Hoehn is keeping USI authentically awesome

You can't miss Shannon Hoehn as she strides across campus with her headphones on. On her playlist? It's probably Ryan Adams, Joni Mitchell, Chance the Rapper or these days, the Hamilton Mixtape. She is headed to the trails, to one of the UNIV 101 or speech classes that she teaches, to her office or to Starbucks for her third cup of tea. Wherever she is heading, she is in a "state of awesome".    
The "state of awesome" didn't occur naturally to Hoehn. It was a place that she arrived at when she most needed it. "A couple of years ago, a lot of little things were getting to me and making me unhappy in life," she said. "I just decided to give all the negativity up and embrace the awesome, and it changed my life!"

After watching a TED Talk by New York Times best selling author Neil Pasricha called The Three A's of Awesome, she was inspired to bring "Awesome" into her UNIV 101 class full of undecided students. "It has opened me up to so many more possibilities as a teacher. I want these students to see the possibilities that college offers them," said Hoehn.

Her students delve into the SuperStrong version of the Strong Interest Inventory, an assessment that helps people match their interests with potential careers. "I tell them that self-discovery is a life-long journey," she said. "It's okay not to know. I'm still finding my way and I'm 40." Hoehn sees being transparent and authentic as a good way to gain a student's respect.

Since students are on social media, Hoehn finds a way to make social media a learning experience at USI. She actively uses Twitter in her classes, holding scavenger hunts that send her students to find some of USI's hidden gems or using a series of hashtags to allow them to help drive course content. She likes to do fun things in her class.  Last year's class was really into music, so they made a mixtape with songs that were meaningful to them. It has a wide range of musical interests including artists like John Mayer, Tom Petty, CSNY, Drake and the Indigo Girls. Hoehn made copies of the mix tape and handed them out. Today, when those students play their CMST101 mix tape, they will have a direct connection and memories to the time spent in class learning about themselves and each other.   

"Several of my UNIV 101 students have taken my CMST 101 class," said Hoehn. "After I get them to think about who they are in my UNIV class, I work with them to build personal confidence and relationships with their peers through public speaking." One of her favorite assignments with her class was all of them going to the Fall Festival, finding a member of the Nut Club and interviewing them. At the conclusion of the interview, they asked their person what their favorite Fall Festival food was, took a selfie and posted it to Twitter. "The Nut Clubbers just loved it," she said.  

She also has her students do impromptu challenges. One of the best speeches was on The Big Bang Theory-the show or the theory. The student who did the challenge chose the latter. "He did a two-minute speech explaining the expanding model of the universe in a way where everyone understood it, and he got a standing ovation from another student. It was an awesome moment," said Hoehn. Sometimes her students are given the freedom and responsibility to make their own assignments. She has had students write and perform one-act plays, sing, and create artwork or playlists. "We celebrate what makes them unique at those times, I learn as much from them as they do from me."

Hoehn has even inserted her passion of embracing everyday examples of awesome into her curriculum with both classes. She asks them to look inside themselves and think about the word that most represents who they are, and the three words that back up that assertion. She encourages them to engage in random acts of awesome, and to tweet about awesome things that happen to them. "Awesome is a state of mind. It's believing in the possibilities," said Hoehn. "We are educating the future. These students will be the next generation's world leaders. They will be the future politicians, musicians, business leaders and teachers. It is a huge responsibility. But it is also very exciting."

In her cozy office, with a perfect view of the Cone, is her "Awesome Every Day" jar. In it, she has begun collecting random things that happen that made her day awesome. The slip of paper might describe how she felt when a co-worker bought her a cup of coffee, or a reflection on the New Year's Day hike she took when it was 60 degrees. She intended to look back in her jar at the end of the year to reflect on the good things that happened. She decided it was worth opening up to her students and co-workers so that they too can share those awesome things that happen to them every day, encouraging them to drop a slip of paper in her jar, send it to her via campus mail or through an email, via Social Media or text. "If I have to get a bigger jar, that's a good thing," she said. At the end of the year,

Hoehn plans to do an art installation with the collected submissions in her jar, and the help of art faculty."I know it sounds crazy, and a little out there, but how awesome will it be to celebrate with each other all of the awesome things that happened to each of us in 2017," she said.