Area Women in Business:Jennifer Gilderhus, Education

Jennifer Gilderhus

Born: Valdosta, Georgia, 1977

Education: NDSU - BS in Speech communications, NDSU – M.S. in Speech Communications

Business: Speech Instructor, General Education, Minnesota State Community and

Technical College (MSCTC) - Moorhead

Community volunteering: Assisting with high school level public speaking and debate – coaching and competition.

A class such as Introduction to Public Speaking can strike fear in the heart of even the bravest student. Through this type of course future Minnesota State Community and Technical College (MSCTC) graduates and our up and coming workforce learns about the process of communications and its importance in small groups, interpersonally and in business.

Jennifer Gilderhus guides and teaches her students in the fine art of effective communications as a part of the general course work required for a two year degree (Associate Degree) at MSCTC and says that most people do not know that even with her speech communications expertise she is actually shy!

Jennifer Gilderhus has taught communications for 10 years and her enthusiasm in working with students is evident as she describes her pride and satisfaction as she witnesses students’ growth in confidence and oral presentations over four months each semester in Introduction to Public Speaking classes.

Leading up to teaching, Jennifer was a bank teller during high school, worked at a bridal store and at the Children’s Museum at Yunker Farm in Fargo. Jennifer says that she has not experienced major obstacles as she has pursued various jobs, college and now teaching.

Jennifer caught the teaching bug during graduate school and through teaching at NDSU, MSUM and now MSCTC she finds herself continually learning as a teacher in the classroom and finds teaching an incredibly rewarding job as she impacts future professional and business people. Jennifer says that teaching is a joy and she does not think of it as work.

This year 5,231 students are enrolled in courses with MSCTC at campuses in Detroit Lakes, Fergus Falls, Moorhead, Wadena, and online and between 1,300 and 1,400 will graduate this year. Ninety percent of the graduates in career programs will be placed in to jobs within their field of study and 80 percent of the Associate in Arts graduates go on to attend four year colleges to pursue bachelor’s degrees.

With 2,300 students attending the Moorhead campus, Jennifer’s days are busy. She currently she teaches four classes and a typical day includes preparing for class at 7 am, making phone calls, and having students and colleagues stopping by her office. Once in the classroom, she strives to always be interacting with students and making sure that they are actively engaged in the class. Jennifer also needs to know the material at least twice as well as her top student and likes to encourage students to work with each other to problem solves and find answers together as she combines lecturing with hands-on activities.

Several trends in the teaching profession are on-line classes being offered (Jennifer said it’s a myth that on-line is less work for the student) and to have students involved in service learning activities to encourage volunteer activity in the community and to then speak about current issues.

Jennifer’s professional goal is to keep teaching and to develop more communications courses for MSCTC. She continues to learn about the teaching profession through networking with others, professional publications, attending state and national conventions and hands on communications work with high school public speaking groups.

Whether your knees are knocking together just thinking about taking a public speaking course or you have taken such a class in the past, we should all be so fortunate to have a talented communications instructor like Jennifer.

Interview & profiles by Lauren Falkner