Linn-Benton’s incoming communications instructor, Dr. Josh Fitzgerald, and I were able to sit down via Zoom and talk a little bit about his life, upcoming move to Oregon and job here at LBCC. It was so generous of him to take the time as you’ll find out he has a million things going on and is trying to keep up with it all. He’s a down-to-earth guy, looking forward to giving his students everything he’s got. Spoiler alert: If you like dogs, live music, or basketball, you will have plenty to talk about with Dr. Josh! If you see him around campus this fall, make sure to stop and say hi – welcome him to our amazing school!
Welcome to LBCC! As of this interview, you’re not in Oregon yet. Where are you coming from?
Thank you. No, I currently live in Bloomington, Illinois. This is a couple of hours downstate of Chicago. So, about 31 hours away from you right now.
You’ll be moving in a couple of weeks, though, right?
Yeah, let me pull up my calendar. I’m leaving here on September 9.
Awesome! Tell us a little about yourself. I hear you’ve had quite a big year!
It’s a very eventful year. I just officially received my doctorate in Communication Education, which is exciting. If you can tell, I don’t like to carry myself as some academics do. Not to stereotype others or anything, but some people carry themselves, like, very, super-duper intelligent. I don’t really like to do that, and I think it’s for a number of reasons.
I’m going on my ninth year teaching, which is crazy in the higher ed environment. I’ve been in higher ed and academia the whole time, obviously. I decided a long time ago that even though you could call me Dr. Fitzgerald now, I’ve never really subscribed to that. I like to approach other people as human beings. I’m not smarter than anybody. The reason I say that is because, as a student, I was very afraid, kind of uncomfortable, to approach my professors. So, as a professor, I try to be as laid back and as approachable as possible – I try to carry myself that way. I think that translates over into a little bit about me: Just in general, laid back. I think I’m easy to talk to. I’m just your average, ordinary guy. I like to do things that most people like to do.
I will be, I think LB calls it, full-time communication faculty. But in essence, a professor of communication. I like teaching and I like to be a resource for my students, which is why I like to appear approachable. That’s where I was going with that. I wear tennis shoes and Vans every day to class. Some students might say I overshare my personal life, my interests, and things like that. But again, it’s all to break down that barrier and be approachable as an educator.
So, that’s a little bit about me. Right now, one of my main focuses is being as quality an educator as I can be. That’s what I hope to bring to LB in a few short weeks.
I heard that you’re getting married soon!
So, that’s kind of an interesting little wrinkle in my life. I’m getting married on October 26. So, I go out to Oregon in mid-September. We arrive five days after we leave, then we have to travel back and get married and go back again. So, there will be a week in October when I won’t be in Oregon, but my students need not worry. There will be stuff to do while I’m gone. It’s already sorted out.
Well, congratulations!
Thank you so much. I appreciate that.
You mentioned that you’re going to be teaching communications. What do you love most about communications? Have you been teaching that?
Yes, I’ve been teaching what I think LB calls COM111Z, their kind of intro to COMM/speech course. I’ve been teaching that my entire teaching career, and it’s interesting that I enjoy teaching that class because it’s a speech course. There’s the stigma attached to public speaking, but I try as hard as I can to cultivate a comfortable classroom atmosphere – build confidence for everybody. Because that’s what, in any intro course, you’re trying to teach: basic skills and building confidence for students to apply those skills in real-world scenarios. That’s my goal, and it starts with me. So, I realized that if I went into every class and I was super serious and rigid – circling back to what I was talking about before, hard to approach – this course, that is truly a phobia for some people, becomes so much harder. Being a working professional for however long now and having a foot in the professional realm and the student realm, I totally see the value in being able to communicate effectively. I genuinely think the intro to basic communication course is a great way to develop those skills, or at least be made aware of areas where we could improve.
I try to bring experience to help prepare my students for the next step, whether it be for a four-year institution, graduate school, or entering the private sector. My favorite thing about teaching is being a resource – sharing valuable information with students and being a resource for them to help progress to that next step. That involves a lot of things on my end other than being a competent instructor. I write a lot of letters of recommendation, and I’ve been a reference for numerous students. I think that’s part of the gig. That’s part of what I’m here to do. Some of my colleagues disagree with me on that front, for various reasons specific to them, but that’s my favorite thing: to be there as a resource and then see that progress. So, that really makes my day, especially as social media is a thing now, and I keep in touch with certain students in that way. Just seeing them graduate a few years later and seeing them get married and things like that. It’s just really cool to see students flourish and thrive as individuals in our society, in and outside of the classroom. So, that’s my favorite thing about teaching, I think – by a mile.
At LB, we try to cultivate a community of making people realize that there’s a lot of help out there. There are a lot of tools that you can use to learn to be successful as a student and a lot of great resources. When you were pursuing your own education, what would you say helped you the most? What’s in your toolbox, so to speak.
Yes, I definitely got that impression, too. OK, so first and foremost – and this is something that I think would help students on every level of academia, and I want to stress that I don’t say this as a bitter teacher or anything – but I think the first rule or piece of advice would be to read the directions of the tasks you’re assigned. I think that translates to the professional, private sector, for future jobs and future academics, because understanding what the expectations are for whatever you’re assigned to do, whether it be homework or as an employee, is a good way to ensure that you’re doing those things. You know that there’s going to be set expectations in life everywhere. As a communications scholar, I will be teaching interpersonal communication. Even in our interpersonal communication, there are expectations in our friendships and in our relationships and things like that. So, figuring out what those expectations are by, in this case, reading directions, I think is such good advice, especially for incoming freshmen.
Two, the next piece of advice I would give would be something you alluded to when you asked the question: ask for help. Pretty much every instructor I’ve had, with some exceptions – I can’t say 100% of the time – I’ve had a positive experience with educators. Instructors are there to assist you. They want you to do well. A little insider information in terms of grading and evaluating assignments: If students do them correctly and they do them well, it saves the instructor time. Because you’ve knocked out all these expectations that I’ve set out. This is great. You’re learning and applying this information. This is awesome! It’s a great mood boost, too. When it gets tricky for instructors, at least in my experience, is that I know every student I have is capable if they applied themselves, or at least that’s my opinion. At the end of the day, I’m here to answer questions. I’m here to help.
Then, one last one, in terms of what I think is beneficial for college students, find your people, find your community. Find the people that can be a resource for you, and that involves a lot of things. This is a lesson that I learned in grad school. I abruptly quit my job and enrolled in grad school because I got accepted, and because I was at a dead-end job that I didn’t like, I didn’t know anyone at the time. I kind of secluded myself for a while and didn’t branch out and put myself out there. So, my whole first semester was really, really hard because I felt secluded. I didn’t have an assistantship, which was pretty uncommon for grad school.
So, I was feeling the pinch financially. There were a lot of uncertainties, and I was really worried about things. I didn’t have an outlet in terms of people that were close to me. But then, I started to accept those invitations from my cohort, and things like that, to go to events and conferences. I found my little network of people, my support system. Then the rest of my master’s process was such a pleasant experience, because I found my people. Not to say that they loaned me money or anything, but we would just go out and find distractions. They would distract me from the stress and pressure of how much work goes into grad school, and that was so great. So, in my experience, in the higher ed environment, even at a community college, there are so many events and things: networking events, just university events and things that are designed to allow students, faculty, and staff to feel part of that community.
And you know, I haven’t officially worked at LB yet, but the vibe that they put out is similar to something you were saying. It’s definitely a community. So, another piece of advice I would give students would be to take advantage of those opportunities. At the end of the day, it’s networking, and that’s good. The phrase, “It’s all about who you know” – and there is a little bit of truth to that, sometimes depending on your field.
So, one, read directions or recognize what the expectations are. Two, ask for help. And three, find your people. I think those would be my big three in terms of advice.
That’s great advice. Is there anything that you’re especially excited to see or do in Oregon?
Yeah, actually! It’s funny you mentioned that. My fiancée, Lauryn, and I started a combined note on our phones about things we want to do when we’re out there. So, I’m personally a big music, live music person. I go to as many concerts as I can, and just yesterday, I bought tickets to a show in Portland because I’m excited to see what kind of scene there is, so to speak, in a different city. You know, obviously I live near Chicago. So, I’ve been able to experience the Chicago music scene pretty heavily, and that’s a pretty big scene. There are so many venues and stuff like that. I’ve been to St. Louis and Milwaukee to see music. I’ve been to a million, well not a million, but a variety of music festivals. I’ve been to shows on the East Coast in Raleigh, in Virginia, and things like that, but I have not done that on the West Coast. So, that is probably priority numero uno for me because I’m excited.
The next thing I’m really excited to do is I also like basketball. The Portland Trail Blazers have been an underdog for as long as I’ve been alive. Even in 2000, 2001, when they were really good, they were still kind of looking up at the Lakers and all these other big teams like that. I always thought it was cool seeing, like, Scottie Pippen played there for a little bit, you know he was on the Bulls for a long time. Brandon Roy, which is kind of a tragic situation. He had to retire early. Damian Lillard, of course – I’ve seen all these players, these Portland legends. And whenever they’re in the playoffs, like, Damian Lillard has had some pretty big moments in Portland where he had these game-winners over the Rockets and the Thunder, and just seeing the arena blow up the way it did when he hit those shots was so cool. Fans were mobbing them on the court. If you try to do that in the United Center in Chicago, you go to jail. But seeing that happen in a major city like Portland is really cool. So, I’m excited to kind of compare and contrast Portland to Chicago, where I’ve been for a long time, and even other major cities that I’ve experienced, like Milwaukee, which I think might be a little bit more similar to Portland.
So, Trailblazers games are on our list, live music, a lot of events, a lot of hiking, of course, because we don’t have a lot of trails here – we have a lot of corn here. When I came out for my campus visit, even just driving to LB’s campus, it was like, wow! The sights are immaculate here. I was just on I-5, I think it’s called, and that was really cool.
I have dogs. My fiancée and I are excited to take them to the beach and on a million trails and stuff – try to be more outdoorsy. Fun fact, our oldest dog, we took him to the Outer Banks last summer. So, that’s the Atlantic Ocean, and now we want to take him to the Pacific Ocean. Not a lot of dogs can say that they’ve seen both oceans, so we’re excited to give our pets some of those experiences as well.
But beyond those kind of selfish things like that, I’m really excited for this position at LB. I might be jumping ahead, but to give you a little bit more information about me, I’ve been working and working and working while getting the doctorate, and I’ve been teaching so many sections, trying to gain so much experience to land this professor position. The title at LB might be different, but in essence, a professor position.
So, it’d be really cool to be able to go to a school and give that school my 100%, because even last year, I was working at a four-year institution and a community college, and at that community college I wore several hats. I had three jobs at that school. It was to bolster my résumé, of course, but also to give back to those institutions, because I’m a try-hard and I’m a little over-the-top with effort levels and stuff as an employee, which I think is good. So, I’m excited to get to LB and get to work because it’s a great school – I got that right away, just visiting a day and then being in contact with the people that currently work there. It’s just been such a pleasant experience. … I’m really excited to be able to say, “This is what I’m here to do,” not, “Oh, I have to do this and this and this.” I get to give LB everything I can give it. And so far, they’ve given everything right back.
