Student Kendal Lyssy Presents at the National Communication Association Conference in Utah | Communication Studies
November 15, 2018

Student Kendal Lyssy Presents at the National Communication Association Conference in Utah

One of our Communication Studies students, Kendal Lyssy, had the privilege of attending and presenting at this year's National Communication Association conference in Salt Lake City, Utah. Kendal's mentor, Dr. Mark Congdon and his advisor Dr. Herakova developed the Critical Communication Mutual Mentoring model which is derived from critical communication pedagogy. In the first picture below, is Kendal presenting her research at the poster session where scholars could approach her to read about her research and ask questions. The second photo below is Kendal and Mark.

In addition to presenting at the poster session, Kendal and Mark presented their experiences through the model, alongside 6 other pairs of mutual mentors, to a panel of scholars. During their panel presentation they discussed their mentor relationship, how Kendal learned from Dr. Congdon how to conduct research, how she learned to advocate for what she needed in his classroom, and how Dr. Congdon learned how to accomodate Kendal as a blind student. The dynamic of a mutual mentorship is what allowed them to learn from one another. There are five main components to the CCMM model (Critical Communication Mutual Mentoring) which include dialogue, identities and culture, embracing vulnerability through reflexivity and self disclosure, collaboration and collectivity, and continuous and netoworked interactions through meditated/virtual and face to face communication. Kendal's mentor is an Assistant professor of Public Relations and Advertising at Saint Rose University in Albany, New York. Even though their mutual mentorship is long distance, they have sucessfully developed communication through technology and have still been able to apply the five main compents of the CCMM to their mentor relationship. Click here to read Kendal's paper.