By Jim Bissett and Kathy Deweese
If you’ve watched the Mountaineers during the last two seasons of the “March Madness” college basketball tournament, you have seen more than a talented team beat the odds to make it to the Elite Eight and return a year later to the Sweet Sixteen. You have also heard articulate WVU student-athletes shining in the national media spotlight.
West Virginia University speech pathology professor Dr. Carolyn Peluso Atkins is responsible in part for the impressive pre- and post-game performances of many WVU athletes. She’s also an award-winning teacher whose academic accomplishments are connected to a lifelong passion for Mountaineer sports.
It is a popular misconception that excellence in the classroom and excellence on the playing field cannot exist together. They certainly do at WVU—and professors such as Carolyn Atkins ensure it.
A Mountaineer Through and Through
A Morgantown native, Dr. Atkins recalls that “My parents owned a little grocery store on Walnut Street, and I can remember people like Sam Huff coming in to get a candy bar. Jerry West actually used to wash his car right beside where I lived, and I remember going there on a Sunday afternoon and getting his autograph.”
She says, “Even as a child I knew that WVU provided the heart and soul of the community. I wanted to be a part of it.” She’s been on both sides of the desk, entering the school as a freshman and obtaining a bachelor’s degree in speech, two master’s degrees, and a doctorate in curriculum and instruction. Describing herself as a “true Mountaineer product,” Dr. Atkins met her husband while he was a student in the WVU College of Law, and their two daughters both attend the University.
After serving as a graduate teaching assistant and part-time English instructor, she is now a professor admired and honored by her colleagues and her students. Former student Crystal Hightower claims that “Dr. Atkins will move mountains to enhance learning,” and Dean Anne Nardi, of the College of Human Resources and Education, describes her as “a teacher’s teacher.” Dr. Lynn Cartwright, chair of the Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology, knows that Carolyn Atkins “has a blend of passion for teaching and a compassion for listening to the stories of her students’ lives that is extremely rare.” It’s this ability to listen that has enabled her to help WVU student-athletes discover the self-confidence and poise needed to speak confidently to reporters and fans.
Learning to “Talk the Talk”
Since she was six years old, Carolyn Atkins has understood the power of words. She owes this understanding in part to an uncle who was eager to learn and who turned her into a teacher before she even knew it. “My Uncle Raymond is cognitively impaired,” she said. “When I was learning how to read and spell as a little girl, I taught him the words, too. Fifty years later, he still repeats, ‘r-a-t, rat,’ and ‘c-a-t, cat.’ And it’s still a thrill to hear it.”
Her enthusiasm for language and recognition of the importance of clear public speaking skills led to the creation of the Speaking to Communities course, known affectionately on campus as “Jock Talk.” In 1989, WVU was playing Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl, and Dr. Atkins was serving on the WVU Athletic Council. She suggested to Ed Pastilong, then in his first year as WVU athletic director, that since the school was gaining a lot of national recognition through athletics, it would be a good idea to have the student-athletes take a public speaking class. The following spring, “Jock Talk” was offered for the first time.
She remembers that “I had the stereotype that athletes had it pretty easy, at least until I assigned a three-minute speech. The topic was the ‘most influential person in my life.’ That day, class was supposed to last for 75 minutes, but we were there for about an hour and a half. I realized that they had emotional stories to tell.”
One of the original points of the exercise was to learn to eliminate those annoying verbal “fillers”—the “ums,” “ohs,” and “you knows”—that permeate everyday speech patterns. However, once stories about losing family members to drugs and violence, or growing up without enough food to eat were shared, avoiding saying “um” no longer seemed to be so important.
Students in “Jock Talk” now meet individually with Dr. Atkins to write a five-minute motivational speech that they share in public high schools in the Morgantown area. The final exam for these WVU ambassadors is the delivery of this same talk before the presenters’ coaches, advisors, teachers and friends, campus athletic council, and the press and public. The message that life goes on after the game ends, and that athletes better be ready for that life, has been received and appreciated.
Professor of the Year
The 2005 and 2006 WVU men’s basketball teams will be remembered for their dramatic run to the Elite Eight and their return to the Sweet Sixteen the following year. Team members Mike Gansey, Kevin Pittsnogle, Johannes Herber, Frank Young, B.J. Byerson, and Patrick Beilein were all enrolled in “Jock Talk.” They enabled Carolyn Atkins to join her own elite group by helping to nominate her for an award given by the Council for the Advancement and Support of Teaching (CASE) and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
In November 2005, Dr. Carolyn Atkins became the 2005 West Virginia Professor of the Year, one of only 46 named that year. She is the fifteenth WVU professor since 1987 to earn this prestigious award. According to WVU President David C. Hardesty Jr., “Students tell us she really connects with them—from the star athletes in her public speaking class to the talented students in her upper-level Honors classes. It’s obvious that she tries to balance her expertise in the classroom with human attributes like courtesy, caring, and concern.”
West Virginia University’s tradition of combining excellence in the classroom with athletic victories continues. Caring professors such as Carolyn Atkins make sure that every WVU student has a chance to shine in their own spotlight. She proudly realizes that “WVU will not only introduce you to the world, it will introduce you to yourself.”