Nadine Cichy has served as a communication faculty member at Sinclair College, and on Aug. 17 she assumed a new role as the communication department chair. Cichy has been teaching since 2003 and started at Sinclair in 2008.
Cichy said it is interesting looking back because her career started somewhat by accident. She had been finishing up an undergraduate degree when she happened to meet a visiting author who taught communication at Purdue University.
“I asked him a question about his research, and he said, ‘I never considered that.’ And he said, ‘How would you like to come to Purdue with a scholarship?’” Cichy said. “So that’s how I ended up at Purdue studying communication, and I was there with a graduate teaching assistantship.”
The assistantship paid for Cichy’s tuition. It also meant that she was teaching as well as taking classes, and found that she loved the teaching more than the research.
After earning a bachelor’s from Virginia Tech, Cichy went on to obtain her master’s from Purdue, and then came to Ohio in 2008 after finding the position at Sinclair.
Cichy explained how communication is often misunderstood or not given enough credit.
“I love my discipline,” she said. “I think most people feel like, ‘I’ve learned as much about communication as I can, because I already know how to talk and interact with others, and I’m interacting with others reasonably successfully,’ and don’t realize that everything you know about communication is a skill that you learned, and every skill that you’ve ever learned can be improved.”
Cichy said one thing that really stands out to her are the stories about students and how they overcame difficulties.
She noted one student who had children before they were really ready to be an adult. Between drug and alcohol recovery and trying to raise young kids, the student came to college knowing they needed to find a path to support their kids but not feeling prepared. However the student said that the class Cichy taught turned things around for them, and helped them to start caring about themselves and having confidence that they could be successful.
“I’ve always taught interpersonal communication, which is really about having a relationship with yourself so you can have relationships with others,” Cichy said. “In so many ways, what is happening with you predetermines what is going to happen in your interactions with anyone else.”
Cichy described the graduation of that student as a wonderful moment, but credited the student and the curriculum with the student succeeding. She sees herself as a steward for moving the right lessons to the right people.
Cichy said that the study and theories do the real work. “But if I can’t make the curriculum engaging and real for students, if I can’t help them apply it to their own lives, then it’s not going to do anything,” she said.
Part of the curriculum for mass communication focuses on the related history. Cichy would typically try to start with something that is currently happening, go back to its earliest historical occurrence, and then bring it back to the present to show the evolution of the idea. For example, in the case of mass communication the history of television is very relevant, but in order to understand the history of television you need to understand the history of radio which preceded it.
“Students tell me they find that a lot more engaging, because they can relate it to their own experiences,” she said. “So it’s not just something that happened that they have to memorize, it’s something that is helping them understand their current reality.”
Cichy also described how AI relates to modern communication. Cichy clarified that AI isn’t all bad, as it can be useful for brainstorming or for assisting very early in the creative process. However she said it’s important to not rely on AI when actually writing things, “because the way you write significantly changes the impression that people have of you professionally, and so you are communicating by writing.”
“A lot of students don’t realize that it’s still relatively easy to figure out if someone is using AI if you’ve actually communicated with them in person. Because AI doesn’t sound like you. AI sounds like everybody and nobody at the same time,” Cichy said.
In regards to her new role as department chair, Cichy said she wants to help a group of people who are already doing amazing work to continue to accomplish great things.
“I don’t see this as something where I’m starting something [new], I see this as continuing to facilitate that innovation and growth,” she said. “All the things they’re doing are wonderful things, but we have to keep moving into the future.”