If playing “Sack of Peas” with siblings is any indication of childhood bliss, then it’s a good bet Catherine Egley Waggoner, professor of communication, lived a happy life in her family’s Mississippi Delta home.
“The game involved my dad opening up an encyclopedia at night and having us read something new from it,” Waggoner recalls. Such games and engagement in the world encouraged curiosity in the young Waggoner, an effect that she credits to her parents’ own love of learning.
“My dad has a Ph.D. in plant physiology, and my mom was a speech pathologist,” Waggoner explains. “They are Renaissance parents and lifelong learners themselves.”
Such curiosity eventually led Waggoner to want to see the world through different lenses, to tie disciplines together, and to create exciting paths to understanding.
Whether cultivating her interest in the outdoors – she originally considered being a forest ranger thanks to Smokey the Bear – or pursuing dance in high school and falling in love with literature in college, Waggoner often found herself looking deeply at life, trying to connect the dots in ways that made meaning.
Having the chance to connect those dots with students has made her search all the more fulfilling and has clearly instilled a passion in them as well, so much so that they nominated her for Wittenberg’s top faculty prize, the Alumni Association Award for Distinguished Teaching.
Presented with the award by her former student-turned friend Eric Rusnak ’00 at the university’s annual Honors Convocation, Waggoner, whose Southern grace exudes from every fiber of her being, says hearing all the wonderful things shared about her contributions and connections with students was a bit like being at one’s own funeral.
“I just don’t see myself as a mid-career person, and I have never perceived myself as someone here long enough to make a significant contribution.”
Her story, however, suggests something different, and that “something” has inspired generations of students to love learning, to live lives of meaning and purpose, and to embrace curiosity at every turn.
“At Wittenberg, students have a phenomenal ability to choose, to work with their professors, to live in this environment, and to absorb so many opportunities, all while feeling fully supported. They have the opportunity to discover what they want to do – and then do it.”
Her own drive to connect the dots certainly has powered her desire to have students do the same. Having grown up in the Mississippi Delta, for example, Waggoner is currently interested in understanding how Southern women in the Delta region identify as women living in such a “highly mythologized land.
“What I’m looking for is performance of ‘southernness’ within the trappings of mythology,” she explains. “In other words, to what extent do they see Delta women identify with icons of Southern womanhood, especially those like Scarlett O’Hara, traditionally defined by purity, piety, domesticity and submissiveness?”
Her quest has since taken her back to her roots to interview 51 women of the Mississippi Delta to understand the role that mythology plays in creating their regional identities. For two consecutive years, Waggoner has also offered an alternative spring break service opportunity for her students in Cary, Miss.
“The experience has proved to be a type of cultural whiplash for students,” Waggoner says. “The United States of America has a place like Cary, Miss., where people live in incredibly impoverished situations, in what we might call 'shacks,'" Waggoner says. “I want students to experience that and to know there’s work to be done right here in America.”
Learning, immersing oneself in an effort, engaging others, and working to make something better also reflect Waggoner’s professional journey at Wittenberg. Hired in 1995 to help integrate speaking into the general education program, Waggoner recalls there being nothing typical about her charge as the new kid on the block. Students who wanted to study communication approached her about designing their own interdepartmental majors, and it quickly became apparent that an official communication major was in order.
“I was hired to teach communication courses, integrate speaking into the curriculum and ensure that students met all their general education requirements at the same time. I then needed to meet and get to know colleagues in other programs, so I could assess them and their programs. It took four contentious years to pass a communication major, but throughout it all, I always remembered the eminent value of people. Even if we disagreed vehemently, I always respected them as people because they cared so deeply for this place – and still do.”
Waggoner also takes pride in the continuing journey to create something lifechanging.
“Struggle isn’t bad,” she says. “It’s how you grow.”
Looking at the current communication program at Wittenberg, Waggoner’s words seem even more apropos. In the last 10 years, the program has graduated nearly 330 majors and on average serves 75 declared majors annually. Most of the popularity stems from the program’s personalized environment that routinely prepares students to embrace experiential learning opportunities, including learning digital media through the Integrated Media Corps (IMC), managing professional projects through the Communication And Business Leaders Experience (CABLE), and working on the student- run newspaper, The Torch, or the student-run radio station, WUSO 89.1 FM.
“My colleagues and I have had the privilege to build this program together,” says Waggoner, who also established the campus’ Oral Communication Center to assuage public-speaking fears and help students present with confidence. "The engagement we have with our students is incredible, and the care that goes into each curricular decision is inspiring.”
As for Waggoner’s own commitment to students, she says, “It’s a heavy responsibility, and one I take very seriously.”
From designing field experiences that help students understand how regional identities are created or how stylized behaviors are communicated to developing service-learning options in the deep South, Waggoner has embraced Wittenberg’s mission and motto from the moment she stepped foot on campus nearly two decades ago.
“I feel what I do matters,” she says. In this profession, “you really need to enjoy the individual students as much as the content you teach. I love this place. I love what I teach, and I love getting to know the students individually now and for a lifetime.”