruction in the Department of History; and Jourdan Laine Howell, senior lecturer in the Department of Music, spearheaded the initiative that ultimately became the Defining Moments project.
“When we as faculty network and collaborate, we model it for our students and lay a fertile foundation for them to then collaborate and thrive,” Peterson said. “All of this was done using the backdrop of the pandemic, which shifted from being the problem to the inspiration.”
In a cascading fashion, the project began with students in Peterson’s history classes: her students created journal entries documenting and reflecting on the historical significance of the moment. Students in associate professor David Vance’s English classes then took the journal entries and transformed them into poems and short written pieces.
Music composition majors worked under the direction of faculty members Howell and Ethan Wickman to use the literary works as inspiration to create original compositions, while the same texts fueled artistic products produced by art majors under the direction of faculty members Mark McCoin and Humberto Saenz.
Dance students from Megan Rulewicz’s classes transformed the reflections, poems, music and art compositions into movement. Architecture students in John Bagarozy’s classes created a space for students to virtually exhibit their creations, with plans for a physical exhibition space in the future.
Music composition student Hannah Bradley composed her longest and first entirely electronic piece to accompany the poem “The Disturbance” written by students Daniella Flores and Ezra Garza. Though challenging, the experience not only provided her with new skills to apply to future compositions but also gave her a sense of hope and community during an uncertain time.
“I’m honored to have had this opportunity to create something that is both a documented piece of history and a beautiful work of art,” Bradley said. “Despite all the chaos going on in the world at the time, the students of UTSA were able to come together and continue creating art.”
Professionals from Academic Innovation and the library designed the learning experience and identified best practices considering Universal Design for Learning, digital fluency, FERPA and copyright. Ernest Hernandez, director of video production, recorded videos of the projects to showcase and preserve each students’ defining moment.
Scholarly communication librarian Emily Johnson, who provided support the project, was excited to help document the experiences of UTSA students and to preserve those experiences for the future.
“This project has benefited the UTSA community by giving students a way to collaborate during a time of social distancing and to also express how the pandemic and other world events were impacting their lives,” Johnson said.
The students’ artifacts have been archived in the university’s Runner Research Press and will be transformed into open educational resources accessible to the entire community.
UTSA Today is produced by University Communications and Marketing, the official news source of The University of Texas at San Antonio. Send your feedback to news@utsa.edu. Keep up-to-date on UTSA news by visiting UTSA Today. Connect with UTSA online at Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Instagram.
Join the UTSA community in celebrating the life of Dr. Thelma Duffey.
Aula Canaria (BV 1.328), Buena Vista Building, Downtown CampusThe proposed annual BME Research Symposium will allow students to present their undergraduate research free of charge, providing them with the opportunity to network and build their professional skills.
H-E-B Student Union Ballroom 1 & 2, Main CampusThe UTSA Marches Committee, in partnership with the Cesar E. Chavez Legacy and Education Foundation, invites everyone to the 27th annual Cesar E. Chavez March for Justice. This event is in conjunction with the "Yes We CAN" food donation drive with the San Antonio Food Bank. Guests are encouraged to bring canned food items with them to the march to deposit cans into barrels before the march begins.
1310 Guadalupe St, San Antonio, TX 78207Join us to learn about how Impostor Syndrome can affect your career decisions and how you view yourself, your knowledge, and abilities. You will leave with actionable items related to implementing coping strategies for symptoms that may arise in your career development (mentally, physically, emotionally).
University Career Center (S.U. 2.02.04,) Main CampusJoin UTSA librarians for this introductory workshop for early career faculty on how to build your online scholarly identity.
John Peace Library, GroupSpot BJoin the conversation with Karleen Pendleton Jimenez, a professor in the Department of Gender and Social Justice at Trent University.
Virtual EventLearn to use the dynamic tool VMOCK to assist you in your job/internship search. Evaluate your resume. Get feedback on your "elevator pitch" and on how you engage in verbal communication virtually and in-person.
Multidisciplinary Studies (MS 2.02.36,) Main CampusThe University of Texas at San Antonio is dedicated to the advancement of knowledge through research and discovery, teaching and learning, community engagement and public service. As an institution of access and excellence, UTSA embraces multicultural traditions and serves as a center for intellectual and creative resources as well as a catalyst for socioeconomic development and the commercialization of intellectual property - for Texas, the nation and the world.
To be a premier public research university, providing access to educational excellence and preparing citizen leaders for the global environment.
We encourage an environment of dialogue and discovery, where integrity, excellence, inclusiveness, respect, collaboration and innovation are fostered.
UTSA is a proud Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) as designated by the U.S. Department of Education.
The University of Texas at San Antonio, a Hispanic Serving Institution situated in a global city that has been a crossroads of peoples and cultures for centuries, values diversity and inclusion in all aspects of university life. As an institution expressly founded to advance the education of Mexican Americans and other underserved communities, our university is committed to ending generations of discrimination and inequity. UTSA, a premier public research university, fosters academic excellence through a community of dialogue, discovery and innovation that embraces the uniqueness of each voice.