Emily Hostutler

Pronouns: She/They

Faculty Position: English Professor

Hometown: Santa Rosa, CA

The most inspiring memories that I treasure with our students are the Community Engagement and Service Learning projects they self-designed and led in my classes. Mentoring students who created a massive community mural (depicting first-generation college students working locally to prevent food insecurity and mentoring youth) has to be the highlight of my teaching career. Most recently, our first-year students contributed portraits they made for an installation piece in New York City that explores themes of invisibility. I was able to connect across disciplines and programs to facilitate. The student submitted stunning, beautiful, sad, compelling, and authentic intersectional works of art. Witnessing students tie this work to their writing, develop their voices in composition classes, and recognize that they can be heard and make an impact civically is my greatest honor.

At times, when working with innovative and immersive practices in the classroom and outwardly in the community, things can get messy, because our world is messy right now. Hard dialogues and truths can come up (not every project is doable or right for our classroom or community) but what I've learned is that students want and are ready to tackle tough topics and discussions, and to lean into challenges. That complexity and nuance enriches our learning and motivates us to keep doing challenging and good work.

I moved to California from the East Coast with a sense of adventure and a drive to do altruistic work. I remember connecting with folks from my department and at the LARC for the first time and being encouraged by the openness of the SSU community and all of the potential for innovation. Inclusion and a focus on forward-facing historically marginalized students was part of my educational value system. The mission of SSU was aligned with those goals. Additionally, I learned that education cannot be the great equalizer without access to it! Learning from the amazing work of my colleagues in CAASE and getting the chance to collaborate with them to give our students the best chance at access and success is what keeps me here at SSU.

Working with the CCE, Service-Learning Affiliated Faculty, every staff member in the team at CAASE, and every team member at the LARC has taught me so much about translating the work we do outside the classroom. I have to remain teachable and humble in order to make space for our students to thrive, and those program staff and directors have inspired me and modeled a myriad of ways we can do good work.

My rapport with students is the greatest gift of my time at SSU. Whether in mentoring projects, reading vulnerable work in the classroom, working on programmatic shifts in the LARC or in my department, the students are always willing and engaged, and they stay in touch well beyond their time here. Recently, a treasured student emailed me to let me know that he is now a kindergarten teacher. He shared about his feeling safe and his sense of belonging during freshman year, even though he doubted himself many times. The inclusion and connection he felt was ultimately part of his call to become an educator. I cried when I read that, and the email is printed out on my inspiration board alongside many student achievements.