A scholar and ceramic artist, Jennifer Graff is constantly guiding her University of North Georgia (UNG) students in applied learning and creative thinking.
"I really love it here at UNG," said Graff. "I love my colleagues, we're a very tight-knit group and we have high expectations of our students. I believe we're graduating some very smart and talented students."
One summer, Graff and Dr. Tanya Bennett took a group of UNG students on an honors "study away" program to the South Carolina coast, combining Bennett's multicultural American literature class with Graff's art appreciation class, funded by a UNG Presidential Innovation Incentive Award.
The award gives up to $5,000 to fund opportunities for collaborations between colleagues, with a focus on promoting innovative best practices in teaching, including student research, civic engagement and capstone project development.
Graff's idea was to offer the study away program as an alternative to study abroad programs. She reasoned that many UNG students have not traveled outside the north Georgia region, and many cannot afford to study abroad. The group of four students and two faculty members explored the Daufuskie Island area, located between Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, and Savannah, Georgia, taking in its culture, history and literature.
"It feels good to work in a place with upward momentum, where teaching students is a collaborative, interdisciplinary approach," said Graff. "UNG has great leadership in place, and has made extraordinary efforts toward diversity and inclusion regarding its faculty, staff and students."
Graff first came to UNG as an adjunct in 2004 and was hired as a full-time art instructor in 2005. She has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University and a Master of Fine Arts from the Lamar Dodd School of Arts at the University of Georgia. At UNG, Graff teaches ceramic classes and "everything to do with clay."
In her time at UNG Graff has found that the most rewarding thing is to see her students develop as people and artists, especially when they are given the responsibility of preparing for an exhibition of their art in one of the campus galleries.
"This process prepares them for the professional experience that they will eventually have outside of the university," Graff said.
In 2013, Graff was selected as a fellow for the Governor's Teaching Fellows Program, established in 1995 to provide Georgia's higher education faculty members with expanded opportunities for developing critical teaching skills using technology and other methods to challenge both students and faculty.
Graff is also active as a member in Liberal Education and America’s Promise (LEAP) Georgia. LEAP Georgia is a public advocacy and campus action initiative, emphasizing the importance of a liberal education for both individual students and a nation dependent on economic vitality and democratic values.
