Karen Gross - Page #16

Karen Gross Higher Education Expert

Karen is an educator and an author. Prior to becoming a college president, she was a tenured law professor for two plus decades. Her academic areas of expertise include trauma, toxic stress, consumer finance, overindebtedness and asset building in low income communities. She currently serves as Senior Counsel at Finn Partners Company. From 2011 to 2013, She served (part and full time) as Senior Policy Advisor to the US Department of Education in Washington, DC. She was the Department's representative on the interagency task force charged with redesigning the transition assistance program for returning service members and their families. From 2006 to 2014, she was President of Southern Vermont College, a small, private, affordable, four-year college located in Bennington, VT. In Spring 2016, she was a visiting faculty member at Bennington College in VT. She also teaches part-time st Molly Stark Elementary School, also in Vt. She is also an Affiliate of the Penn Center for MSIs. She is the author of adult and children’s books, the most recent of which are titled Breakaway Learners (adult) and Lucy’s Dragon Quest. Karen holds a bachelor degree in English and Spanish from Smith College and Juris Doctor degree (JD) in Law from Temple University - James E. Beasley School of Law.

Sympathy, Melania and a Question of Believability

I recently read a powerful piece questioning why so few people in America seem to have sympathy for Melania Trump. She has most assuredly been wronged by her husband and yet we do two seemingly inconsistent things: we question the veracity of the women who apparently had affairs with her husband (I don't doubt them actually) and we believe Melania knew her poison (so to speak) when she married the Donald.

Written by: Karen Gross
31/12/2018
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Thinking About Language Learning in America: It's a Problem

I have long worried about the quality of how we teach foreign languages in the US. (For the record, I was a Spanish TA years ago and taught college level Spanish for a short period.) I worry that people take years of foreign language classes in school and still cannot navigate a second language effectively. Ask your friends what language they learned in high school and even college and whether they can carry on a conversation that involves more than "What is on the menu?" and "Where is the X?".

Written by: Karen Gross
21/12/2018
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Why It's So Hard to Understand our Students and Help Them

Kids are deeply affected by acts of teachers --- and the teachers never know about what happened. I used to say as a college president that, with respect to students, you could do 99 out of 100 things right but the 1 thing that is wrong or bothersome or bad has a seemingly out-sized effect; in others words, we need to be vastly more aware not just of big systemic change but we need to pay attention to smaller words and deeds and acts. Both are important to be sure. But, we tend to focus on the BIG changes and acts; that's the American Way. Think Big.

Written by: Karen Gross
18/12/2018
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Higher Education Office Policies in a #MeToo World

Campuses, like businesses, are feeling the effects of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings. Some prefer to call them another example of the power of the #MeToo movement.