Educator
"Education is the key to unlock the golden door of freedom." -- George Washington Carver
Dr. Rod's academic experience includes serving as an adjunct lecturer teaching Introduction to English composition. This course taught an understanding of writing in various disciplines through the interpretation and analysis of texts. Students learned conventions of academic writing, how to adapt in response to different rhetorical situations, genres, purposes, audiences, and other issues of context. This English course provided the foundation for understanding how to make meaning from texts. He has also taught incoming freshman in a course that provided the support necessary for students to be successful during their first semester of college. Students in the course were encouraged to explore their long-term educational goals and were provided with tools and techniques to help achieve their aspirations. Dr. Rodriguez has also had the opportunity to reconfigure this course so that it could meet the needs of young men, ages 18 - 29, pursuing their High School Equivalency (HSE) diploma.
Additionally, Dr. Rodriguez developed and taught multiple experiential workshops that focused on issues of equity, student engagement and student success. Specific topics include, but are not limited to, implicit bias, Stereotype threat, and John Henryism, to name a few. He has also developed a career-based course targeting men of color covering topics ranging from recognizing implicit bias to equity in the workplace. He also developed a course designed to increase engagement targeting young fathers trying to obtain their high school equivalency.
