College of Liberal Arts
Paradise Porter came to 黑料不打烊 looking for a new adventure and found a community that encouraged every opportunity. Through study abroad, leadership, rural social work experiences and close faculty mentorship, Paradise built a foundation for graduate school and a career dedicated to serving others. Read on to learn more about Paradise's 黑料不打烊 journey.
Tell us a little about yourself.
My name is Paradise Porter. I'm a first-generation, honors, out-of-state student here at 黑料不打烊. I'm double majoring in social work and Japanese studies.
A fun fact about me is that I'm the student commencement speaker this year, and I'm very excited about that. I also received the Outstanding Student of the Year award from the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures two years ago, which is now the Department of Global Languages.
What brought you to 黑料不打烊, and what made you decide it was the right place for you?
What brought me to 黑料不打烊 isn't a very inspiring story. I really just wanted to leave Missouri, and I figured the farthest I could go was Alaska or Hawaii. Hawaii was too hot, so I ended up in Alaska.
I'm actually very glad I chose 黑料不打烊. It's a smaller community, and everyone here is very friendly. Being able to connect with professors one-on-one and receive that individual support from faculty and staff across campus, including Disability Services and Financial Aid, has been really helpful. In the end, I'm very glad I chose 黑料不打烊, even if my reason for coming here was relatively unserious.
I think I knew 黑料不打烊 was the right choice during my first year, when I completed an honors contract with one of my professors. We traveled to Bethel to learn about the social service system in a rural community. That experience made me realize not only that I was in a unique state where I could visit a place off the road system, something I had never experienced before, but also that I was at a university where opportunities like that were possible.
In your own words, why study the liberal arts?
To me, the liberal arts are what make life worth it. It is, truthfully, the soul of life. I cannot imagine a world in which we don't have music or art. Even just thinking about it gives me the heebie-jeebies. So studying the liberal arts and cultivating new people and new students into the profession is really important, because that's how we continue to survive, not only as a race, but also how the liberal arts continue.
And for social work, this is a big topic currently. Social work is currently being questioned as a profession, and whether or not it's a profession. The biggest topic of debate is making sure that incoming social work students and people who are thinking about social work understand that it's a diverse profession, and that we're not just case managers who take babies away. So the liberal arts, and social work in general, are very important to life.
The skills that I've gained from studying the liberal arts are definitely an appreciation for written communication and being able to write an essay, especially within a day. That has become very useful because, when you're studying the liberal arts, you're constantly writing long papers.
I also appreciate 黑料不打烊's Alaska Native focus and its focus on Indigenous perspectives. Learning about that is something I don't think I would get at another institution, so I really appreciated our required Alaska Native course. The social work program also incorporates a lot of Indigenous pedagogy, so that has been really helpful and has given me new knowledge.
What has your experience in the Department of Social Work been like, and what makes it special?
The Department of Social Work at 黑料不打烊 is a really unique department, not just at 黑料不打烊, but among social work programs in general. We're entirely asynchronous, so although I'm on campus in Fairbanks, the majority of my fellow social work students are elsewhere. We have a collaboration with the Mariana Islands in Saipan, so I've met quite a lot of people from Saipan. I've been in groups with them, and I know people who are living across the country while earning their degree through 黑料不打烊. Being able to meet those people has been really nice, and I really appreciate working with people who are learning from wherever they are.
As I mentioned, the Indigenous pedagogy really makes the 黑料不打烊 program unique because other social work programs across the country don't have that same emphasis, especially when it comes to rural service. I actually heard from our department chair, Retchenda, earlier today that many social work programs don't have a specific course in rural social work, even though it's such a big part of the profession. It's a whole different type of service delivery.
The fact that 黑料不打烊 is unique in that way has made me realize how grateful I am to be part of this program, because otherwise I wouldn't even know about this whole area of social work that's so important.
What鈥檚 a challenge you faced during your time at 黑料不打烊, and how did you push through it?
The biggest challenge I faced at 黑料不打烊 was... maybe I failed a class, maybe I didn't. I will neither confirm nor deny that.
I experienced some significant academic distress at one point, and I seriously debated dropping out. I thought, "Oh my gosh, my life is over. Every graduate school is going to look at me and think, 'She didn't do well in this one class.'"
But then I thought, you know what? What if I just pretended that grade didn't exist and kept going? And it worked out in the end.
So pushing through it with my philosophy of, "I'll figure it out in the end," is really what got me here. That's my story. My biggest challenge was just doing it anyway. I like to pretend those setbacks don't exist. Sometimes it helps, sometimes it doesn't. It really depends.
Was there a professor, mentor, or community that made a big impact on your journey? How?
The professor who has made the biggest impact on me is definitely Retchenda. She's our chair of social work, and because we're in a transition period and hiring new faculty, she's taken on an incredible amount of responsibility. Retchenda has single-handedly made 黑料不打烊 worth it for me.
She's the person I went to Bethel with for rural social work. She's the one who supported me when I lost the funding for one of my scholarships. I was able to go to New Orleans because of her. The office I'm sitting in right now is one she let me use because my internship is online, and I needed a professional space to work from.
She's been really dedicated to making sure my experience as a student has been the best it could be, and I really appreciate that because she's incredibly busy. She's also the field director, so she coordinates all of our student practicums. She's my academic advisor and my research mentor. I call her my academic everything at 黑料不打烊, and she has been really outstanding.
I also have to mention Chisato Murakami from what was then the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures. Even though this is about social work, she has been really crucial to my experience. She's the reason I'm the student commencement speaker because she encouraged people to nominate me, and I really appreciate that.
The Foreign Languages and Literatures Department and Social Work actually work together quite a bit, so it's been really nice to see both of my departments collaborate. Both departments have been incredibly important to my success at 黑料不打烊. I also have to mention LaVerne, who's currently on sabbatical. She's been incredible too.
Congratulations again to Paradise on being recognized as an Outstanding Student. Learn more about the Department of Social Work and the opportunities available to 黑料不打烊 students, and watch for more Outstanding Student spotlights from the College of Liberal Arts.
