Category: University of Wisconsin-Madison

Scholarly Response: “Story Time”

Recently, I was skimming through On Wisconsin, the alumni magazine from my alma mater, the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  In addition to articles about noteworthy alumni, there are often stories about professors and students conducting innovating research projects on the Madison campus.  One such article, “Story Time”, detailed a unique storytelling project involving UW students and military veterans at a Madison-area Veterans Administration (VA) hospital.  The project, called “My Life, My Story“, was initiated in 2013 by a UW School of Medicine and Public Health psychiatry resident and has since been adopted by six other VA facilities across the country.  The program gives veterans an opportunity to tell their stories about what they have gone through in military and civilian life.  A volunteer, usually a medical or literature student, acts as an interviewer and writes a 1000-word story.  This personal testomony enables a health care provider, such as a VA doctor or nurse, to better understand the background of a patient.  The article gives some enlightening examples of patients telling their stories and students commenting on the significance of the project.

It’s a remarkable how storytelling can help people discuss about the adversity they have encountered in their lives.  In cases such as this, it enables medical professionals to look at something other than a chart to get a better picture of a patient’s history.  Especially if a patient has put his or her life in harm’s way.

Weekly Reflection: Spring (Break) Has Sprung!

1280px-Daytona_Beach_Sunrise_from_La_Playa_MotelToday is the first day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere.  For students at the University of Colorado-Denver, tomorrow is the first (official) day of spring break.  A perfect time to get away from school work and rest the mind.  At the same time, students at several major universities will be thinking of their schools in the downtime as their basketball teams compete in the NCAA basketball tournament.  The men’s team of my alma mater, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, will be playing Xavier University tonight, so I’ll be heading to a sports bar later to cheer the Badgers on to victory!

So it’s fair to say right now that my mind is not occupied with my studies, but I did want to mention something about my Learning With Digital Stories (INTE 5340) class.  This past week, I explored a unique digital storytelling cite called StoryCorps.   If you’re an avid listener of NPR, you’ve probably heard these personal stories from time to time.  Many of them involve people discussing how an adverse event or situation has changed their lives.  In my previous blog post, I wrote a critique of a moving digital story entitled “1st Squad, 3rd Platoon.”  With StoryCorps, I was amazed how much emotional detail can come from an audio recording of a person.  This gives me some ideas of what I might be able to accomplish when I create my own digital story later in this semester for this class.  I’m glad Lori, our instructor, gave us some flexibility in submitting future assignments.  Routine can dull the mind.

So now it’s time to sit back and relax.  Granted, I won’t be going to a beach in Cozumel, but at least I’ll have time to get outside and enjoy the (mostly) sunny terrain of Colorado and cheer my team in the Big Dance.  Go Badgers!