My teaching philosophy is grounded in the belief that teachers should be driven by a passion for generating curiosity and a devotion to helping students grow intellectually. I am motivated by the Jesuit mission—especially the tenet of cura personalis—and committed to fostering a challenging, engaging, and supportive learning environment. I have gleaned from my own experience as a student that the best teachers are those who are passionate experts on the subjects they teach, and I strive to embody that in the areas of both media management and communication.
My commitment to excellence in teaching is guided by a devotion to fostering engagement and intellectual growth. In the name of cura personalis, I work to foster engagement by creating an atmosphere where students feel safe to question and critique. I accomplish this by pushing students to engage with material through debate, by addressing different perspectives, and by encouraging students to defend their opinions. In order to engage students with seemingly theoretical or conceptual material, I employ a number of diverse teaching methods in the classroom such as simulations, case studies, and interactives to demonstrate how this material is applied in practice.
I encourage students to get to know me as a person and not simply as an instructor. I find that my professional media industry experience further enables a strong mentorship connection with students looking to enter the field. I enjoy sharing stories from my personal and professional experiences and encourage my students to do the same. My scholarly research guides my course content at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. This engagement with theory and practice enables our students to receive socially conscious, relevant, and applied information as they progress on their way to professionals in the field.
My teaching philosophy is further buoyed by a commitment to intellectual growth. Beyond teaching concepts and theories, I work with my students to develop their skills as communicators and I strive to help them realize their full potential. I set a high bar for my students, but I also commit significant time to preparing stimulating lectures, to encouraging classroom discussion, to designing activities that encourage student-to-student interaction. Beyond the classroom, I work to mentor students in both a group setting and one-on-one environment.
Woven throughout all three of these core foundations of my teaching philosophy is the notion of flexibility. To care for the whole student, an effective teacher must remain flexible. To insightfully apply theory to ever-evolving practice, an effective teacher must remain flexible. To cultivate intellectual growth under any and all circumstances, an effective teacher must remain flexible. These values have never been as important as they have been over the last several semesters, during which my commitment to flexibility and adaptability in the name of teaching was paramount.
I truly strive to excel as a teacher; I invest time in improving my acumen in this arena and I work tirelessly to develop my skills as an educator. Since my last reappointment, I had the privilege of participating in several faculty development events including a Knight Media Forum on media management and innovation, an AEJMC panel on a ‘product management’ approach to media education, and an AEJMC panel on Antiracist Media Education. I was also named a 2021 Visiting Professor for the Association of National Advertisers Educational Foundation (AEF). Together, these training and brainstorming sessions proved to be both informative and impactful as I continuously update and improve my teaching style.
At Fordham, I regularly teach the follow courses; I am always happy to swap syllabi!
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- Business Communication I
- Business of New Media
- Diversity in Media Management
- Consumer Adoption of New Media (Masters course)
- Social & Digital Media (Masters course)
Allie Kosterich 