Angela Richard on the Upside-Down Curriculum, Personal Growth, and Creating Your Own Internship

Angela Richard is a fourth-year Early Childhood and Elementary Education major with double minors in Foreign Languages (Spanish and French) and Global Studies. An active student leader on-campus, she holds the role of Student Communications Liaison in the Office of the President, where her mission is to assess current communications processes, engage with community stakeholders and staff and faculty, and provide recommendations for future student-facing communications practices. Angela is also a Career Peer Coach in the Career Collaborative for the Education & Human Studies Division, and she also serves on the Student Advisory Council for Faculty Support, a pilot committee led by pedagogically-minded students and the Center for Learning & Teaching. During her last semester at Champlain, Angela is student teaching at Shelburne Community School, and she is looking forward to pursuing her Master of Education in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at the University of Vermont this coming summer. 

In this interview, we talk with Angela about her experience with the Upside-Down Curriculum, internships, and pursuing her passion for advocacy and communications work.

How has the Upside-Down Curriculum enhanced your education?

The Upside-Down Curriculum has been extremely beneficial to my learning. I love hands-on experiences, and I started working in my field on day three of being at Champlain College. Not only were hands-on, major-specific experiences available to me as a first-year student, they were encouraged and pushed for me and my peers to take advantage of and pursue. This attitude towards real-world experience has shifted my own perspective on what higher education specifically should look like, and I’m so grateful to Champlain for opening my eyes to this possibility.

In what ways do you think your internship experience will give you a competitive advantage when it comes to getting a job in your field after graduation?

My internship in the President’s Office [as Student Communications Liaison] is the first of its kind. I came to the administration with my idea, pitched it, researched it, and made sure it was actualized. Working with the administration in this way has given me an in-depth understanding of the complexities of working in higher education, a knowledge base I had not previously accessed. This experience will aid me in future advocacy and communications work, which I will employ everywhere I go.

How has your Champlain experience prepared you for your future career, both in and out of the classroom?

Champlain has made me a better person. Not just a learner or professional, but a person. The qualities I’ve developed inside and outside of the classroom while attending Champlain apply to all aspects of my life and have truly shaped my being. I feel ready to tackle new challenges and immerse myself even more in my field of education.