Teaching Across Cultures

It may be easy for students to see their professors as being one dimensional, only existing in the classroom with no outside lives, but students should also recognize that some professors bring a wealth of personal and professional experience to the classroom.

This is particularly true with the newest hire of the COM faculty, Assistant Professor Dr. Ana de la Serna, who once served as a photographer for the president of Mexico.

Dr. de la Serna grew up in Mexico and didn't move to the United States until pursuing her Ph.D. at the University of Kentucky in 2014. As an undergraduate student, she studied photography, eventually leading her to land a job as a photojournalist for the president of Mexico.

"That was a really intense job," Dr. de la Serna said. "It was a 24/7-every-single-day-of-the-year kind of thing. You always had to be ready for anything to happen."

While working in this official capacity for the president, Dr. de la Serna was constantly traveling and covering multiple events per week.

"It allows you to see all the events that are happening on a global scale firsthand," Dr. de la Serna said. "So that, I think, was the best part. I saw history in the making."

However, it was not all glamorous. When being away from home became too much for Dr. de la Serna, she decided to change careers and start working for the minister of the environment. It was there that de la Serna decided she wanted to go back to school.

"I realized that I couldn't just have that practical knowledge," Dr. de la Serna said. "I was learning a lot from a lot of different people but it wasn't the academic knowledge that I wanted. So that's why I decided to do my master's."

Dr. de la Serna accomplished this by working during the day and attending school at night, eventually earning her master's degree in Political Analysis and Media from Tec de Monterrey in Mexico City.

"I wanted to understand what I was doing," Dr. de la Serna said. "Not just know how to do it, but really understand all the background. Why people were making certain decisions? What is happening in the country?"

But after finishing her master's degree, she still wasn't satisfied. She found she really liked school and research and wanted to pursue both of those while furthering her education. However, Mexico doesn't offer studies in Communications outside of Journalism and Public Relations. So, Dr. de la Serna decided to find somewhere that did.

Leaving behind everything she knew, Dr. de la Serna moved from a large city in Mexico to a small college town in Lexington, Kentucky, to pursue her Ph.D.

Being an international student comes with obstacles, so Dr. de la Serna made quick friends with other international students who understood what she was going through.

"We were all in the same boat," Dr. de la Serna said. "We were trying to adjust and learn pretty much everything. Learn about the immigrant culture. Learn about social norms. Learn about the educational system because everything is different. It's starting over."

While many people may think that language may be the biggest barrier to international students, they sometimes don't consider mundane everyday things they take for granted, like getting a driver's license or credit card.

"I wanted to get a driver's license," Dr. de la Serna said. "I've been driving for 16-20 years and they said, 'No, you have zero driving record.' You have to start over. Or a credit card. You have no credit history. So you're kind of starting a new life."

And while this experience was challenging, Dr. de la Serna sees it as a way she can connect to her students.

"I think that all of that experience, that process that took me a couple years, I think that helped me understand a lot of my students," Dr. de la Serna said.

This is why Dr. de la Serna is particularly fond of and qualified to teach the cross-cultural journalism class. She describes a large portion of this class as students sharing their experiences with each other.

"I love teaching that because we get to share a lot of our experiences," Dr. de la Serna said. "I find that students really like participating and talking about what they've gone through and how that shapes their own identity, their own perception of the world."

A lot of what Dr. de la Serna teaches comes from her experiences, not a textbook.

"I am teaching what I know," Dr. de la Serna said. "I try to teach my students so that they don't make the same mistakes that I made when I was starting out."

As a new professor in a changing department, Dr. de la Serna has a unique perspective on the direction that the department is headed.

"I am trying to emphasize diversity and inclusion in everything that happens in this department," Dr. de la Serna said. "Whether it's professors or students, everybody needs to question how they are doing things so that they can do a better job of teaching our student population."

According to Dr. de la Serna, another goal is to better prepare our Spanish-speaking students to better understand Latino culture in the news. To do this, she points to the COM department's plans to add a Spanish-language component to the Journalism program, whether that be a class or certificate, as part of the accreditation process.

"I think that students here would benefit a lot from not just doing Spanish language but from really understanding Latino culture in the news," Dr. de la Serna said.

The intent would also be to further prepare the Spanish-speaking students for careers in the burgeoning field of Spanish-language media, particularly here in the Southern California media marketplace.

"We wanted to add Spanish-language journalism, so we sought to hire someone with expertise in that area," said Chair of the Communications Department Dr. Nancy Cheever, explaining why Dr. de la Serna was the perfect fit for this goal.

As a native of Mexico, who brings both professional and academic experience in journalism and public relations, Dr. de la Serna brings a valuable voice to the faculty that she hopes will also help Journalism students better understand Latino culture in the news.