Dr. Jenny L. McFadden is an associate professor of transitional English. She is an Eastern Shore native who says she has always loved her subject. “I love the power of stories and the power of writing,” she said. “In my classes, I want to help students find their own voice and power.”
McFadden attended Flagler University for her bachelor’s degree, then went to Salisbury University for her master’s degree and doctorate. That was where she started her career in education, working as a teaching assistant. “It is an amazing job helping students learn to think critically,” she said.
She worked as a middle school teacher before deciding to pursue her doctorate and says she has found her niche at Wor-Wic. “I enjoy teaching college students the most,” she said. “Especially at Wor-Wic, they are invested in the class and choosing to be there.”
She is devoted to ensuring her students have the best outcomes and experiences in her class, and she doesn’t just use her teacher’s intuition; she does research. She recently published an article in the journal Teaching and Learning Excellence through Scholarship, a peer-reviewed academic journal. “Replacing a Reading Comprehension Textbook with an OER: A Case Study Examining Benefits and Drawbacks for Developmental Students at Wor-Wic Community College” described her research project examining advantages and challenges students have experienced due to the implementation of an open educational resource in English 095. Her work eliminated the need for students in her class to purchase expensive textbooks and confirmed that exchanging those texts for open-licensed, free resources didn’t affect how well students learned.
When she’s not reading or writing, McFadden loves going to the beach, enjoying her two daughters and running – she earned a medal in the Wor-Wic foundation’s 5K Hero Run. “I also enjoy my church family at the Community of Joy. I had the opportunity to preach and I enjoyed it — it felt like an extension of teaching,” she said. She’s also a big fan of the most literary of the NFL teams: the Baltimore Ravens. “I try not to let them destroy my week,” she joked.
McFadden says she feels at home in her work here. “Wor-Wic is like family,” she said. “I feel so blessed to be able to work with our students — I always learn from them and I appreciate all their different backgrounds. I have incredible colleagues. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.”