Dr. Joan Burkhardt knows it only takes one day to change your life.
In fact, some of her most pivotal life and work choices have stemmed from opportunities presented in a single day. From finding a career she loves to investing in her passions, she wastes no time seizing these moments when they present and become clear.
“I don't talk in fantasy,” says UAGC faculty member Dr. Burkhardt. “I'm either going to do it or I'm not going to do it. I know a lot of people who talk about pipe dreams, and I'm like, ‘What do you mean? Just do it.’”
As a professor who specializes in digital fluency and international education, Dr. Burkhardt’s breadth of experience comes from her own education, along with taking on diverse teaching roles and keeping an open mind to anything that crosses her path.
Creating Her Own History
Unlike many educators, Dr. Burkhardt didn’t possess the calling to teach from a young age. Instead, she was unsure about what job she wanted to pursue in life, and she says she didn’t know what her professional path would look like at all.
“Teaching is all I’ve ever done, but I was feeling lost after my undergrad,” she recalls. “I had no idea what to do.”
However, her love of history eventually led her to the path of education. During her college years, she nominated a former high school history teacher for a Secondary Educator of the Year Award, paying homage to a person who inspired her to major in history and English during her undergraduate years.
“I had some really good teachers who made me recognize the impact I could have,” she says.
While her initial plan was to find a job working in museums, the field wasn’t as fruitful as she hoped.
“I had it in my head that I was going to be a museum curator,” Dr. Burkhardt recalls. “My junior and senior year, I did internships in museums but didn't realize there's not a boon of museum curator jobs, or even museum jobs in general.”
Eventually, teaching middle school became her immediate teaching role after earning her Master’s degree. However, Dr. Burkhardt later switched to teaching college courses after having her first child. Her first foray into teaching in higher education was as an English as a second language (ESL) instructor, which proved pivotal because it offered exposure to helping a set of students and their unique needs.
“I became really interested in the experience of international students,” she says. “It's about belonging. It always goes back to that. I want to identify ways to help people feel like they're part of a community, to feel safe, to feel welcome and integrated, and to make the most of every opportunity they have in a safe environment.”
Finding Her Way
Part of her proactive approach to life comes from the willingness to try new things. While homeschooling, Dr. Burkhardt worked for herself, completing copywriting jobs and consultantship roles as an independent contractor. Staying true to her ESL roots, she also offered tutoring to ESL students for their state teacher licensure exams.
“They had the skills they needed, but what they needed to know is they could do it, and they just needed strategies,” she says.
That pedagogy extends to giving students the mental freedom to pursue their dreams. Dr. Burkhardt comes from a working-class family in central Massachusetts, where jobs rarely ventured outside of blue-collar roles or traditional career ladders. She hopes to eliminate the “people like me” limitation from her students’ mindsets, as she was able to do in her own journey.
“I can't understand not being okay with changing your mind, but I realize that the vast majority of people don't have that kind of empowerment,” she says. “What I want to give my students is that feeling of empowerment and agency in their own lives.”
UAGC By Happenstance
Eventually, Dr. Burkhardt’s career search turned into destiny. In 2021, she was on the hunt for a full-time remote role when a posting for a faculty position at UAGC appeared on her radar. Dr. Burkhardt applied, and she has been with the University since.
In essence, Dr. Burkhardt says she has found her people.
“I would leave here kicking and screaming, and it is because these are the most genuine, authentic, just beautiful people I have ever worked with,” she says about her colleagues. “I love the students, don't get me wrong, but my colleagues are genuinely my people. They make me feel safe and seen and heard and understood, and I have never felt so valued.”
Now, as a professor in the College of Integrative Learning, she also holds a program chair position where she focuses on her Digital Fluency for Life and the Workplace class and additional courses.
Adventure Always Awaits
Beyond exposure to culture through her ESL students, Dr. Burkhardt sees the world through extensive travel.
Keeping in theme with her single-day opportunities, Dr. Burkhardt recently purchased a home in Italy. A property she fell in love with in the town of Città Sant'Angelo went on the market for one day, and she bought it immediately, sight-unseen. Together with her husband and children, she has been fixing up the property and working with local contractors to create her true dream home.
“Today is the tomorrow,” she says regarding her motivation to act on this idea. “What are we waiting for?”
Unbeknownst to her at the time, that home in Italy has a ground-level storefront. Dr. Burkhardt recently turned it into a cat rescue and adoption center to satisfy her additional passion of animal rescue. That mission of fulfillment mirrors that of the ones she takes with her students, where she strives to create an accepting environment for everyone.
“For me, it all goes back to making them feel valued and that they have a safe place to fall, and that they belong,” she says.
Looking ahead, Dr. Burkhardt plans to work with a nonprofit in Tanzania with UAGC professors, Drs. Teresa Handy and Jennifer Robinson, to support children and their communities in Tanzania. She will use this opportunity to reinforce her ideas and help launch a service-learning program to support enervated early childhood education programs in that part of the world. Dr. Burkhardt welcomes anyone interested in collaborating on the project to contact her via email.
“It's a daunting task, but our goal is essentially to support a network of community interventions dedicated to gender inclusivity, reaching vulnerable children, empowering self-reliance, and transforming early childhood education,” she says of her work. "It's to lend our passion and expertise toward promoting the shared core values of inclusivity, equality, and diversity.”
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