HoC: Elizabeth Encarnacion
Humans of Chaffey
Photo of: Elizabeth Encarnacion
Elizabeth Encarnacion believes there are multiple layers an individual can engage in when developing a career in communications. Encarnacion is an engaged, full-time communications professor for Chaffey College, but it wasn’t until recent years she decided to make this profession her full-time job.
She states, “I think one of the biggest misconceptions about communication is that it’s simple and that it’s a straight forward process, which is absolutely not true."
After asking her what her overall thoughts about a career in communications were, she with all certainty responded,
“It’s complicated, a career in communication can mean a plethora of things and having a degree in Communication is really a versatile degree in a lot of different fields, in a lot of different industries, that I think are traditionally overlooked."
Encarnacion mentioned there are a variety of degrees with a communication focus, such as journalism or human resources. She believes this career has more than the known small skills. She believes communication can be compared to a chameleon,
"I hear it called a soft skills approach really often, and I really hate the term soft skills, because it is determining it is easy or not as intense, but I understand what the intent is behind calling it a soft skill… it is everyone needs it we all need these skills in communication, which means they are all very easy transferable to a wide variety of lenses, it’s like a chameleon of jobs a chameleon of degrees."
She continued to describe how she has had multiple jobs that all connect in some way to her communications degree. Jobs such as: training and development, wedding planner, student support services, mental health counselor and a restaurant manager; they all made her who she is today and helped her shape a career as a communications professor.
Professor Encarnacion is aware of the lack of knowledge there is towards communication and how people are poorly informed of the infinite possibilities that it grants; she describes uninformed remarks as blanket comments. Encarnacion shared her elevator pitch for communication: as imagining that sociology and psychology had a baby. She explained that sociology is used in communication by analyzing how we interact with other people internally and externally. After, comes in the psychological element which analyzes how our internal communication affects the external communication.
During the interview, Encarnacion enthusiastically shared one of her favorite hobbies: teaching. She gives an example of how her social media is curated to follow other educators, leaders and followers in social justice and groups and movements she finds important such as “Black Lives Matter”. She immerses herself with as much knowledge as she can as a white women to sympathize with the different cultural and individual barriers. She identifies with the LGBTQ+ community and follows feminist pages she identifies with as female.
She enjoys and finds it exciting to participate in activities with students, such as being interviewed or attending workshops about information she is not completely familiar with and exposes herself to learning experiences.
Her career as a communications professor was something she desired to be since the early stage in her life. She describes watching television shows and enjoyed seeing the roles of college professors being played and found the relationship between the student and professor as "awesome." She states:
“I’ve always been a a little bit more of an adult, as a kid I didn’t have a care for a childhood so I was always more mature and I just always wanted to model the relationship students had with their professors in these shows."
While she was attending a class, she watched a Deborah Tannen foundational research video called “He Said/She Said”. She was instantly intrigued by the video and said,
"Watching this video of this researcher talk about how different types of people communicate and the reasons behind it and what it looks like in a practical sense… I was hooked, I was just like this video is blowing my mind, this video is making my life have a whole lot more sense."
The education process has changed dramatically since the start of COVID-19, and it was crucial to touch basis on how Encarnacion has dealt with the struggles of online learning as a professor.
Encarnacion says, “In order to protect the mental health of our students, we have to protect the mental health of our educators."
Professor Encarnacion believes that the current pandemic has created a triple down effect that has to be addressed from the top. In other words, it is essential for professors to be in a good mental space and prepared to be an online educator; students will not be prepared to be online learners.
Encarnacion mentions, “I find myself comfortable in the online world, but my role is more important to help and assess other people and get other teachers and colleagues in the field of communication up to speed on what teaching online looks like and that’s being exhausting."
She enjoys teaching online as it is something she has always been familiar with, but she mentions she did not sign up to be in front of a computer all day and having to sacrifice her in person classes. Online classes have lasted enough in her perspective to the point it is getting draining. Being in a classroom, having discussions, seeing reactions, getting laughs and learning together is completely gone in the sense of how it once was.
She simplifies her thoughts by saying,
"It’s comparing apples and oranges, and I think when we spend to long sitting and comparing the online classes to the in person class we are no doing either of them justice… I don’t like comparing them they are meant to be different but equal."
Even though, she has managed to stay organized and helps her students she is ready for this transition to be over.
She says, “I miss sitting in my office and I miss hearing students have conversations, I miss seeing them make friends in class and actual friendships forming… I miss walking down the quad and grassy areas and seeing people hanging out… I miss going to student clubs… I miss my colleagues and talking to them in the hallway… I think I just miss human interaction but I guess it’s normal as a communications person."
Professor Encarnacion believes that people have now finally understood how important human interaction is and how much communication is involved in our lives. Encarnacion is pregnant with her first child and her due date is quickly approaching. She knows that who she is will change dramatically and finds it scary, but she will be available to manage her activities and continue with her goals.