Student Profile Archives

Delana Gregg
"Training Future Service Learners"

Delana Gregg is currently in her final semester of the ISD-TD master’s program. After earning her BA in English and a Secondary Teaching Certificate from Southern Illinois University, Gregg planned to be a high school English teacher. However, after her experience in the Peace Corps, she discovered her passion for teaching adults.

Gregg learned about the ISD-TD program when applying to the Shriver Center ’s Peace Worker program for returned Peace Corps Volunteers. At the time she was serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Telsiai , Lithuania as a Teacher Trainer.

“I was intrigued by the Peace Worker program’s offer to help with tuition while providing ethical reflection about the problems of American cities ( Baltimore ) paired with the opportunity to do community service. The ISD-TD program seemed a perfect continuation of my educational background, but with a new focus on educating adults.”

Gregg is currently working with the Sondeim Public Affairs Scholars Program, where she co-teaches and facilitates service learning with the scholars. She uses adult training skills while teaching the scholars, training them for their volunteer positions, and helping them reflect on their experiences. “The technology expertise I’ve garnered has been invaluable in working with our program’s Web site and expanding the online component (Blackboard) of the students’ course work,” Gregg explains.

“The ISD-TD program is very focused and flexible at the same time. I can choose my concentration while getting an authentic outlook on the training field from all the professionals that teach the course work. Because so many of my peers and I are working currently, we bring real life projects and problems to the course work, which makes it all more applicable.”

Gregg hopes to keep working in higher education, either training or teaching, while using the tools she’s learned through this program. “I can do analysis, find the real needs of the target audience, design a course and materials for implementation and evaluate the progress towards an organization’s goals now…seems so simple and yet the more I experience the more I realize not everyone does it this way."