Student Success Champion Profile - Beth Black, M.L.S.
As an Associate Professor and the Undergraduate Engagement Librarian at Ohio State, Beth Black is passionate about teaching and supporting undergraduate student learning. Beth partners with a wide variety of units across campus, including Student Life and Undergraduate Education, to help embed key academic skills such as information literacy, critical thinking, and metacognition into the Ohio State student experience.
Beth has been a major contributor to the university’s programming for first and second year students, and served on the committees that conceptualized, designed, and implemented signature initiatives such as the Second-year Transformational Experience Program (STEP), the STEP Professional Development Co-Curriculars series, and the new General Education Bookends courses. Beth’s eye for detail and knack for implementation planning provided a huge logistic benefit to each committee, while her broad multidisciplinary background and in-depth understanding of literacy and metacognition provided a critical academic benefit.
Beth does not stop at designing and coordinating courses, workshops, or curricula; she also gets elbow-deep in the work of mentoring and teaching students. As a STEP mentor, she works with students individually and in groups to explore their academic and career goals, and to select and implement signature projects that will help move them toward those goals. As a General Education Bookends instructor, Beth had the unique honor of teaching the pilots for each of the Bookends courses: Launch, Connection, and Reflection. Serving as a mentor and instructor allows Beth to engage in the work she enjoys the most: learning about and supporting students over time. For example, when she taught the General Education pilot Connection Seminar for transfer students, she noticed that one student seemed to have difficulty in connecting with the class. Beth reached out to the student with empathy, and heard that they were struggling and questioning whether it was the right time for them to continue their education. After the student had an opportunity to share their challenges and confusion with a caring instructor, they felt supported and became more engaged in class.
“Often, I see students who get really discouraged when things don't come quickly, or they have those negative emotions around learning. And it's normal. It's part of the process.”
When asked about her advice to students, Beth said many students need to hear that it’s perfectly normal and expected to have negative emotions with learning. Everyone experiences frustrations when they are not understanding something, and students are not alone when they feel that way. If a student tries to do something and starts to struggle, it’s a good opportunity to pause and reflect on how to move forward; for example, they could change their approach to the problem, or ask for help. The negative emotions are not a sign to stop, but are just a normal response in the process of learning. Beth’s commitment to embedding this type of metacognitive skill into the undergraduate experience is just one of many reasons why Beth is a Student Success Champion.
