April 17, 2018

Purdue Profiles: Jason Ware

Jason Ware Jason Ware, clinical assistant professor in the Honors College. (Purdue University photo/Rebecca Wilcox) Download image

A Lafayette native, Jason Ware obtained his undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral degrees from Purdue.

Now a clinical assistant professor in the Honors College, he leads a class titled Well-Being that allows him to combine his passions for undergraduate research and community well-being.

How did you know that you wanted to be involved in teaching?

As an undergrad, I wanted to teach high school, but when I graduated I ended up in the banking industry for a number of years. I loved that, but I still yearned to be in the classroom. I transitioned from a bank management position to be a director of learning because I thought it would shift in my focus to the education side of things. As the director of learning, I was responsible for all corporate learning, but my role was very limited in terms of the whole process of learning. That's when I decided that banking was probably not going to work for me. I came to work at Purdue in 2007, then got my master's in curriculum and instruction in 2011, and a PhD in 2015. When I was pursuing my doctorate in curriculum studies, I started lecturing in the College of Education. Initially, when I was thinking about teaching after undergrad, my whole dream was to have a positive influence on lives. I figured that by teaching teachers I could increase my impact.

Describe the Well-Being course. How did its premise come about?

Well-Being is a course-based research experience. Students met in class twice a week, and met outside of class to serve within the Lafayette community. Students went into Lafayette and worked with residents in particular neighborhoods to investigate with them their quality of life and well-being. In order to establish a sense of rapport and build trust with residents, students were placed with three different community partners: Hartford Hub, Habitat for Humanity, and the Lafayette Adult Resource Academy. At the Hartford Hub, there is a large contingency of children who come and take advantage of the after-school programs, but the goal was to enhance the Hub’s connection with adults in the neighborhood. The students in that group planned events hosted at the Hub to bring families in so they could interact with them. At LARA, the intent was to work with adult education learners and tutor them as they were studying various subjects. Students working with Habitat for Humanity led focus groups with families who were having new homes built.

Through these interactions, students got to know residents, established a sense of rapport and built trust. Throughout the semester, students read relevant texts, wrote reflections, compiled observation notes, analyzed their experiences and disseminated information. Their goal in this course was to talk to people who are perhaps struggling financially to get a sense of what they feel is necessary to enhance their quality of life and their well-being so that we can then take that qualitative data, match it with quantitative data that we have in the city to then develop indicators of well-being and quality of life within these populations and work with city officials to enhance those things that are necessary to improve quality of life and well-being.

What inspired you to lead this course and push students to interact with the community?

Several semesters ago when I was a service-learning faculty fellow, we took a trip to the Hartford Hub, which was at the time a brand-new facility where we could potentially take our students. I was in love with the Hartford Hub’s mission. I just really wanted to have the opportunity to teach undergraduate research in a very real sense that allowed students to go into the community and apply what they’ve learned to make a difference.

What are some of the positive interactions that came about as a result of this course?

Students were able to really get to know the people with whom they were interacting on a very personal level, which was much more than they expected. They knew that one of the goals of the course was to build relationships and establish trust, but I'm not sure that they were necessarily expecting to bond with some of the people that they worked with. The relationships that students forged as a consequence of being in the course were what was really impactful. They were also able to get a sense of how nonprofit organizations work and their various attempts to benefit the community. They were able to walk away from this course having a sense of what it means to do qualitative research. And the biggest thing is that they were able to see the fruits of their labor, a small but positive effect in various communities throughout the Lafayette area.

How do you hope that getting students out of their shell and be involved with these organizations will help them in what they go on to do after graduation?

I hope that when students have left Purdue and they are in their respective places, that they will want to cast an eye to the periphery, people in their cities that aren't like them that may have needs and that may struggle in one way or another. I want them to find ways to connect with people and blend their professional lives with a personal sense of making a difference in their communities, because there are loads of opportunities.

Writer: Kelsey Schnieders Lefever, kschnied@purdue.edu


Faculty-Staff News

More News

Purdue University, 610 Purdue Mall, West Lafayette, IN 47907, (765) 494-4600

© 2015-21 Purdue University | An equal access/equal opportunity university | Copyright Complaints | Maintained by Office of Strategic Communications

Trouble with this page? Disability-related accessibility issue? Please contact News Service at purduenews@purdue.edu.