Meet…
Nadine Cichy is a professor in the Communication Department at Sinclair Community College. She has a strong belief in diversity and hopes that more people in the future become inclusive and inviting in different backgrounds.
Why she is interesting…
Hailing from the Maryland area, Cichy attended school at Virginia Tech University, and finished her masters at Purdue University. She said that she mostly valued her time at Virginia Tech.
“Most people wouldn’t think a large engineering research campus would be personalized, but I found that although the school was large the community was smaller and inviting,” Cichy said.
Cichy was a student at Virginia Tech when the 2007 shooting occurred where 32 people died.
“The campus came together as a united front,” she said, “That closeness made my bachelor’s at VT the most exciting and fun years of my life.”
Cichy relates the inclusiveness she experienced at VT to how she approaches teaching at such diverse campuses. She is a big advocate of BriTe SiGnaL Alliance, which pushed for inclusiveness of LGBTQ students in the campus community.
In her teaching style, Cichy is tries to relate students not just in their personal belief systems, but also in their professional areas of study. She consistently pushes students in the classroom to branch outside of comfort zones and aim to see all sides of belief systems with objectiveness.
“I would say that definitely the epitome of my belief is certainly inclusiveness and diversity,” she said.
Cichy has definite grounding in her beliefs, but she said they have changed over time. When she became a wife and mother, her approach to students changed. As a mother, Cichy said that she grew to change her style of teaching to mostly target the actual learning of the material for students with varying learning abilities.
Cichy said that raising small children allowed her to grow more patience and understanding in the classroom.
Cichy brought her talents to the Department of Communication at Sinclair. She worked many years trying to change the way that the curriculum for Interpersonal Communication is handled.
In working with others, Cichy coordinated the transition to online classes for the course, changed the direction of the assessment process to appeal to changing diversity of learning and captured better understanding of the subject matter.
“The dynamic of student and teacher relationship is always changing and I would like to think that teaching needs to be adaptive based on students,” Cichy said.
Cichy stated that no matter what changes the student has from class to class the commonality she always teaches for all her students is good research, objective professionalism and understanding of all evidence.
Cichy also stated that she is happy where she is in her professional career.
“Most of my students that pass my classes say they definitely ‘see the world differently’,” Cichy said.
Though she is content now she does have the aspirations to one day move up to achieve a Ph.D.
Whichever path she chooses in the future, it is apparent that Nadine Cichy has achieved a unique career at Sinclair.
Cody Wolfe
Contributing Writer