Taking the time to know students

To students and colleagues alike, Huntington Beach resident Stacy Young is known to be like the Energizer bunny.

“I have a lot of energy,” she said. “I’m bouncy, bubbly. As a teacher you have to have more energy and enthusiasm than your students, or they won’t have any.”

Young, an associate professor in communication studies at Cal State Long Beach since 2000, was recently rewarded for her energy and teaching by the university. She was one of five faculty members to be honored with the Distinguished Faculty Teaching Award.

“It really is very meaningful to me because even though there are other aspects of my job, teaching to me is the most important and most rewarding, and the one I spend the most amount of time investing in,” Young said.

Young was first drawn to the field of communication because of its practicality and applicability to everyday interactions.

“[With] the stuff we talk about, my students are walking out of the class and using the material that day,” she said. “That’s what I like about it: It’s so meaningful to everyday life.”

“She motivates her students to want to succeed in not only in her classroom, but also in all aspects of life,” said Leslie Ramos, a teaching assistant in CSULB’s communication studies department.

Young enjoys applying her expertise in the field to her interactions with her students. She makes a point of getting to know as many people in the class as she can, whether it’s a class of 30 or 150. She prides herself on being forward and reaching out to her students.

“We all have busy schedules and it’s hard to do all the things you want to do,” she said. “But I make a concerted effort to reach out to my students, and I think that’s probably why I got recognized.”

Her efforts to get to know students have proven to be fruitful. With the practical and everyday nature of a field like communication, Young is able to learn from her students and what they bring to the table.

“They’ve had an array of experiences so when we talk about relationships it’s not all about what the textbook says,” Young said. “It’s, ‘Let’s learn from each other and the experiences we’ve had collectively.’”

Young believes a big key for any teacher is to never stop learning.

“You should always be trying to reflect on what you’re doing and how you can improve, change or modify it,” Young said. “If you get to a place where you know everything you need to know, be afraid. A good teacher never gets to that place.”

Young is responsible for training other teachers on campus and has already made a significant difference as a mentor; take, for example, the case of Summer Wagner, who is one of her graduate assistants.

Wagner was on the brink of getting an incomplete in a graduate course until she was paired with Young. Young worked with Wagner to improve her writing, and Wagner eventually got an A in the class.

“There is no one else I could think of that devotes their full attention to academia more than Stacy,” Wagner said. “I cannot think of how many times I have cried to Stacy only for her to listen and tell me to get back in the game with my head held high.”