Author: The Crusader Staff Writer Robin Wiley
Erin Jensen is the faculty advisor of the school newspaper and an Associate Professor of English. You may be familiar with Jensen, as she often gives presentations on campus on creating an impressive LinkedIn profile or writing an attention-grabbing resume. In addition to being a professor, she is the Director of the Writing Center, the faculty advisor of the school newspaper, the Director of the Undergraduate Research Conference, manages the Social Media and Digital Communication minor and the Writing minor, and she also presents at conferences and publishes journal articles.
Getting to know Jensen over the last two and a half years that I have been finishing my degree at BAC has been inspiring. Erin, as she prefers to be called by her students, has encouraged me and provided me with opportunities and a belief that I, an adult student returning to finish my degree, can accomplish writing and creating digital art tasks that I did not initially think I was capable of. Erin is very positive, encouraging, and passionate.
She came to Belmont Abbey College in 2019 from Nevada and brought with her much experience and extensive education. Erin is a Utah native, born and raised in Salt Lake City. She has lived in Minnesota and Nevada and has visited almost every state in the country. If you are fortunate enough to take one of her classes, you can ask her which states she has yet to visit. Globally, she lived in both Taiwan and China and learned Mandarin Chinese so she “could talk to people.”
She is a graduate of The University of Utah with a BA in English, an MEd in English Education, and a Ph.D. in Education/Rhetoric and Composition. She was a college athlete and competed in swimming and waterpolo. Because she loves learning, she decided to pursue another degree and is starting a Professional and Technical Communication graduate degree this summer. She still plans to teach full time at the Abbey.
I asked Erin if her goal had always been teaching at the college level and if she had any mentors during her academic and professional journey. Erin stated, “I wanted to be a high school English teacher and achieved that goal; however, after teaching for several years, I realized that while I loved teaching writing, I did not like teaching literature. At that point, I returned to school to earn my Ph.D. to become a college professor. During my Ph.D. program, I taught freshman writing, business communications, and writing across the curriculum classes.” As for having mentors, Erin stated, “My grandfather was a university psychology professor, and my mother is a college lecturer in the writing department. My twin brother is a sports psychology professor in California.” It appears that Erin has had strong mentors guiding her on her journey.
When asked what she has appreciated about being involved in the English department, she responded, “I appreciate having the opportunity to add several new classes and create new minors. I have been involved in creating and directing the Writing Center and appreciate the opportunities to get involved in the college and student support efforts. I have enjoyed teaching all of the classes that I teach including RH 104 as I have the opportunity to see students improve their writing skills through the semester. I also like EN 106, Introduction to Digital and Multimedia Art. This class involves all the topics I am interested in, including graphic design, AI art, photo editing, and Canva. I really enjoy teaching EN 362 Writing for Social Media as this class involves topics including marketing, social media management, the major social media platforms, and some website and SEO design. I created the class to give students a chance to engage in social media in a professional way and create a final project that would provide them with both experiences. But, I also love all the classes I teach.” She also teaches journalism, Editing and Writing for Publication, Professional and Technical Writing, and various other writing-based classes.
As a current student of Jensen, I can attest that she is passionate about what she teaches and she advocates for her students by creating new content, staying up to date on current trends and applications, and encouraging her students to explore real-life employment situations and opportunities. Erin Jensen was instrumental in bringing my internship to fruition with a global company that had not done internships in many years.
Erin was involved in helping to coach the triathlon team here at the Abbey for almost two years. “I had initially contacted the coaches as I am a swim coach, and triathlon was the closest to swimming I could get. My original plan was to help with swimming, but I also helped to arrange competitions and have contact with the NCAA. I enjoyed my experience helping to coach the triathlon team, but am also happy that they have a new head coach this year.”
Erin is actively involved in her own research, conference presentations, and publications. She mainly focuses on digital writing and recently published several articles focused on using memes as pedagogical tools. She has two conference presentations scheduled next month that are both focused on ways to use social media in writing classes. I recently co-authored a chapter with her and twelve other students on ways to encourage undergraduate students to co-author with professors. Last semester, Erin co-authored with nine Abbey student-athletes an article that appeared in the online Sports Journal.
As a student, I have found that Jensen possesses true joy in her spirit and a love of learning, enabling her to teach others to love learning. I also appreciate her focus on application-based projects and assignments. We are happy to have her teaching at the Abbey.
This article was originally posted in the Spring 2023, Issue 3 of The Crusader Newspaper. Download the full issue here.
