Rebecca Scharf

Having taught at Boyd for 15 years, can you tell us what this virtual semester has been like for you and your students? 

I usually lay low when it comes to talking about the positive experiences of my students. Although uplifting to me personally, I question the value of sharing my students' experiences with the entire faculty, many of whom have similar experiences each semester. Upon reflection, I realized: 

I am so proud to have been a professor at Boyd for the past fifteen years, but none quite as much as this past semester. The semester itself, however, started out no different, with me teaching two classes of 1L students legal writing. I made the commitment at the beginning of the semester that if they put in the effort, each of them would be a solid legal writer by the end of the semester. Partway through the semester, the coronavirus epidemic started lurking in the background with the distant possibility of classes going on-line. I remember it was that sweet spot in the semester when my students have started to really believe that I “say what I mean and mean what I say” when I promised them that first day. We had a bond, a tangible connection. 

And then it hit. School was closed. No more in-person classes. All classes pass-fail. As I reflected upon this, I realized that it was not in my power to force them to continue to put in the effort. What I could do is show them that while so many things were changing, some things were remaining exactly the same, and that was my commitment to them and their learning experience. I promised to give them the same legal writing experience that they would have had without Covid-19. And then I kept discovering more that I could give them, given the situation (no commuting, etc.), the more they gave back. To a student, they each put in tremendous effort in writing and re-writing, dressing up in front of home-made podiums to give Oral Arguments. Simply amazing. No grades at stake. No awards to be given. They made Boyd Nation proud.