Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry, Vice Provost and Dean of the College of Undergraduate Studies, is joined by Dr. Danielle Maya (Pratt) Eadens, Assistant Director of Interdisciplinary Studies, to discuss her research in relational humanity and disability as diversity. Dr. Eadens also shares her insights about teaching online and their conversation also delves into the transformational nature of our Bachelor in Integrative General Studies program.
Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry:
Welcome to Academically Speaking. This podcast is designed to provide our listeners with an opportunity to engage with subjects and topics related to student academic success. How we think and what we do is important to how we become citizens of this country and of the world.
Hello, everyone. This is Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry, and you are in Academically Speaking. And in our continued series on celebrating faculty, we have with us Dr. Danielle Eadens. Dr. Eadens is the Assistant Director of Interdisciplinary Studies in UCF’s College of Undergraduate Studies. She joined the college in fall of 2019 as the lead faculty for the Integrative General Studies program and has taught in higher education since 2005. She holds a PhD in interdisciplinary education with a focus on criminology, special education, and mass communications from the University of South Florida. I would say boo, but that would be impolite.
Her other graduate work includes two master’s degrees, one in educational technology from Northern Arizona University and one in special education from the University of South Florida. She holds a Bachelor’s in Mass Communications from the University of South Florida. After working in public schools as a special education teacher, she served as a professor of special education and the coordinator of a dual major special and elementary education at Northern Arizona University and in a similar role at St. Petersburg College. Dr. Eadens is a national speaker, published author, and currently researches changing paradigms within education and beyond.
UCF selected Dr. Eadens in the 2022/23 University Level Excellence and Professional Award recipient. Welcome, Dr. Eadens.
Dr. Danielle Maya (Pratt) Eadens:
Thank you.
Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry:
And congratulations on your award.
Dr. Danielle Maya (Pratt) Eadens:
Thank you.
Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry:
We are tremendously proud of you. And as we start our conversation, I would like to know just a little bit more about your professional background and some of the things that you’ve done, and I’m curious about the ways in which some of the areas that you’ve studied fit together. And so, first and foremost, you have two master’s degrees in two areas that people might not think go together quite well, so let’s talk about that combination.
Dr. Danielle Maya (Pratt) Eadens:
Sure. Well, I think that’s one of the beautiful things about having an interdisciplinary background is that you can have different areas of folk eye and bring them together in a way that works for you. The degree that I got in educational technology was more recent. I actually got that in the last five years or so, and that has really helped me more in what I do as an educator and being able to really focus on meeting the needs of everyone in my classroom, including anybody who might have disabilities. There’s a huge focus in educational technology. I’m making everything accessible and universally designed. And so, I would say that’s the major link between special education and educational technology.
Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry:
And I would think that your background in mass communications is also helpful in that way. Tell us a little bit more about that.
Dr. Danielle Maya (Pratt) Eadens:
Absolutely. When I was growing up, I wanted to be a teacher or writer, and I really couldn’t decide which. And I think that’s when maybe you’re an interdisciplinary, and even as a little girl. I could not decide what I wanted to do. Started off with mass communications and then obviously went straight into my master’s in education. And I found that that degree in mass communications has been one of the most useful tools in everything that I’ve done. While I never became anything more than a part-time reporter, I’ve been able to use those skills in every job I’ve ever had. It made me a better communicator as a teacher, made me a better writer as a scholar. It’s very helpful because I’m very fast at editing things, and that’s a lot of my job in grading, is to help students create the best version of the work that they can. I found it to be a very useful degree, even though maybe it wasn’t initially what I intended for it to be.
Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry:
That sounds quite interesting. And it’s also an area that we shared because I also have a bachelor’s degree in communications with an emphasis in radio and journalism. But at some point, I thought, “I want to be a sound engineer and do music for movies and TV.” And by the time I finished my undergraduate degree and started researching places where I could earn a master’s degree and get involved in the field, there were only two graduate programs on this side of the world, I will say, because one was in Canada.
Dr. Danielle Maya (Pratt) Eadens:
Wow.
Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry:
That I could do that. And I thought, “Hmm, there might be another way for me to do this.” Now, mind you, I’ve also had another major in two minors, and one would think that these combination of things wouldn’t go together at all. But that’s the beauty of interdisciplinary studies, that you can conceptualize the combinations of different kinds of folk eye or topics any way that suits your particular needs or aspirations or desires. In thinking about being an interdisciplinary scholar, tell us a little bit more about your research.
Dr. Danielle Maya (Pratt) Eadens:
Sure. Well, as an interdisciplinarian, I study a lot of different things. That’s why it all fits into this changing paradigms. As of recent, one of the things I’m most excited about is some research I’ve been doing on what I’m calling relational humanity. And I think COVID brought this out for everyone was the need to really relate to each other on a human to human level. And that’s not exclusive to just student to student or professor to professor, friend to friend, family to family, but it was very important for my students to have that faculty student relational humanity moment. And I teach fully online, so that’s always can be a little bit of a challenge. But I met with every single one of my Capstone students either on the phone, on a Zoom call, before the pandemic in my office or after. Well, after-ish.
And so, I’ve been able to meet with my students, and that is that opportunity to connect with them on a human level. And so, during COVID, I didn’t just jump into talking about their project, but I always started with a question, “As a human being in the middle of a pandemic, how are you doing?” And it would stop them in their tracks and they would take a moment and they would think. And I purposely didn’t quickly say something or try to move the conversation along, but I waited for them. And I had students tell me about some of the ways they were struggling. A lot of our students got laid off in the hospitality industry here. I had a student who told me about a house she had just built with her husband. She was so excited. She worked on the Disney cruise line and so did her husband, but they had both obviously not been able to have employment for a little while.
They built this house and they were renting out this brand new house and living with his parents until their jobs were going to come back. And somebody else told me, heartbreaking, about the death of her father from COVID. And as we spoke on Zoom, there was a picture of him hanging behind her and she was talking about her son and the interactions. And it just deepened our relationships and helped me see them as human beings and not just a name on the other side of a screen. And so, I’ve been doing a little bit of research on that, pulling some comments from student survey feedback, things like that, and looking at the difference that made and deepening the relationships of the students. And I’ve been able to find that we’re seeing a significant difference in their investment in the class, not just their investment in who they are as a person, but knowing that we care.
Another area I’ve been doing some research on is disability is diversity. Sometimes that can be a group that we don’t think of when we’re talking, about diverse needs of different people. And so, obviously that ties into some classes I’m teaching and things like that. I research a lot with that. I also do a lot of research with some colleagues from NAU on in presenting on that topic. And then another one, we do a lot of things in the field of education. I present and publish a lot with my husband in that area who’s also a scholar. One of the things we’re most proud of is a chapter we wrote on school safety in a handbook for educational leadership. Really talking about, and it all ties together, but we’re talking about not just the need for obviously school safety measures and hardening, but also the softening measures that are needed and the need to have counselors in schools.
One of my personal philosophies is that if in middle school everybody had the opportunity to meet with a counselor… Middle school is hard. Being an adolescent is hard. Being an adolescent during COVID is hard. But if we had enough counselors for people to actually get counseling in schools, particularly in middle school, I think we would catch a lot more. And we do a lot more preventative work. And then also meet a lot of the other needs that were sometimes so wrapped up in all the school safety stuff. We forget about the trending towards suicide and the things that are happening with adolescents. That’s one of the other things that’s very powerful, hard to work on because it makes me want to wrap my children in bubble wrap. But the school safety thing. So, like I said, interdisciplinary, there’s a lot of different things that we’re working on, but they all tie into our humanness, I would say, is really the focus of my research.
Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry:
And that’s fascinating work, particularly as we think about all the ways in which we can not be able to see disability, particularly in the context of education, because we know that there are disabilities that are not visible to individuals, and some of those disabilities are as a result of some trauma that young people have suffered. And so, imagine on the recovery side of a pandemic, all the trauma that some students had experienced, either losing loved ones or friends or even having to be home 24 hours a day, seven days a week in a relationship that might have been toxic, as opposed to having school as a safe space for some of these young people. And even when we think about educators, and even in thinking about my own faculty, I was really concerned about faculty and staff who had a myriad of things to be concerned about in the midst of the pandemic, in addition to caring for their own students in combination to that.
And so, I think it’s really fascinating that there’s now an opportunity to examine this work and to note not only the visible disabilities that we have to account for and the ways in which we’re doing some teaching that impacts on that, so live captioning, and PowerPoints and all of those things that were considered cutting edge prior to the pandemic that are now part of our everyday lived experiences that we know that if we’re live-streaming something, we have to have captioning available. Whereas before, it was a nice to have. And so, I think all of those things are really changing the way we’re engaging in our everyday teaching experiences.
Dr. Danielle Maya (Pratt) Eadens:
I think everyone advanced, even just technologically, and then with universal design, exponentially, much more quickly than we would have.
Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry:
There were people who couldn’t even use their cell phones prior to the pandemic. And so, when we think about all the ways in which teaching has changed, particularly as we learned new skills or enhanced technologies in the midst of a worldwide pandemic, let’s talk a little bit about your teaching and what you’re currently teaching and how some of those things are now being reflected in your own teaching.
Dr. Danielle Maya (Pratt) Eadens:
Absolutely. Right now I’m teaching a Capstone class for integrative general studies students, which I love teaching. I’m also teaching and piloting the embracing disability diversity class, which I’m just absolutely loving. My students in there are amazing, and it’s so interesting, the things that they’re bringing to the table as well. We’re both learning in that process. And then traditionally, I also teach a class on contemporary leadership practices.
Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry:
Excellent. You’re currently teaching all online classes, and we know that for a while, everyone was teaching all online classes. But given where we are now and the fact that there’s a new normal that we’re experiencing where people could opt to teach online, hybrid, face-to-face or combination of those things. Thinking about those things, how do you think this new world of online teaching has impacted on the way you’re engaging with your students?
Dr. Danielle Maya (Pratt) Eadens:
I think it brought out the desire to put more human and more of me as a human being and more of my students as a human being into the classes. Teaching fully online, it’s really about the design of the class and making sure that you’re thinking about how students are going to approach it. One of my philosophies has always been, and this is backed up in all of the literature and educational technology, is that the students should spend their time with the material, mastering the material and not trying to figure out, “Guess where the professor stuck that file.” And so, I think that’s one of the key pieces. CDL here at UCF Center for Distributed Learning does a fantastic job in giving professors the skills that they need to make sure that they’re designing something online. But when you’re teaching online, it’s really about connecting with each student on an individual level, seeing if they’re mastering the material.
And then I would say how it changed, to answer your question, would be more making sure that I’m also connecting with them on a human level, not just making sure that they’re mastering the content. And doing that more purposefully and then allowing more of myself into the class. And so, I spend more time, I think, than I did prior to the pandemic, connecting with students. Whether it’s in comments or talking about things we might have in common, or just having follow up emails. I’ve been having a wonderful email chain with one of my students in embracing disability diversity, and it’s been really interesting going back and forth, and she feels very comfortable to ask questions of things that aren’t necessarily… They’re semi-related to the material, but you can see she’s thinking and she sees that I love having that conversation, and I think that is something that I wouldn’t have seen as much prior to the pandemic.
Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry:
Excellent. We know that you’re piloting this new course around embracing diversity and disability, and so it shows that you’re an advocate for inclusion and disability. Why do you think it makes students’ academic experiences richer and prepare them for career success?
Dr. Danielle Maya (Pratt) Eadens:
I think in any kind of career, everyone is simply not the same. And if we think that they are, you’re not going to be successful as a leader in your career or as a person in your career. And so, I think if we lean into the appreciation element of the different things that people bring to the table and we see it as the beautiful thing that it is, we can see that everyone’s welcome and we can also lean into each other’s strengths. We did that a lot here. As ISD faculty, we look at who’s really good at what, and we really are able to lean into that and to really magnify that. For example, if my students in embracing disability diversity and some of the other classes that are offered here at the university are trained to see any barriers to access without anybody having to point them out or sue to point them out, then as they are planning for universal design as a leader in whatever career they pick, it doesn’t turn into an issue.
It doesn’t sound a burden when somebody comes and says, “Oh, I’m deaf. I need this access.” It’s like, “Well, everything’s already captioned. We already have these accommodations here, and everything’s already built in.” And I think that’s the key, is for people to not maybe have to declare their disability unless they want to, and being able to have everything accessible to everybody and making it a more beautiful place. And I think training students to see that diversity can be beautiful and appreciating each other’s differences, I think, is just going to make the world a better place.
Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry:
I could not agree more. And so, I’m going to segue just a little bit and talk about the Bachelor of Integrative General Studies program here in the College of Undergraduate Studies. It is our newest program. It is our fastest growing program. It is our most innovative program, and it is the program that has captured the attention of a lot of our community stakeholders in relationship to providing support to our students. In fact, I just signed a gift agreement this morning for yet another scholarship for our big students. It is really something that people feel is going to make the biggest impact on society as a whole, to really bring to fruition the dreams and aspirations of individuals who started a degree and just didn’t get the opportunity, for a variety of different reasons, to finish that degree. In thinking about this particular degree program, what would you say is what makes it most unique?
Dr. Danielle Maya (Pratt) Eadens:
Most unique? I think it meets students where they are. And I think that’s the key, is we’re not expecting students to be something other than who they are, and to experience the things that they’ve experienced thus far. Credit, obviously, it needs to be given to Dr. Devin [inaudible 00:17:51] for envisioning and getting that program through curriculum and everything that she did. But I would say this program, I love teaching in this program because it’s transformational for our students. They come in and I have students that come in after 20 years of, “Well, I was just trying to do this, and this one class was required on campus, and I had an infant at the time and I couldn’t do it.” And so, with our students, they’re incredibly bright, they’re incredibly smart. But very often, a lot of times life happened to them. Or even during the pandemic, we had some students that needed to move back home and couldn’t do their student teaching.
And so, they came over and they were able to graduate with a bachelor’s degree. I have students that are just trying to move into their master’s degree, and they wanted to design their own curriculum, and they were able to do that outside of the interdisciplinary framework to really get what they needed for law school or medical school or whatever it was they were doing next. I love it because it’s so individualized to the students. Even though they’re taking the same two courses with us, their journey in those courses is very, very different, and we have very, very interesting souls. I say it meets them where they are, offers the scaffolding they might need to be successful. I have some students coming from maybe a prior psychology background who can write a paper in their sleep, and I have students coming from engineering who haven’t written a paper since their general education program.
And the scaffolding is there. And so, they all are still accomplishing and mastering the goals in the course, but the scaffolding is there for the students that need it as well. And then UCF has a tremendous amount of resources too, for students who might need those. I feel like it really meets every single student wherever they are, which is pretty unique for a program to be able to do.
Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry:
And I would agree, again. In fact, I’ve always understood the transformational nature of this program, but it really hit home with me, I want to say it was maybe a year ago. There was a woman that sent me an email and was talking about how grateful she was that she had this opportunity to finish her degree, and that she had been trying for 42 years to earn her bachelor’s degree, found out about our program through one of the postcards that we sent out, and signed up for the program, and was just thrilled to be able to finally walk across the stage. And I thought to myself, “Wow, this is what we mean by transformational.” And the fact that someone was willing to be persistent enough to earn their degree. Because it’s not for want or willingness that many of these students don’t finish, it’s about having access to an opportunity to utilize all the skills that they have to be able to complete the thing that they aspire to do.
Dr. Danielle Maya (Pratt) Eadens:
The persistence that you talk about is just amazing. The student during COVID, in the height of it, and I open up a Google Voice number so students can text me, because sometimes that’s a more accessible way to reach your professor, doesn’t feel as formal because there can be some intimidation there based on prior experiences. And this student had one laptop at home that had been issued to his children through the school district. Two of his children were trying to do their schoolwork during the day, and then he was staying up late to use that laptop because he was the only one in the house. And so, we started texting and I guided him how to download the app so he could do a lot of it on his mobile phone. And then he would text me with any guidance he needed if we needed to modify something so he could do it on his phone.
And it was just the persistence, and the time that he spent trying to figure out how to access things and apologizing for being laid on something because he was prioritizing the education of his children. And it was just one of those moments where you’re like, “This really is a transformational degree.” And then he texted me for about a year afterwards and like, “Oh, I’m thinking about this, and I’m thinking about that.” And you can just say a complete mindset shift as to I can do all of these things now. I have so many more opportunities. And it was really beautiful to see.
Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry:
One of the things that we know about you, Dr. Eadens, is that you deeply believe in the importance of giving back.
Dr. Danielle Maya (Pratt) Eadens:
Absolutely.
Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry:
How does that guide your teaching in your scholarship?
Dr. Danielle Maya (Pratt) Eadens:
Oh, what a question. When I was teaching K-12, I loved teaching K-12 and my special education students, I was obsessed with them. I actually went back and visited them for the six months after I took the higher education job. But I just came down and I was offered this position at St. Petersburg College, and I just did the math as to how many people I could impact and how many students I could impact, and if I was impacting pre-service teachers and doing the math there. And so, it’s always been about how can I make the world around me a better place and leaving things in a better situation than when they started? And I think if we all took that mindset, the world might be a happier place. And I think we can all do something. To quote Greta Thunberg?
Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry:
Yes, Thunberg.
Dr. Danielle Maya (Pratt) Eadens:
And so, she’s in that kind of idea. We can all give back and make things make the world a better place.
Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry:
Excellent. And so, now I’m interested to know if we were all having that particular attribute about ourselves, this notion of giving back, how do you think that would change society?
Dr. Danielle Maya (Pratt) Eadens:
Oh my gosh. I think it would transform society. I think the two traits that we really need to focus on as a society are compassion for one another, and I think we saw some of that after some of the tragic events after 9/11 or during the height of the pandemic. I think that compassion for others is something that it seems to really ebb and flow in our society. We shouldn’t need a tragedy for the compassion to be there and just recognizing that not everyone’s coming to the same place. And then I think also empathy is another thing that we need to not only embody ourselves, but also really teach the next generation. And so, I think those two things alone, and giving back, I think would really make our society a better place. I think we could have civil conversations, we could disagree respectfully.
I think we could look at what the true needs of each person in the room are and make sure that everyone is getting what they need. And I don’t think it has to be this divisive thing. I think we could really all be a lot happier, too. I don’t think we have to be as angry and as filled with stress and all of those things. If we look around and we can say, “How can we make our world a better place?” And to brag on the department a little, but I do think that the faculty and IDS do that. And so, it’s one of the best departments to be in at the… They’re all great. But the one that I’m in, I love.
Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry:
I agree.
Dr. Danielle Maya (Pratt) Eadens:
Really. But, I mean, just the faculty and the staff and the advisors and the students that work with us, they’re just such lovely people. And it makes the work environment such a better place. And I think it’s this microcosm of what society could be if we went out of our way to care about each other as human beings a little bit more.
Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry:
And I think that speaks to the true meaning of equity, to make sure that everyone has what they need, and every person in every microcosm of society needs something slightly different. That equity isn’t about pie where everybody gets an equal piece. It’s really about more like a… I don’t know. I’d say it’s more like a pudding where some people might get the crumble, some people might get more of the fruit, some people might get more of the custard. I’m the custard girl. And people being okay with the fact that somebody wants more of the fruit and somebody wants more of the custard and somebody wants more of the crumble, and it doesn’t mean that you’re getting shortchanged.
Dr. Danielle Maya (Pratt) Eadens:
Exactly. We’re just make more pudding if we need it. It’s fine. Absolutely.
Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry:
Absolutely. And I’m glad you caught that reference because after I said it, I thought it’s a very British thing for me to say. Most people don’t know that pudding equates to dessert in the US.
Dr. Danielle Maya (Pratt) Eadens:
That’s how we eat it.
Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry:
Exactly. And so, now we’re going to get to what I call the speed round version of our conversation, but I’m just going to ask you some general questions so that the viewers and the audience get to know more about who Dr. Danielle Eadens is. What’s your favorite color?
Dr. Danielle Maya (Pratt) Eadens:
Purple, which I’m wearing.
Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry:
Yes, absolutely. Your favorite song?
Dr. Danielle Maya (Pratt) Eadens:
I don’t have one favorite song, but I like 80 songs. Bohemian Rhapsody and Tainted Love. And I train my toddlers in car seats to move their heads to What Is Love, in Night of the Roxbury. And then more newer stuff. I’ve like anything of Lady Gaga from The Born This Way album. I think that’s just got such a good fast beat.
Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry:
All right. Excellent. Favorite movie?
Dr. Danielle Maya (Pratt) Eadens:
Probably anything in the Terminator series. I’m pretty obsessed with it.
Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry:
I would never guess that.
Dr. Danielle Maya (Pratt) Eadens:
Yeah. I’m pretty obsessed with action films. Love Demolition Man, and Diehard, and all of those are… My home wifi is called Skynet, and I teach my children to be nice to the AI when we talk to Alexa because you just never know.
Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry:
Because you never know who to-
Dr. Danielle Maya (Pratt) Eadens:
It’s so true.
Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry:
Which is why I don’t have Alexa.
Dr. Danielle Maya (Pratt) Eadens:
Fair enough. Fair enough.
Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry:
Okay. Favorite TV show?
Dr. Danielle Maya (Pratt) Eadens:
Ooh, TV show. I love Grey’s Anatomy because I’ve been watching it longer than I’ve been married. That one I probably would say that I’ve been watching Just some action-
Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry:
Meredith Grey just left.
Dr. Danielle Maya (Pratt) Eadens:
Oh, I know. I can’t handle it. And then I’ve been watching just what my kids want to watch. We’ll watch them elementary or we’ll watch Rescue 911 type shows. And so, my boys, we do a lot of things that we would all like to do together. Or a lot of Star Wars things, of course.
Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry:
Oh, right. Excellent. Favorite book?
Dr. Danielle Maya (Pratt) Eadens:
I would say if you’re listening to the book, which I do a lot of with Audible, Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime. I can’t find another audiobook that is up to the same standard. It is such a well done recording. And the book is just… I would highly recommend if you listen to that, you may not be able to listen to any other audiobooks, but it’s really, really good.
Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry:
I’m too old-fashioned. I like to read my books and I love to feel the books. Although I do have some of my books on my iPad just for the sake of access.
Dr. Danielle Maya (Pratt) Eadens:
I do both.
Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry:
Which is why I have a room full of books.
Dr. Danielle Maya (Pratt) Eadens:
I have rooms full of books as well. Absolutely
Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry:
Favorite actor?
Dr. Danielle Maya (Pratt) Eadens:
Probably Arnold. I like Bruce Willis too. But pretty much my action stars are going to be my favorites.
Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry:
Favorite actress?
Dr. Danielle Maya (Pratt) Eadens:
I love Julia Roberts. I think her laugh is just phenomenal.
Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry:
Yes. We watched Eat, Pray, Love, and just like… It’s phenomenal. It’s very well done. Favorite singer?
Dr. Danielle Maya (Pratt) Eadens:
I like Lady Gaga, to go back to that one.
Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry:
Okay. Excellent. Favorite author?
Dr. Danielle Maya (Pratt) Eadens:
Lately, I’ve been reading a book that I really like by Alice Wong. I’m a nerd. It’s for my class, it’s Disability Visibility. And I think she does a really interesting job of narrating different things from her perspective. And so, it’s just a collection of true stories of people with disabilities and really getting to hear from them. I would say as of right now, she’s probably my favorite author.
Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry:
Okay. Favorite place to travel?
Dr. Danielle Maya (Pratt) Eadens:
I’ve been doing the cruising thing lately, and so I actually went on a cruise over spring break. It’s amazing. And so, I visited… So, probably any place where I can hold an animal. Last week I held a sloth and a monkey. And so, I would say that’s probably my favorite thing is the things we can do. I love traveling to Italy and Paris because they have really good food. Those have been some really fun things, but I think it’s more about who I’m traveling with and what we’re doing, than necessarily the destination.
Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry:
Phenomenal. I’ve heard that you recently took up a new hobby. You want to tell us about it?
Dr. Danielle Maya (Pratt) Eadens:
Sure. My older son, who actually just graduated high school semester early. Yes, I know. And so, he encouraged me and we ended up signing up for ceramics class together. And so, we’ve been doing that for about six or nine months now. And my 14-year old has been seeing some of the things we brought home, and now he has joined us, so we’re all doing ceramics now together. And it’s just one of those things where you create something with your hands. And I really love the teacher that we have as well. And so, she’s been able to push us all in the ways that we needed to be pushed to create some really phenomenal things. I’ve been able to give my mom the most gorgeous vase that she’s put a plant in. And I made a special mug for my father that has a sailboat on the side, and we made some things for our aquarium.
And so, it’s just been really neat to create something with your hands and to be able to use it in your house and to not have to buy it from somebody else and be like, “I made that.” And so, it’s been really neat to be able to do that. Something different.
Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry:
Does sounds like fun.
Dr. Danielle Maya (Pratt) Eadens:
It is. It’s a lot of fun.
Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry:
To close out our conversation for today, I’ve been watching a TV show. It’s an interview show entitled, If We’re Being Honest, by Laverne Cox, who I love, by the way. She’s phenomenal. And one of the things that she asked at the end of all of her interviews, is, “Is there anything that I didn’t ask that I should have asked?” So, I’m going to ask you, is there anything that I didn’t ask that I should have asked?
Dr. Danielle Maya (Pratt) Eadens:
That is a… I don’t think so, but I would say, I think one thing that I would ask of anybody who’s listening is just thinking about ways that they can make the world a better place. And I think that really taking it on yourself as to what you can do for others and how to make the world better, and then also to be advocating for what it is that you need. That would be my life advice if I guess that would be, is just trying to make the world a better place. And if we all do that, I do genuinely think that we could end up in a better society.
Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry:
Excellent. Thank you. And thank you so much for joining us today. We really appreciate your thoughts and opportunity to celebrate you as one of our faculty here in the College of Undergraduate Studies. And thank you to our audience for sharing with us and joining us, all of our viewers and our listeners. This is Academically Speaking, and I’m Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry. Have a great day.
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