June 23, 2022 • 42 mins
Interested in a career with helping others? 2022 RCBC President's Award winner, Gia Carosiello, shares her story of transforming her battles with substance abuse into a remarkable student success story of helping others through a RCBC Human Services degree.
We're also joined by RCBC Instructor and Department Chair of Social and Behavioral Science, Dr. Brandon Chapman who's currently abroad in the country of Georgia and adding to his already extensive anthropology background.
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Episode Transcript
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Unknown (00:07):
Hello and welcome to the program pod A production of
the rcbc Podcast Network wherewe take an rcbc program and do a
deep dive from differentperspectives within the program.
And thanks for joining theconversation with me, your host
Jay Varga and for today'sepisode, we're taking a look
under the Social and BehavioralSciences Mentimeter umbrella
with an incredible humanservices success story in the
making and one of our finerfaculty voices on campus or
(00:31):
online in this case here. Sojoining me today we have Gina
Carr clo right she's looking atme just had to get that in
there. But who overcameincredible hot, heavy obstacles
and sparked her inner light into2022 rcbc President's Award
winner and one of ourcommencement speakers, a first
generation student who earned adegree in Human Services and
addiction counselor certificatewhile achieving memberships in
(00:53):
the National Society leadershipand success and the Phi Theta
Kappa Honor Society, communityvolunteer and now student at
Rowan University. Did I missanything? I don't think so.
Nagina was Jia. Yeah, I knowit's on the way here too. I knew
I was going to do that becausemy sister in law's Gina, their
son, my nephew is Gio. Andyou're right, right in the
middle of it. And I was like,Don't say Don't say it. And I
(01:14):
still said it. So GIA,everybody, and then also coming
all the way across the globefrom Georgia. Yes, the country.
We have Dr. Brandon Chapman,which we'll touch base a little
bit on that Georgia conversationin a second. But our rcbc
instructor and department chairfor social and behavioral
science has he's done fieldworkin Russia, parts of the CIS
Eurasia Arctic and sub ArcticAlaska, Trinidad Tobago and
(01:36):
Peru, Ecuador, and has beenestablished in some published
several journals there in thesocial science journal and
cultural survival survivalquarterly. Did I miss anything?
There? That sounds good. Thanksfor having me. Thanks. I'm glad
to be with you. With you both.Yeah. So glad everybody could
take the time out of theschedule and allocate time to do
(01:56):
so especially you So what timeis it in Georgia over there? It
is almost 7pm. So it's just thatwe my fiance, and I just had
dinner. So okay, I'm full ofGeorgian food right now. But
that's a whole nother.
Yeah, I haven't had my breakfastyet. So. So anyway, again, as
rcbc embraces a student firstphilosophy here, let's start
(02:17):
with you, Gia. Right. Okay, Ihad an rcbc Students stories
similar to yours. The very firstepisode that we have here on the
program pod who overcame his ownbattle of addiction, and went on
to be a mechanical engineer atLockheed Martin credible stuff.
So can you share your backgroundstory? And you know, what
provided that like that momentof clarity and why you chose
Human Services and come to rcbc?Yeah, so I am actually I just
(02:41):
celebrated five years sober andMarch. Awesome. So
before I got there, I was in andout of addiction with alcohol
and opioids. And that about tooklike, four or five years of my
life. And then my nephew wasborn. And I was like, secretly
still, like doing drugs, butlike telling everybody I was
(03:02):
clean. And you know, like, mostpeople believed me, but a lot of
people were like, no. So mybrother and my sister in law
were like, listen, like, wedon't really want you around,
like, like your nephew. Like, ifyou're still getting high, like,
so basically being told that Iwasn't allowed to see my nephew
was me being like, Okay, well,then I'm going to do this so I
(03:23):
can see him, I have that type ofpersonality, where if you tell
me, I can't do something, I'mgoing to show you that I can do
it.
I guess that really gave me thejump, I really didn't want to, I
was also facing jail time,because I was not passing
probation. So that was a bigfactor as well.
(03:43):
I went to a place calledEpiphany in Florida. And it was
very, like, spiritually basedkind of it like really brought
you like, out of like, yourcomfort zones and like,
different like practices, theydid the director like one around
like the whole like world, andlike studied all types of
(04:04):
different like cultures andeverything. And then she like,
brought it all together. And Ithink like, that's what really
helped was to able to, like bevulnerable with yourself and
like really, like, understandwho you are, and like, knowing
it's okay to be uncomfortable.And like, you know, just like,
being able to, like live lifethat way, like always being,
(04:24):
like, grateful for what youhave. And I think that's what
really helped because I went tolike two other rehabs before
that. And they were very, like,you know, like, they taught you
about addiction and all kinds ofstuff like that. But it was
very, like, steps and likeprograms and like that sort of
way. So I think having thetraditional Yeah, like more
traditional. I think having thatlike, outside really helped. And
(04:47):
that's like what made me remainsober. So once I started, like
getting everything back, likepaying off all my fines and like
working really hard.
I was like, okay, like I'm doingreally good in my life.
they're like, What can I do tobe better? And that's when I
decided to go back to school.And I was like, looking through
all the programs, and I'm like,I really do not know what I want
(05:08):
to do. But like, I know, I wantto give back in some sort of
way. Sure. So like humanservices was like a huge, it
provided that basically, but inhigh school sociology was like
one of my favorite classes. Andthat's why like, I'm also
getting my associates at nightas well. Even though I just
graduated with my associates inHuman Services, did not hear or
(05:30):
see music. Yeah. So
that's really what just like,just wanting to give back. And,
you know, just like,
giving forward is basically justlike, what makes me want to go
like, toward that career. I dowant to be an addiction
counselor, but it's kind oflike, an open umbrella to like,
wherever I can fall or like, Iknow, I'm not probably going to
(05:52):
be like one place, like, superlong, you know, kind of just
like, see where I fall into.Yeah. Well, I mean, it's good to
give back. Because, again, youyou went through it. Yeah. You
know, and it's great to see thesuccess story, because not many
people have that success story.They, they never get out of
that, right. Like we weretalking during our prep call,
like my brother in law lost hisbattle, right. And I thought
when he had his knees, he wouldget his stuff together. And
(06:13):
unfortunately, he did. And Istarted taking that father
figure role on for my secondniece, which actually, I think,
started prove myself because myniece gave me a Father's Day
thing where they said, like, myfavorite uncle or whatever,
right? From Father's Day. I'mlike, Oh, I'm doing a good job
here, you know, but it's a shamebut because addiction is tough.
It's tough to beat. Soincredible feat for you to be
five years sober and continue togo on and to give backs even
credible look, I'm even gettinggoosebumps talking about a
(06:35):
little bit because I'm so proudof you for that. But so during
these courses here at rcbc, didyou have Professor Dr. Chapman?
I did yeah, yeah, was likeworking or, you know, studying
under him or going through hiscourses, I actually really enjoy
his courses. It's can beoverwhelming, because he just
like throw so much interestinginformation at you.
(06:58):
But like that is like literallypart of the course. I think how
he runs his courses is alsoextremely helpful for like the
non traditional student, becausehe allows you to like, work
ahead. He layouts he like givesyou all the information that you
need. So I can literally sitdown in one day, and read what I
(07:19):
need to read and like knock outmultiple discussion questions.
And I think that is extremelyimportant for people who are
working, who have children wholike I think all the classes
should be like, format it as heformats his classes, because it
makes it so much easier tobetter yourself, and like to
(07:41):
learn, but able to like be aparent, be a full time student
work full time. It just likeputs all of that and like wraps
it in a really pretty bow. How'sthat make you feel? Professor
Chapman? To hear compliments,deep and genuine compliments
like that on multiple aspects ofthe courses I put so much into
is like is an over joy for me.So so thank you for that. That
(08:05):
that is that's some of the beststuff that I can hear. I would
say to about Julia the multiplereasons why I asked her to come
on the show this podcast withus. What a deep and resilient
story. Gia has I mean,
coming out of that over a periodof years, much of it seems she
(08:27):
did under her own volition andherself. And that is a testament
to what's you know, anybodywho's struggling with such
things out there, what they cando. And you know, I see my I
think Gio sort of spoke to maybemy efficiency and running my
courses. How efficient is Giawith her time she is done, what
associates and human servicesalready she is stalking with
(08:50):
that and Associates insociology, also, here with us
our CBC. And on top of that,she's also pursuing a program at
the four year Rowan University,that's just I mean, getting the
most out of the time put intothe resources put into
something. And that's, that's anamazing story as well. So GIA is
(09:12):
in multiple respects a modelstudent, whether we're talking
about traditional age or nontraditional age students. So the
the, the respect and the thefeeling is mutual, and was just
the first was actually last weekthe first time you got to see
each other face to face withyour courses to or no, so we
(09:32):
actually we didn't formally meetbut I know like we like saw each
other at the award ceremony.Okay, yes, yeah. Right, right.
Yes, yes. Yeah. And then I wasable to see GIAs graduation
speech online, because I was Iwas faculty at a different part
of our ceremonies. And was, thatwas the first time I really
(09:55):
heard of more personally abouther, her life history.
and was very much touched. Andspeaking of that, do you would
you do you ever think that youwould become like the
President's Award winner andspeak into the rcbc class of
2022 at the commencement fromwhere you worked just a couple
years ago? Not at all right?
High school, I wasn't a horriblestudent, but it was like B's and
(10:17):
C's. I think I never pushedmyself further.
I think because growing up likepeople were always like, oh,
like, you're lucky, you'repretty, like, you know, like,
they kind of just like, oh,like, you may not have the
smarts but like, you know, thelooks okay for you.
So what's been your favoritepart, then going through all
(10:37):
this so far? I think, thecommencement speech just because
my first wasn't my firstsemester, I did. No, my second
semester, I did public speaking.And that was really rough. Like,
so rough about what's like, myface would get real read. I was
like, stuttering over my words.Like I just like, was not like
(10:59):
content and anything that likeany of my speeches, and I think,
like, I passed, because he feltbad for me. My professor was
like, nice. Alright, she istrying. And like she has all her
work done. She just can't reallyget it out. Yeah. So like, that
was like what you're doing now?Right? Yeah. So
you're on your podcast. I mean,you're you're doing it. You
(11:22):
know, you're doing a herd? Well,now. Yeah. Yeah, I think that's
what I said. Like, thecommencement is, like, my
biggest takeaway from all ofthis, because I was able to get
on that stage in front ofeverybody. And just like, do my
speech, like, really good? Yeah.Yeah. Like, I was really
confident when I was up there.And it felt good, and, like,
empowering. And I was, like,look where you are, like, look
(11:45):
where you are. But also, like,look where you came from. That's
an incredible story, you know,it continues down. That's why I
want to have you on the show to,to show people that like, you
know, you can hit kind of rockbottom. And still, as long as
you push yourself and have thatdrive, and that's something that
you're inspiring, that we aretelling, you know, some of your
peers now, or your people thatyou see, when you have friends
going through this at all, likecertain eviction, or, or yeah,
(12:08):
there's like certain people, Idid an internship at Hope sheds
light in Toms River, they put methrough their recovery coach,
like program. So I do have that.So like, I'm also like, I do
help people who were still like,trying to figure out like, how
to get clean, like when andlike, you know, just like, talk
(12:28):
to them and just be there forthem. Like support is the
biggest thing. Support is thebiggest thing, I think, for
anybody, but especially duringaddiction, because a lot of
people lose friends and familymembers through that. And like,
you know, we do it to ourselves,but like it happens, but you
need someone to at least bethere who will kind of like give
(12:51):
you that push, like you can dothis. Like even though you don't
believe in yourself right nowyou have at least me who does.
So like eventually, you will getthere as well. And again, your
work shows for it. And so yougot straight A's too.
So you're way too smart for menow. They're gonna learn. But as
Brandon was saying to is likethat balance of like, work life
(13:14):
and, you know, not so much workbut educational work, right. But
I saw that you too. You're youstill volunteer with soup
kitchen in Camden, you're stilldoing that? Or? Yeah, that's
mostly like, like the holidaything. Like go do like the
Thanksgiving drives and all thisstuff for there. Why is that?
Why is the volunteering stuffimportant to you? Volunteering
is important for me, becauseit's just part of giving back.
(13:38):
I've been there in Camden on thestreets, like, technically, I
always had like, a roof over myhead, whether if I was like
bouncing back from like, mymom's house to my dad's house,
like whoever could stay in tokind of look at me at that
period of time.
But I spent like my majority ofbeing in Camden. So just being
(14:01):
able to help families, at leastlike there, and like other
people who were struggling aswell. It's kind of like roots
for me, I guess. That soundsgood stuff. But um, you know, we
do have another guest on theshow. We I know. We want
to talk to you all the time youlike. Thanks for coming on.
(14:22):
Appreciate it. But I do want toshift the perspective over to
the faculty side now as you dobring in Dr. Chapman, Brandon,
as we like to call him as wellthanks for you know, again,
coming on the show but when I'masking you know, some faculty
members as I still try tounderstand the the programs and
dynamics under the meta majorshere at rcbc.
Everyone and liberal liberalarts and lawyer kept saying when
I said it was gonna bring upsocial behavioral sciences, and
(14:43):
he said, Brandon, I'm like,which one's Brandon? They're
like, looks like Shaggy a littlebit and I'm like, Oh, I know
him. Then a Doctor Brian wasBrandon Chapman, because I was
want to know where he wasbecause I see you pull up and
but I got to work with you oncemore during the Facebook
Townhall. And I thought yes, youwould be a great person to bring
up
On the show. So for starters,Brandon, what are some of the
(15:03):
classes you teach here at rcbc?Do a variety. I'm actually both
Department Chair of anthropologyand sociology. So I do about
half anthropology, which we runone anthropology course right
now, which is intro to culturalanthropology. That's
anthropology. But to that, itgets a lot of
folks looking for a Gen Eddiversity, Gen Ed requirements
(15:24):
sort, of course, it meets thatrequirement. So I love that
course. Because you get a wholesmattering of students from
across the college, manydifferent majors. And so it's a
wonderful way to get a goodsample of just all the different
types of students. Any way youcould describe different
students on campus, I get avariety in that course. I also
do sociology, courses,principles of sociology, to
social one to one, which is theintro course. And then also
(15:45):
social problems, which is socialone, upper division, Sociology
course. So that's those are my,those are my classes, online and
in person. And I should say, togoing back to Jesus comment, you
know, it's we run 1415 weekssemesters, we also have in the
summer, like seven and 10 week,semesters, these sorts of
things, different courses. Ilike to put all my materials
(16:07):
online on these online coursesright at the beginning of the
semester, just because whyshould a student be hindered
from looking ahead at variousmaterials throughout the
semester? If I'm very much, Ivery much am a proponent of
autodidact, ism, you know, theability for people to not I
(16:28):
mean, not only learn from aninstructor, but also self learn,
and self paced themselves alittle bit. And so, you know, if
so, so I don't I don'tnecessarily see, you know,
that's, you know, speaking backto the previous point that was
made earlier, why I like to puta you know, basically all my
course up right at the start ofa term because, you know,
(16:49):
different people work atdifferent paces. And I don't
want to limit students to, youknow, be be paced at my own
pace. I'd like them to be ableto pace themselves a little bit
if they feel they have theability to do so. Should it work
for you right there. Yeah. Allright. Yeah. So you get your
Masters. I'm glad I'm glad someI'm glad some students like it.
So yeah. Anyway, I just wantedto speak about for this. So you
(17:11):
get your master's social sciencefrom Utah State University,
followed by your doctor ofphilosophy from Washington State
University. How does one end uphere on Mount Laurel? Well, so I
have been very fortunate to livein many parts of the United
States and also travelinternationally do field work
internationally many differentplaces. I've had somewhat varied
career, but I've been consistentpart of all of that, as I've
(17:33):
been a social scientist,anthropologists and sociologists
for my entire adult life. AndI've been very fortunate to be
able to do that. But noteverybody that pursues a PhD,
actually ends up workingprofessional in the field,
certainly not as always asfaculty.
You know, to make it short, I amfrom the Midwest. Originally, I
moved out west, I wanted alittle bit of an adventure. I
(17:53):
liked the programs out there,these various universities I was
at, I eventually finished my PhDI went up and lived in Alaska
through most of my 30s for eightyears, I had a ton of adventures
up there Alaska in itself is anadventure lived all over the
state actually did somefieldwork in the Arctic with a
bunch of the a lot of differentNative American groups up there.
And I was
(18:14):
I was faculty at University ofAlaska expansion campus there
for a while and I put out my CV,my academic resume to some
various colleges, back in 2019.And I got an interview, an
online interview and an offerfrom rcbc had an offer at
another place, I decided to comehere, and I am, I am, I am
(18:36):
thrilled that I came here. Ilove jersey, I love growing. The
students are such a diverse, Imean, this is I'm, I'm so lucky,
we all are lucky shouldn't belucky to live in such a
intensely diverse place one ofthe most diverse places in the
United States, people from allover the world here and at rcbc
(18:58):
we have such a wonderfulrepresentative representation of
the world. I mean, to getstudents from the Caribbean from
you know, Sub Saharan Africa,from the Middle East, from parts
of Europe from you know, allover the globe. And, and the
students have a sexual wonderfulvariety. And I have
very nice, wonderful colleagueshere. And so I've been able to
(19:21):
pursue what I want here as afaculty member with the students
and so I'm thrilled to be
at Rowan so so Jersey brought mehere, I'm happy to be here. And
and now I'm ending my third yearand Henry my fourth, so I'm
going to be here probably therest of my career on How's
excited. How's the pace of lifecompared from Alaska to here?
(19:41):
Fast. People talk fast peopledry fast. I remember when I came
to so you know, I lived in asmall town a small cruise ship
tourist town in Alaska. That'swhere I was teaching at a small
campus there mostly onlineactually. We had some in person
students and
You know, 45 miles an hour wasthe fastest you could drive
(20:03):
because the roads didn't connectout to the rest of the highways
that connected to the contiguousUnited States, many Alaskan
towns are like that. So when Igot here, I mean, I grew up in
Illinois, it obviously lived inthe lower 48 For much of my
life.
I was I was holding the wheel,you know, like, at 10, at 10,
and two, which I almost neverdo, because I was like, gritting
(20:25):
my teeth, because I've been outof, you know, traffic for so
long, when people were on mybumper all the time. I was like,
you know, I probably looked likean, you know, an old, scared
man, you know, writhing around,you know, but anyway, but
anyway, so, so, so there, but itis an interesting cultural,
social science sort of thing.Actually, there are a lot of
(20:46):
cultural differences between theEast Coast and West Coast. And
that stereotype that East Coastis more argumentative and
faster, is not necessarily astereotype. There are some I at
least from my own years ofobservations, now some, you
know, some some validity isthere so, so yeah, so I, if I
(21:06):
can tell one more quick story.
The, my, my first semester ofcourses, I had a, you know, an
older students that would comeafter class and talk to me a
little bit, you know, she was,she was doing good in the
course, we just wanted to, youknow, exceed even more and
discuss some of the topics and Ihad to actually ask her to slow
(21:28):
down her pace of speakingbecause I was not used to
hearing sort of the New York NewJersey Philadelphia, fast pace
of speech because I worked withAlaska Natives a lot. And
especially Native Americans tendto speak quite slowly, their
their oration of speeches is cansometimes be really paced slow.
And so I had to get used toactually hearing English spoken
(21:51):
at a quick pace, if you will.
Yes, moving here. So now, notwest coast, not east coast, but
you're all the way out inGeorgia, the country itself. So
what are you doing over there?You know, why out there for the
summer? Well, both the traveland a little bit of research to
I mean, I'd like to combineboth. My fiance and I, my fiance
(22:11):
is actually a Russian nationalfrom Russia. She is she's, she's
actually the first person I'veever met, that's actually
traveled more than I have. Andso I, I had, I had to ask her to
marry. So you know, and so wetry to we try to travel
internationally as much as wecan. And I'm, again, I'm, I'm
personally very fortunate,because I have a faculty
(22:33):
schedule that allows me summertime away physically from campus
to be able to travel forextended periods. And I've tried
to take advantage of that notonly through just experiencing
many other parts of the world,but also, you know, doing forms
of research, I do a lot ofvideos, actually. And I bring
them into my anthropologycourses. I'm actually
redesigning one of myanthropology and some of my
sociology courses this summer,I'm attempting to bring a lot
(22:56):
more of my own materials, frommy travels into those courses.
So you know, it's so so Iresearched how culture affects
political opinion, and nationalpolitics. And so I've done
research in parts of Eurasia,especially Russia, but I'm
(23:17):
looking at Georgia now to as apotential field site, to look at
how, you know, politicalexpression, political opinion,
how people perceive governmentsand their politics in their
nation, how that's affected bydifferent sort of cultural
circumstances and these sorts ofthings, which is some things I
think apologists sometimesstudy. So. So anyway, I'm
having, we're having a wonderfultime here and, and exploring
(23:40):
some of the history, some of thesights and the food and the
music and things that one woulddo when traveling abroad. And
yeah, that sounds pretty cool.Yeah. I want to go there and
Georgian food and stuff, nobodyhas my urine answered my own
question. I was gonna follow upabout what types of research but
my boss, Greg Volpe, theexecutive director here,
Strategic MarketingCommunications at rcbc said he
(24:01):
was excused and telling me firstof all, I said, Thank you for
answering all these emailresponses. You know, throughout
the time, sometimes faculty whenit's summertime, they kind of
just want to decompress a littlebit, but you've been super
responsive. And he thanked youfor that, but also said
something about you're workingwith a part of Ukraine or come
back from Ukraine from part ofan organization that's trying to
encourage countries maybeembracing neurodiverse policies
(24:24):
or something like that, not toeither dive deep into that. I
mean, you can I just kind ofwanted to actually actually,
that is, that's actuallysomebody else that's going to be
a likely guest on a series thatI so I host
as part of a grant I have afederal grant with the college
and as part of that federalgrant recently, that's been
promoting in developing globalstudies as a set of courses here
(24:46):
at rcbc have also been, I'vealso created and host a series
called the rcbc Global Studieslecture series. I've been very
fortunate to be able to bring ina lot of there a lot of
prominent scholars from aroundthe
country on various issues ofinternational, especially
international politicalimportance, and a likely future
(25:07):
guest on probably an event inthe in the fall 2022, as part of
the series will be.
I don't want to divulge hisname, but he is actually a he's
a
neurologist in the region whoactually volunteers in what you
just spoke about J, which is theworking with a neurodiverse of
(25:29):
people in Ukraine. And I believeI'm not sure if the whole story
yet but but but advocating fortheir needs and instruction. So
we are we are fortunate to havea good neurological care in the
United States. That is notalways the case. In a lot of
other countries, a lot ofneurodiverse people are
(25:49):
automatically institutionalized,if you will, in some cases, not
necessarily regardless of theirneurological condition. And so
this is something that we'lllikely be talking about on an
episode of The Global Studieslecture series this fall. So
awesome. So yes, awesome.Awesome. So did you go to
Ukraine at all? While you're outthere? I've been I've been to
Ukraine. Yes. I've been toUkraine twice before back. That
(26:12):
would be 678 years ago. Okay. SoI so I've been I've been I've
been to Korea, I've been toCrimea. And I've been to leave
so I will be visiting the westnear Poland key of is the
capital of the center and Crimeais the part that was annexed by
Russia back in 2014. I wasactually in Crimea to just what
that was about a month beforethe 2014 annexation occurred. So
(26:35):
I was there before that. Did youknow you were signing up for the
professor had this much abackground and diversity? I did
not cultural experience. I didnot but I think like not sounds
like a no right away. But likeeventually, like when you hear
his like lectures and everythinghe does a coorporate a lot of
like, where he's been and likewhat he's done, which I think is
like really amazing, becausesome professors like you don't
(26:58):
even know, like, what they liketheir other life. You know what
I mean? Like you, they're justlike your professor here and
like in this course, but hebrings that all to you, which is
like so amazing. Yeah, I thinkit's it's an incredible what you
do provide for the studentshere, Brandon, they get that
background, I think we're we'retruly honored to have you here
as an instructor rcbc case showsimportant here with you as well,
(27:22):
what she's been doing and justtalking to you guys, so trying
to bring me back. But
for someone that's maybe lookingto get into this field, you
know, whether it's a high schoolprospective student of such
first brand, I'll touch on you.What are some of the general
courses and maybe some of thetopics covered and we skipped
over like a little bit earlier.But if someone's kind of looking
(27:43):
to get into this a little bitnow maybe like a career path, we
know we I guess it feels likeit's the summer like it's wider
as I talk to you guys evenfurther. Sure. Sociology, as a
discipline is a broad meaningwide breadth, discipline.
We cover a broad array oftopics, sociology, if I can
summarize it in a sentence ortwo, we look at various
(28:04):
demographic groups, meaningbreaking down people by age,
education level, ethnicity, allthese different social
indicators that you couldcategorize somebody by. And we
look at how various groups thencome together and form and live
in and maintain a society thatcan be the United States that
could be another society, weusually think of a society as a
(28:24):
national level thing, but thereyou go, and, and how those
individuals and people in thosegroups, you know, build
organizations, institutions,culture, and these sorts of, you
know, laws and rules and normsof how to build and maintain a
society. And so that coversnaturally a lot of different
topics, right. This is theExcite, hopefully, the exciting
(28:45):
thing about sociology, you know,we look at things like ethnic
relations and immigration, welook at things like educational
attainment, among differentgroups, and, you know, and how
that's and how that affectspeople's, you know, income
levels and things like that. Welook at poverty and inequality,
you know, we look at, we look atcrime, we look at
(29:09):
social problems, like suicideand alcoholism and drug
addiction and these sorts ofthings. This is why for example,
you know, a lot of sociology,people looking to get into
counseling, as GIA has beenlooking at so end up taking
sociology courses, and even asociology major, it's very
appropriate for that sort ofthing.
You know, so we look at thisbroader array of social problems
(29:32):
and societal elements, if youwill, sectors of society. And we
try to do I think, sort of thatfrom two different avenues. We
do it from looking at broadtrends statistically, you know,
what's going on with crime,what's going on with
immigration, what's going onwith family structure of what's
going on with all thesedifferent things. So we look we
look at the big picture, if youwill, and then we look at case
(29:55):
studies or what we callethnography meaning, interviews
case studies that look atindividuals that represent those
larger trends, if you understandwhat I'm saying. So it gives us
sort of the, the background andthe stories and the specifics of
what make up those larger trendsof society. And so for somebody,
(30:16):
you know, so this speaks to alot of different potential
avenues of career path,
you know, somebody's interestedin law, for example, or going
into paralegal, that sort ofprofession, you know, we look
at, with all these differentparts of society, the laws and
the rules that go into, youknow,
(30:36):
understanding these things, so,for pre law students or for
paralegal students, so this isan excellent major, if you want
to understand, you know, again,people's backgrounds, and you
know, how that relate can relateto people's experience with
social problems, you know,counseling, again, like that
speaks to sort of genes, path,if you will, so if you want to
(30:58):
get into some sort ofcounseling,
drug, alcohol, psychological,other forms of counseling, you
know, that sociology is veryappropriate for that, if you
wanted to get into sort ofsocial research, there's a lot
of governmental organizationsthat, you know, do like
demographic research, you know,for either city, county level
(31:18):
government, that sort of stuff,state, local government,
sociology is very appropriatefor that, if you want to get
into, you know,
business, for example,understanding different cultural
backgrounds, and how thatrelates to how people, you know,
think about the products theybuy, or consume, or that sort of
stuff, there's a lot ofsociological research that looks
at that. So I mean, there's a,you know, we could go on and on
(31:41):
with a lot of differentpotential, you know, jobs and
sort of careers, if you will. Soit's a very malleable, a very
flexible, and a very broad, youknow, sort of set of courses and
a major and so for a studentthat is looking at sociology at
rcbc as a potential set ofcourses or an associate's
degree, you would take a one onone, that's the intro that's the
(32:03):
principles of sociology, that'sa broad introduction to these
different topic areas, then youchoose three courses from the
list of the rest of our upperdivision courses. So that would
be you could you know, take asocial problems course we offer
that, that what's more policyand those sorts of, you know,
problems of society, and howpolicy affects that. I think G
(32:23):
actually took that course a fewyears ago.
The two a one, we have marriageand family of six to a five
which looks at family structureand how that affects wealth
creation, poverty, you know,
forms of, you know, genderexpression, you know, divorce
these sorts of things we lookat, then we have a course, you
(32:46):
know, minority groups are whatis also sometimes called Race
and Ethnicity that's six to 10that looks at the history of
ethnic relations in the UnitedStates especially discrimination
you know, history of legal
precedent and statutes lookingyou know, how this how that
affects different ethnic groupsand in we have intuitive women's
studies, SOS 209 And so, we havea variety of different things
(33:10):
covering these specialized inthese topic areas that I had
mentioned earlier that you canthen take those topic areas and
these various courses and andget a little more specialized
and they transfer very well toyour various four years in the
region as well. So rightincluding Rowan University,
where do you where I graduatedfrom as well but
but it does sound like to evenif it's not a specific major,
(33:33):
there's I wants to get into likewhether, you know, in sociology
or just having some of thesecourses I think even as an
elective kind of helps broadenyou know, your perspective and
your view I would think and, andkind of just growing as a as a
person as an academic student.
But I do want to shift thecourse just a little bit before
we kind of wrap it up andsomething I was kind of teasing
(33:53):
a little bit last week. It'ssomething I'm kind of starting
to add new to the to the showhere because
you know, recently announcedthat I'm going to be a dad and I
have a baby girl on the way andI had to work on some
congratulations. Thank you. So Ihave been working on some dad
jokes.
And we said we were talkingabout it was so weird. So if
we're gonna be able to find likesome kind of behavioral sciences
(34:14):
or social behavioral sciencesthat jokes and yes, I stole
these from the internet, so Ididn't write these Alright, so
if they're bad you can blame theInternet if they're good. You
can you can give me credit forfor writing them. So but out
there, either one can answer.What do you call an academic
that apologizes all the time?
I mean, anthropologist.
(34:35):
Oh, all right. There it is.That's that that is. I have been
an anthropologist. 20 years.I've never heard that.
I thought you're gonna get thatone right away. That is a
genuinely good joke. Thanks,internet. All right.
I think I'm not sure I'm notsure if this is so psyched could
be both. But what's asleepingbrains favorite musical group?
(34:58):
No crickets.
Like any middle of cricketbutton in your
REM
show Oh, yeah. Rem was my bandgrowing up in the late 80s,
early 90s Yep, I'm right therewith you. So we both you don't
have that I went through theMichael Stipe you know, shaking
your head shaving phase, youknow that I did. I did the whole
(35:20):
like, I guess bowl code orwhatever, you shave the sides,
you flop the hair over whateverthe whole like server thing I
believe. I believe he was thefirst person to really bring
that into style. If I remembercorrectly, that was not really
much of a popular thing backthen. Like before 94 Whenever
that year was and then he kindof popularized what became a
popular thing men shaving theirhead. Yeah, now it was all big
(35:40):
hair, big hair and like mantrahairspray then it was long,
curly hair. And then it was nohair thing. Yeah, no hair pretty
much. All right, one morewhatever, whatever site or sites
you're getting these jokes fromas you need to keep them a
secret because they're good. AndI think you need explicit but
exclusivity, okay, on thiscorner of the market, if you
will starting to work and I saidas a part of build the show. I
(36:02):
like having its own littledynamic and little fun, you
know, at the end here, it's likeone more so why did the
anthropologist here's anotheranthropologist question? Why did
the anthropologist eat a lot ofyogurt?
Do you?
So he could understand theculture
(36:22):
Yeah, thank you.
So you have a laugh?
No, I if I if I commended Geofor I want to commend uj for
like I've never heard actualgood anthropologist jokes. That
was awesome. Yeah. So like, likeI like if you don't mind, I may
(36:43):
I may, I may quote that materiallooking good.
I definitely thought for sure.The the academic apologizing one
would heard that one. But I waslike, there was one out there in
case it gets and then try tosqueeze some of them in there.
So but then I have other ones inIraq, like, they don't work out.
I gotta work on some of thesesounds. Yeah, I gotta start
(37:05):
working on some of these soundboards and stuff, too. So.
But that's pretty much gonnawrap it up. However, though,
before I do, let both Hugo and Iknow, you know, it's almost that
time for you over there.Brandon. Maybe it's been a while
you want to stay up. But I know.Gina is there anything that you
would like to say someonetalented, maybe battling their
own addictions or know someonewho is looking to turn things
(37:26):
around, like an inspirationalmessage, you can even kind of
recite a little bit from yourcommencement speech or something
like that. Yeah, I just like toput out there that like, even
though you may not believe inyourself right away, eventually,
it will get to that point. And alot of times when you're in
(37:46):
addiction, you don't loveyourself at all. So it takes a
lot of work. And to eventuallyget that way. But you will be
able to love yourself. Again.
It is just a lot of work onyourself. And you have to be
willing to take the criticism,the criticism, take all the
feedback and just really reel itin and really find like who you
(38:09):
are, and like who you truly wantto be and, you know,
it's starting to go away. Butaddiction has a lot of like
stigmatism towards it and we'reall looked at like bad people or
like raised poorly or, but weall come from so many different
backgrounds. So not all of uswere raised poorly, or you know
(38:31):
what I mean? So it has nothingto do with that. It's just
addiction is a terrible disease,and it will take control of your
whole entire life. But as longas you fight the hardest,
basically, you probably willever have to fight in your life,
you will be able to overcome it.Yeah. And again, you're a
shining example of that you Casein point and again, grats on
your sobriety and continuedsobriety and what you're doing,
(38:53):
think you're doing amazing workand what you're going to be
doing, you're gonna be touchinga lot of many other lives. And I
think, you know, we're prettyproud of you to be here through,
you know, come through the rcbcprogram and have nothing but
great expectations for you. Sothank you. And thank you for
allowing me to be on yourpodcast. Yeah, absolutely. And
Brandon, was there anythingyou'd like to say to some
students that maybe looking toget in this type of study or
anything you want to plug orjokes? I think, you know,
(39:18):
sociology is a wonderfulpotential major for a lot of
different students with a lot ofdifferent backgrounds. I think
you can it's one of thosethings, you know, a lot of
college students can beundecided and a lot of it's very
common for students to changemajors, you know, as they go
along. If you feel you havemaybe multiple paths that you
may want to go along, if you'revery much interested in how, you
(39:39):
know, some specific, you know,Avenue within society, you know,
try Sociology course, I thinkyou'll be pleasantly surprised
at the variety of things thatyou can learn from a lot of
different perspectives that youmay not get in some other
disciplines, traditionally, so,go for it. We are we are
welcoming, I think just thepiggyback off doc
(40:00):
To Troutman a little bit, Ithink no matter what you want to
do in life, taking sociology isextremely important. Because it
allows you to grow and likerespect others, and their
culture and like know, like, howto interact with people
basically. And just like all allrespect, yeah, so I think it's a
(40:20):
huge thing, especially in thesocial media world where it's
too easy to kind of have theinformation that's out there,
people just kind of gravitatetowards on things is what I'm
expected to think of is what mygroup, here's my thinking stuff.
But, yes, you get what AmericanAmericans are exceptional in
many ways. But America is alsoAmericans, generally speaking,
can be a little bit insulatedfrom the world in some respects.
(40:42):
And I think it's one of my, as acultural anthropologist to one
of my broad goals to justintroduce a lot of different
cultures to people. And, youknow, it's, I don't know, I
mean, I know some high schoolstudents in the region and take
world cultures or something likethat sometimes as an elective
that is an elective offered, Ibelieve, at some of our area
(41:04):
high schools. And that'swonderful. But it's not, you
know, it's not always the casethat high school, especially our
high school students come inwith
necessarily as much knowledge ofthe world as maybe they should.
And so taking a sociology oreven an anthropology course, is
is one of the better ways thatone can achieve that sort of
cross cultural knowledge as GISis so eloquently describing,
(41:29):
think both your eloquentlydescribing it. Not so much me.
But I'm here just to kind offacilitate and have you guys on
the show. And, you know, again,thank you for sharing your
stories. Again, that's gonna doit for the much this episode of
the program pod. And hope youenjoyed today's show is I want
to thank our guest again todayfor bringing us a little more
insight into the socialbehavioral sciences program.
Meta major here at rcbc. Ourguests once again, Gia Carcillo,
(41:54):
the, our little student here, alittle recent graduate in human
services rcbc. well on our wayto many other degrees there
through Rowan University, and ofcourse, Dr. Brandon Chapman
rcbc, instructor and departmentchair of social behavior
science. So I am J. Vargas. Andif you wanna learn more about
rcbc programs, you can visitrcbc.edu. And you want to find
out about other rcbc podcasts wehave like the Baroness podcast.
(42:18):
Well, you can go ahead and checkus out at rcbc.edu/podcast. And
be sure to subscribe to theprogram pod wherever you get
your podcasts. So till nexttime, thanks for listening.
Thank you guys for coming on theshow. Thank you. You're welcome.
Thank you. You're welcome.
Hello and welcome to the program pod A production of
the rcbc Podcast Network wherewe take an rcbc program and do a
deep dive from differentperspectives within the program.
And thanks for joining theconversation with me, your host
Jay Varga and for today'sepisode, we're taking a look
under the Social and BehavioralSciences Mentimeter umbrella
with an incredible humanservices success story in the
making and one of our finerfaculty voices on campus or
(00:31):
online in this case here. Sojoining me today we have Gina
Carr clo right she's looking atme just had to get that in
there. But who overcameincredible hot, heavy obstacles
and sparked her inner light into2022 rcbc President's Award
winner and one of ourcommencement speakers, a first
generation student who earned adegree in Human Services and
addiction counselor certificatewhile achieving memberships in
(00:53):
the National Society leadershipand success and the Phi Theta
Kappa Honor Society, communityvolunteer and now student at
Rowan University. Did I missanything? I don't think so.
Nagina was Jia. Yeah, I knowit's on the way here too. I knew
I was going to do that becausemy sister in law's Gina, their
son, my nephew is Gio. Andyou're right, right in the
middle of it. And I was like,Don't say Don't say it. And I
(01:14):
still said it. So GIA,everybody, and then also coming
all the way across the globefrom Georgia. Yes, the country.
We have Dr. Brandon Chapman,which we'll touch base a little
bit on that Georgia conversationin a second. But our rcbc
instructor and department chairfor social and behavioral
science has he's done fieldworkin Russia, parts of the CIS
Eurasia Arctic and sub ArcticAlaska, Trinidad Tobago and
(01:36):
Peru, Ecuador, and has beenestablished in some published
several journals there in thesocial science journal and
cultural survival survivalquarterly. Did I miss anything?
There? That sounds good. Thanksfor having me. Thanks. I'm glad
to be with you. With you both.Yeah. So glad everybody could
take the time out of theschedule and allocate time to do
(01:56):
so especially you So what timeis it in Georgia over there? It
is almost 7pm. So it's just thatwe my fiance, and I just had
dinner. So okay, I'm full ofGeorgian food right now. But
that's a whole nother.
Yeah, I haven't had my breakfastyet. So. So anyway, again, as
rcbc embraces a student firstphilosophy here, let's start
(02:17):
with you, Gia. Right. Okay, Ihad an rcbc Students stories
similar to yours. The very firstepisode that we have here on the
program pod who overcame his ownbattle of addiction, and went on
to be a mechanical engineer atLockheed Martin credible stuff.
So can you share your backgroundstory? And you know, what
provided that like that momentof clarity and why you chose
Human Services and come to rcbc?Yeah, so I am actually I just
(02:41):
celebrated five years sober andMarch. Awesome. So
before I got there, I was in andout of addiction with alcohol
and opioids. And that about tooklike, four or five years of my
life. And then my nephew wasborn. And I was like, secretly
still, like doing drugs, butlike telling everybody I was
(03:02):
clean. And you know, like, mostpeople believed me, but a lot of
people were like, no. So mybrother and my sister in law
were like, listen, like, wedon't really want you around,
like, like your nephew. Like, ifyou're still getting high, like,
so basically being told that Iwasn't allowed to see my nephew
was me being like, Okay, well,then I'm going to do this so I
(03:23):
can see him, I have that type ofpersonality, where if you tell
me, I can't do something, I'mgoing to show you that I can do
it.
I guess that really gave me thejump, I really didn't want to, I
was also facing jail time,because I was not passing
probation. So that was a bigfactor as well.
(03:43):
I went to a place calledEpiphany in Florida. And it was
very, like, spiritually basedkind of it like really brought
you like, out of like, yourcomfort zones and like,
different like practices, theydid the director like one around
like the whole like world, andlike studied all types of
(04:04):
different like cultures andeverything. And then she like,
brought it all together. And Ithink like, that's what really
helped was to able to, like bevulnerable with yourself and
like really, like, understandwho you are, and like, knowing
it's okay to be uncomfortable.And like, you know, just like,
being able to, like live lifethat way, like always being,
(04:24):
like, grateful for what youhave. And I think that's what
really helped because I went tolike two other rehabs before
that. And they were very, like,you know, like, they taught you
about addiction and all kinds ofstuff like that. But it was
very, like, steps and likeprograms and like that sort of
way. So I think having thetraditional Yeah, like more
traditional. I think having thatlike, outside really helped. And
(04:47):
that's like what made me remainsober. So once I started, like
getting everything back, likepaying off all my fines and like
working really hard.
I was like, okay, like I'm doingreally good in my life.
they're like, What can I do tobe better? And that's when I
decided to go back to school.And I was like, looking through
all the programs, and I'm like,I really do not know what I want
(05:08):
to do. But like, I know, I wantto give back in some sort of
way. Sure. So like humanservices was like a huge, it
provided that basically, but inhigh school sociology was like
one of my favorite classes. Andthat's why like, I'm also
getting my associates at nightas well. Even though I just
graduated with my associates inHuman Services, did not hear or
(05:30):
see music. Yeah. So
that's really what just like,just wanting to give back. And,
you know, just like,
giving forward is basically justlike, what makes me want to go
like, toward that career. I dowant to be an addiction
counselor, but it's kind oflike, an open umbrella to like,
wherever I can fall or like, Iknow, I'm not probably going to
(05:52):
be like one place, like, superlong, you know, kind of just
like, see where I fall into.Yeah. Well, I mean, it's good to
give back. Because, again, youyou went through it. Yeah. You
know, and it's great to see thesuccess story, because not many
people have that success story.They, they never get out of
that, right. Like we weretalking during our prep call,
like my brother in law lost hisbattle, right. And I thought
when he had his knees, he wouldget his stuff together. And
(06:13):
unfortunately, he did. And Istarted taking that father
figure role on for my secondniece, which actually, I think,
started prove myself because myniece gave me a Father's Day
thing where they said, like, myfavorite uncle or whatever,
right? From Father's Day. I'mlike, Oh, I'm doing a good job
here, you know, but it's a shamebut because addiction is tough.
It's tough to beat. Soincredible feat for you to be
five years sober and continue togo on and to give backs even
credible look, I'm even gettinggoosebumps talking about a
(06:35):
little bit because I'm so proudof you for that. But so during
these courses here at rcbc, didyou have Professor Dr. Chapman?
I did yeah, yeah, was likeworking or, you know, studying
under him or going through hiscourses, I actually really enjoy
his courses. It's can beoverwhelming, because he just
like throw so much interestinginformation at you.
(06:58):
But like that is like literallypart of the course. I think how
he runs his courses is alsoextremely helpful for like the
non traditional student, becausehe allows you to like, work
ahead. He layouts he like givesyou all the information that you
need. So I can literally sitdown in one day, and read what I
(07:19):
need to read and like knock outmultiple discussion questions.
And I think that is extremelyimportant for people who are
working, who have children wholike I think all the classes
should be like, format it as heformats his classes, because it
makes it so much easier tobetter yourself, and like to
(07:41):
learn, but able to like be aparent, be a full time student
work full time. It just likeputs all of that and like wraps
it in a really pretty bow. How'sthat make you feel? Professor
Chapman? To hear compliments,deep and genuine compliments
like that on multiple aspects ofthe courses I put so much into
is like is an over joy for me.So so thank you for that. That
(08:05):
that is that's some of the beststuff that I can hear. I would
say to about Julia the multiplereasons why I asked her to come
on the show this podcast withus. What a deep and resilient
story. Gia has I mean,
coming out of that over a periodof years, much of it seems she
(08:27):
did under her own volition andherself. And that is a testament
to what's you know, anybodywho's struggling with such
things out there, what they cando. And you know, I see my I
think Gio sort of spoke to maybemy efficiency and running my
courses. How efficient is Giawith her time she is done, what
associates and human servicesalready she is stalking with
(08:50):
that and Associates insociology, also, here with us
our CBC. And on top of that,she's also pursuing a program at
the four year Rowan University,that's just I mean, getting the
most out of the time put intothe resources put into
something. And that's, that's anamazing story as well. So GIA is
(09:12):
in multiple respects a modelstudent, whether we're talking
about traditional age or nontraditional age students. So the
the, the respect and the thefeeling is mutual, and was just
the first was actually last weekthe first time you got to see
each other face to face withyour courses to or no, so we
(09:32):
actually we didn't formally meetbut I know like we like saw each
other at the award ceremony.Okay, yes, yeah. Right, right.
Yes, yes. Yeah. And then I wasable to see GIAs graduation
speech online, because I was Iwas faculty at a different part
of our ceremonies. And was, thatwas the first time I really
(09:55):
heard of more personally abouther, her life history.
and was very much touched. Andspeaking of that, do you would
you do you ever think that youwould become like the
President's Award winner andspeak into the rcbc class of
2022 at the commencement fromwhere you worked just a couple
years ago? Not at all right?
High school, I wasn't a horriblestudent, but it was like B's and
(10:17):
C's. I think I never pushedmyself further.
I think because growing up likepeople were always like, oh,
like, you're lucky, you'repretty, like, you know, like,
they kind of just like, oh,like, you may not have the
smarts but like, you know, thelooks okay for you.
So what's been your favoritepart, then going through all
(10:37):
this so far? I think, thecommencement speech just because
my first wasn't my firstsemester, I did. No, my second
semester, I did public speaking.And that was really rough. Like,
so rough about what's like, myface would get real read. I was
like, stuttering over my words.Like I just like, was not like
(10:59):
content and anything that likeany of my speeches, and I think,
like, I passed, because he feltbad for me. My professor was
like, nice. Alright, she istrying. And like she has all her
work done. She just can't reallyget it out. Yeah. So like, that
was like what you're doing now?Right? Yeah. So
you're on your podcast. I mean,you're you're doing it. You
(11:22):
know, you're doing a herd? Well,now. Yeah. Yeah, I think that's
what I said. Like, thecommencement is, like, my
biggest takeaway from all ofthis, because I was able to get
on that stage in front ofeverybody. And just like, do my
speech, like, really good? Yeah.Yeah. Like, I was really
confident when I was up there.And it felt good, and, like,
empowering. And I was, like,look where you are, like, look
(11:45):
where you are. But also, like,look where you came from. That's
an incredible story, you know,it continues down. That's why I
want to have you on the show to,to show people that like, you
know, you can hit kind of rockbottom. And still, as long as
you push yourself and have thatdrive, and that's something that
you're inspiring, that we aretelling, you know, some of your
peers now, or your people thatyou see, when you have friends
going through this at all, likecertain eviction, or, or yeah,
(12:08):
there's like certain people, Idid an internship at Hope sheds
light in Toms River, they put methrough their recovery coach,
like program. So I do have that.So like, I'm also like, I do
help people who were still like,trying to figure out like, how
to get clean, like when andlike, you know, just like, talk
(12:28):
to them and just be there forthem. Like support is the
biggest thing. Support is thebiggest thing, I think, for
anybody, but especially duringaddiction, because a lot of
people lose friends and familymembers through that. And like,
you know, we do it to ourselves,but like it happens, but you
need someone to at least bethere who will kind of like give
(12:51):
you that push, like you can dothis. Like even though you don't
believe in yourself right nowyou have at least me who does.
So like eventually, you will getthere as well. And again, your
work shows for it. And so yougot straight A's too.
So you're way too smart for menow. They're gonna learn. But as
Brandon was saying to is likethat balance of like, work life
(13:14):
and, you know, not so much workbut educational work, right. But
I saw that you too. You're youstill volunteer with soup
kitchen in Camden, you're stilldoing that? Or? Yeah, that's
mostly like, like the holidaything. Like go do like the
Thanksgiving drives and all thisstuff for there. Why is that?
Why is the volunteering stuffimportant to you? Volunteering
is important for me, becauseit's just part of giving back.
(13:38):
I've been there in Camden on thestreets, like, technically, I
always had like, a roof over myhead, whether if I was like
bouncing back from like, mymom's house to my dad's house,
like whoever could stay in tokind of look at me at that
period of time.
But I spent like my majority ofbeing in Camden. So just being
(14:01):
able to help families, at leastlike there, and like other
people who were struggling aswell. It's kind of like roots
for me, I guess. That soundsgood stuff. But um, you know, we
do have another guest on theshow. We I know. We want
to talk to you all the time youlike. Thanks for coming on.
(14:22):
Appreciate it. But I do want toshift the perspective over to
the faculty side now as you dobring in Dr. Chapman, Brandon,
as we like to call him as wellthanks for you know, again,
coming on the show but when I'masking you know, some faculty
members as I still try tounderstand the the programs and
dynamics under the meta majorshere at rcbc.
Everyone and liberal liberalarts and lawyer kept saying when
I said it was gonna bring upsocial behavioral sciences, and
(14:43):
he said, Brandon, I'm like,which one's Brandon? They're
like, looks like Shaggy a littlebit and I'm like, Oh, I know
him. Then a Doctor Brian wasBrandon Chapman, because I was
want to know where he wasbecause I see you pull up and
but I got to work with you oncemore during the Facebook
Townhall. And I thought yes, youwould be a great person to bring
up
On the show. So for starters,Brandon, what are some of the
(15:03):
classes you teach here at rcbc?Do a variety. I'm actually both
Department Chair of anthropologyand sociology. So I do about
half anthropology, which we runone anthropology course right
now, which is intro to culturalanthropology. That's
anthropology. But to that, itgets a lot of
folks looking for a Gen Eddiversity, Gen Ed requirements
(15:24):
sort, of course, it meets thatrequirement. So I love that
course. Because you get a wholesmattering of students from
across the college, manydifferent majors. And so it's a
wonderful way to get a goodsample of just all the different
types of students. Any way youcould describe different
students on campus, I get avariety in that course. I also
do sociology, courses,principles of sociology, to
social one to one, which is theintro course. And then also
(15:45):
social problems, which is socialone, upper division, Sociology
course. So that's those are my,those are my classes, online and
in person. And I should say, togoing back to Jesus comment, you
know, it's we run 1415 weekssemesters, we also have in the
summer, like seven and 10 week,semesters, these sorts of
things, different courses. Ilike to put all my materials
(16:07):
online on these online coursesright at the beginning of the
semester, just because whyshould a student be hindered
from looking ahead at variousmaterials throughout the
semester? If I'm very much, Ivery much am a proponent of
autodidact, ism, you know, theability for people to not I
(16:28):
mean, not only learn from aninstructor, but also self learn,
and self paced themselves alittle bit. And so, you know, if
so, so I don't I don'tnecessarily see, you know,
that's, you know, speaking backto the previous point that was
made earlier, why I like to puta you know, basically all my
course up right at the start ofa term because, you know,
(16:49):
different people work atdifferent paces. And I don't
want to limit students to, youknow, be be paced at my own
pace. I'd like them to be ableto pace themselves a little bit
if they feel they have theability to do so. Should it work
for you right there. Yeah. Allright. Yeah. So you get your
Masters. I'm glad I'm glad someI'm glad some students like it.
So yeah. Anyway, I just wantedto speak about for this. So you
(17:11):
get your master's social sciencefrom Utah State University,
followed by your doctor ofphilosophy from Washington State
University. How does one end uphere on Mount Laurel? Well, so I
have been very fortunate to livein many parts of the United
States and also travelinternationally do field work
internationally many differentplaces. I've had somewhat varied
career, but I've been consistentpart of all of that, as I've
(17:33):
been a social scientist,anthropologists and sociologists
for my entire adult life. AndI've been very fortunate to be
able to do that. But noteverybody that pursues a PhD,
actually ends up workingprofessional in the field,
certainly not as always asfaculty.
You know, to make it short, I amfrom the Midwest. Originally, I
moved out west, I wanted alittle bit of an adventure. I
(17:53):
liked the programs out there,these various universities I was
at, I eventually finished my PhDI went up and lived in Alaska
through most of my 30s for eightyears, I had a ton of adventures
up there Alaska in itself is anadventure lived all over the
state actually did somefieldwork in the Arctic with a
bunch of the a lot of differentNative American groups up there.
And I was
(18:14):
I was faculty at University ofAlaska expansion campus there
for a while and I put out my CV,my academic resume to some
various colleges, back in 2019.And I got an interview, an
online interview and an offerfrom rcbc had an offer at
another place, I decided to comehere, and I am, I am, I am
(18:36):
thrilled that I came here. Ilove jersey, I love growing. The
students are such a diverse, Imean, this is I'm, I'm so lucky,
we all are lucky shouldn't belucky to live in such a
intensely diverse place one ofthe most diverse places in the
United States, people from allover the world here and at rcbc
(18:58):
we have such a wonderfulrepresentative representation of
the world. I mean, to getstudents from the Caribbean from
you know, Sub Saharan Africa,from the Middle East, from parts
of Europe from you know, allover the globe. And, and the
students have a sexual wonderfulvariety. And I have
very nice, wonderful colleagueshere. And so I've been able to
(19:21):
pursue what I want here as afaculty member with the students
and so I'm thrilled to be
at Rowan so so Jersey brought mehere, I'm happy to be here. And
and now I'm ending my third yearand Henry my fourth, so I'm
going to be here probably therest of my career on How's
excited. How's the pace of lifecompared from Alaska to here?
(19:41):
Fast. People talk fast peopledry fast. I remember when I came
to so you know, I lived in asmall town a small cruise ship
tourist town in Alaska. That'swhere I was teaching at a small
campus there mostly onlineactually. We had some in person
students and
You know, 45 miles an hour wasthe fastest you could drive
(20:03):
because the roads didn't connectout to the rest of the highways
that connected to the contiguousUnited States, many Alaskan
towns are like that. So when Igot here, I mean, I grew up in
Illinois, it obviously lived inthe lower 48 For much of my
life.
I was I was holding the wheel,you know, like, at 10, at 10,
and two, which I almost neverdo, because I was like, gritting
(20:25):
my teeth, because I've been outof, you know, traffic for so
long, when people were on mybumper all the time. I was like,
you know, I probably looked likean, you know, an old, scared
man, you know, writhing around,you know, but anyway, but
anyway, so, so, so there, but itis an interesting cultural,
social science sort of thing.Actually, there are a lot of
(20:46):
cultural differences between theEast Coast and West Coast. And
that stereotype that East Coastis more argumentative and
faster, is not necessarily astereotype. There are some I at
least from my own years ofobservations, now some, you
know, some some validity isthere so, so yeah, so I, if I
(21:06):
can tell one more quick story.
The, my, my first semester ofcourses, I had a, you know, an
older students that would comeafter class and talk to me a
little bit, you know, she was,she was doing good in the
course, we just wanted to, youknow, exceed even more and
discuss some of the topics and Ihad to actually ask her to slow
(21:28):
down her pace of speakingbecause I was not used to
hearing sort of the New York NewJersey Philadelphia, fast pace
of speech because I worked withAlaska Natives a lot. And
especially Native Americans tendto speak quite slowly, their
their oration of speeches is cansometimes be really paced slow.
And so I had to get used toactually hearing English spoken
(21:51):
at a quick pace, if you will.
Yes, moving here. So now, notwest coast, not east coast, but
you're all the way out inGeorgia, the country itself. So
what are you doing over there?You know, why out there for the
summer? Well, both the traveland a little bit of research to
I mean, I'd like to combineboth. My fiance and I, my fiance
(22:11):
is actually a Russian nationalfrom Russia. She is she's, she's
actually the first person I'veever met, that's actually
traveled more than I have. Andso I, I had, I had to ask her to
marry. So you know, and so wetry to we try to travel
internationally as much as wecan. And I'm, again, I'm, I'm
personally very fortunate,because I have a faculty
(22:33):
schedule that allows me summertime away physically from campus
to be able to travel forextended periods. And I've tried
to take advantage of that notonly through just experiencing
many other parts of the world,but also, you know, doing forms
of research, I do a lot ofvideos, actually. And I bring
them into my anthropologycourses. I'm actually
redesigning one of myanthropology and some of my
sociology courses this summer,I'm attempting to bring a lot
(22:56):
more of my own materials, frommy travels into those courses.
So you know, it's so so Iresearched how culture affects
political opinion, and nationalpolitics. And so I've done
research in parts of Eurasia,especially Russia, but I'm
(23:17):
looking at Georgia now to as apotential field site, to look at
how, you know, politicalexpression, political opinion,
how people perceive governmentsand their politics in their
nation, how that's affected bydifferent sort of cultural
circumstances and these sorts ofthings, which is some things I
think apologists sometimesstudy. So. So anyway, I'm
having, we're having a wonderfultime here and, and exploring
(23:40):
some of the history, some of thesights and the food and the
music and things that one woulddo when traveling abroad. And
yeah, that sounds pretty cool.Yeah. I want to go there and
Georgian food and stuff, nobodyhas my urine answered my own
question. I was gonna follow upabout what types of research but
my boss, Greg Volpe, theexecutive director here,
Strategic MarketingCommunications at rcbc said he
(24:01):
was excused and telling me firstof all, I said, Thank you for
answering all these emailresponses. You know, throughout
the time, sometimes faculty whenit's summertime, they kind of
just want to decompress a littlebit, but you've been super
responsive. And he thanked youfor that, but also said
something about you're workingwith a part of Ukraine or come
back from Ukraine from part ofan organization that's trying to
encourage countries maybeembracing neurodiverse policies
(24:24):
or something like that, not toeither dive deep into that. I
mean, you can I just kind ofwanted to actually actually,
that is, that's actuallysomebody else that's going to be
a likely guest on a series thatI so I host
as part of a grant I have afederal grant with the college
and as part of that federalgrant recently, that's been
promoting in developing globalstudies as a set of courses here
(24:46):
at rcbc have also been, I'vealso created and host a series
called the rcbc Global Studieslecture series. I've been very
fortunate to be able to bring ina lot of there a lot of
prominent scholars from aroundthe
country on various issues ofinternational, especially
international politicalimportance, and a likely future
(25:07):
guest on probably an event inthe in the fall 2022, as part of
the series will be.
I don't want to divulge hisname, but he is actually a he's
a
neurologist in the region whoactually volunteers in what you
just spoke about J, which is theworking with a neurodiverse of
(25:29):
people in Ukraine. And I believeI'm not sure if the whole story
yet but but but advocating fortheir needs and instruction. So
we are we are fortunate to havea good neurological care in the
United States. That is notalways the case. In a lot of
other countries, a lot ofneurodiverse people are
(25:49):
automatically institutionalized,if you will, in some cases, not
necessarily regardless of theirneurological condition. And so
this is something that we'lllikely be talking about on an
episode of The Global Studieslecture series this fall. So
awesome. So yes, awesome.Awesome. So did you go to
Ukraine at all? While you're outthere? I've been I've been to
Ukraine. Yes. I've been toUkraine twice before back. That
(26:12):
would be 678 years ago. Okay. SoI so I've been I've been I've
been to Korea, I've been toCrimea. And I've been to leave
so I will be visiting the westnear Poland key of is the
capital of the center and Crimeais the part that was annexed by
Russia back in 2014. I wasactually in Crimea to just what
that was about a month beforethe 2014 annexation occurred. So
(26:35):
I was there before that. Did youknow you were signing up for the
professor had this much abackground and diversity? I did
not cultural experience. I didnot but I think like not sounds
like a no right away. But likeeventually, like when you hear
his like lectures and everythinghe does a coorporate a lot of
like, where he's been and likewhat he's done, which I think is
like really amazing, becausesome professors like you don't
(26:58):
even know, like, what they liketheir other life. You know what
I mean? Like you, they're justlike your professor here and
like in this course, but hebrings that all to you, which is
like so amazing. Yeah, I thinkit's it's an incredible what you
do provide for the studentshere, Brandon, they get that
background, I think we're we'retruly honored to have you here
as an instructor rcbc case showsimportant here with you as well,
(27:22):
what she's been doing and justtalking to you guys, so trying
to bring me back. But
for someone that's maybe lookingto get into this field, you
know, whether it's a high schoolprospective student of such
first brand, I'll touch on you.What are some of the general
courses and maybe some of thetopics covered and we skipped
over like a little bit earlier.But if someone's kind of looking
(27:43):
to get into this a little bitnow maybe like a career path, we
know we I guess it feels likeit's the summer like it's wider
as I talk to you guys evenfurther. Sure. Sociology, as a
discipline is a broad meaningwide breadth, discipline.
We cover a broad array oftopics, sociology, if I can
summarize it in a sentence ortwo, we look at various
(28:04):
demographic groups, meaningbreaking down people by age,
education level, ethnicity, allthese different social
indicators that you couldcategorize somebody by. And we
look at how various groups thencome together and form and live
in and maintain a society thatcan be the United States that
could be another society, weusually think of a society as a
(28:24):
national level thing, but thereyou go, and, and how those
individuals and people in thosegroups, you know, build
organizations, institutions,culture, and these sorts of, you
know, laws and rules and normsof how to build and maintain a
society. And so that coversnaturally a lot of different
topics, right. This is theExcite, hopefully, the exciting
(28:45):
thing about sociology, you know,we look at things like ethnic
relations and immigration, welook at things like educational
attainment, among differentgroups, and, you know, and how
that's and how that affectspeople's, you know, income
levels and things like that. Welook at poverty and inequality,
you know, we look at, we look atcrime, we look at
(29:09):
social problems, like suicideand alcoholism and drug
addiction and these sorts ofthings. This is why for example,
you know, a lot of sociology,people looking to get into
counseling, as GIA has beenlooking at so end up taking
sociology courses, and even asociology major, it's very
appropriate for that sort ofthing.
You know, so we look at thisbroader array of social problems
(29:32):
and societal elements, if youwill, sectors of society. And we
try to do I think, sort of thatfrom two different avenues. We
do it from looking at broadtrends statistically, you know,
what's going on with crime,what's going on with
immigration, what's going onwith family structure of what's
going on with all thesedifferent things. So we look we
look at the big picture, if youwill, and then we look at case
(29:55):
studies or what we callethnography meaning, interviews
case studies that look atindividuals that represent those
larger trends, if you understandwhat I'm saying. So it gives us
sort of the, the background andthe stories and the specifics of
what make up those larger trendsof society. And so for somebody,
(30:16):
you know, so this speaks to alot of different potential
avenues of career path,
you know, somebody's interestedin law, for example, or going
into paralegal, that sort ofprofession, you know, we look
at, with all these differentparts of society, the laws and
the rules that go into, youknow,
(30:36):
understanding these things, so,for pre law students or for
paralegal students, so this isan excellent major, if you want
to understand, you know, again,people's backgrounds, and you
know, how that relate can relateto people's experience with
social problems, you know,counseling, again, like that
speaks to sort of genes, path,if you will, so if you want to
(30:58):
get into some sort ofcounseling,
drug, alcohol, psychological,other forms of counseling, you
know, that sociology is veryappropriate for that, if you
wanted to get into sort ofsocial research, there's a lot
of governmental organizationsthat, you know, do like
demographic research, you know,for either city, county level
(31:18):
government, that sort of stuff,state, local government,
sociology is very appropriatefor that, if you want to get
into, you know,
business, for example,understanding different cultural
backgrounds, and how thatrelates to how people, you know,
think about the products theybuy, or consume, or that sort of
stuff, there's a lot ofsociological research that looks
at that. So I mean, there's a,you know, we could go on and on
(31:41):
with a lot of differentpotential, you know, jobs and
sort of careers, if you will. Soit's a very malleable, a very
flexible, and a very broad, youknow, sort of set of courses and
a major and so for a studentthat is looking at sociology at
rcbc as a potential set ofcourses or an associate's
degree, you would take a one onone, that's the intro that's the
(32:03):
principles of sociology, that'sa broad introduction to these
different topic areas, then youchoose three courses from the
list of the rest of our upperdivision courses. So that would
be you could you know, take asocial problems course we offer
that, that what's more policyand those sorts of, you know,
problems of society, and howpolicy affects that. I think G
(32:23):
actually took that course a fewyears ago.
The two a one, we have marriageand family of six to a five
which looks at family structureand how that affects wealth
creation, poverty, you know,
forms of, you know, genderexpression, you know, divorce
these sorts of things we lookat, then we have a course, you
(32:46):
know, minority groups are whatis also sometimes called Race
and Ethnicity that's six to 10that looks at the history of
ethnic relations in the UnitedStates especially discrimination
you know, history of legal
precedent and statutes lookingyou know, how this how that
affects different ethnic groupsand in we have intuitive women's
studies, SOS 209 And so, we havea variety of different things
(33:10):
covering these specialized inthese topic areas that I had
mentioned earlier that you canthen take those topic areas and
these various courses and andget a little more specialized
and they transfer very well toyour various four years in the
region as well. So rightincluding Rowan University,
where do you where I graduatedfrom as well but
but it does sound like to evenif it's not a specific major,
(33:33):
there's I wants to get into likewhether, you know, in sociology
or just having some of thesecourses I think even as an
elective kind of helps broadenyou know, your perspective and
your view I would think and, andkind of just growing as a as a
person as an academic student.
But I do want to shift thecourse just a little bit before
we kind of wrap it up andsomething I was kind of teasing
(33:53):
a little bit last week. It'ssomething I'm kind of starting
to add new to the to the showhere because
you know, recently announcedthat I'm going to be a dad and I
have a baby girl on the way andI had to work on some
congratulations. Thank you. So Ihave been working on some dad
jokes.
And we said we were talkingabout it was so weird. So if
we're gonna be able to find likesome kind of behavioral sciences
(34:14):
or social behavioral sciencesthat jokes and yes, I stole
these from the internet, so Ididn't write these Alright, so
if they're bad you can blame theInternet if they're good. You
can you can give me credit forfor writing them. So but out
there, either one can answer.What do you call an academic
that apologizes all the time?
I mean, anthropologist.
(34:35):
Oh, all right. There it is.That's that that is. I have been
an anthropologist. 20 years.I've never heard that.
I thought you're gonna get thatone right away. That is a
genuinely good joke. Thanks,internet. All right.
I think I'm not sure I'm notsure if this is so psyched could
be both. But what's asleepingbrains favorite musical group?
(34:58):
No crickets.
Like any middle of cricketbutton in your
REM
show Oh, yeah. Rem was my bandgrowing up in the late 80s,
early 90s Yep, I'm right therewith you. So we both you don't
have that I went through theMichael Stipe you know, shaking
your head shaving phase, youknow that I did. I did the whole
(35:20):
like, I guess bowl code orwhatever, you shave the sides,
you flop the hair over whateverthe whole like server thing I
believe. I believe he was thefirst person to really bring
that into style. If I remembercorrectly, that was not really
much of a popular thing backthen. Like before 94 Whenever
that year was and then he kindof popularized what became a
popular thing men shaving theirhead. Yeah, now it was all big
(35:40):
hair, big hair and like mantrahairspray then it was long,
curly hair. And then it was nohair thing. Yeah, no hair pretty
much. All right, one morewhatever, whatever site or sites
you're getting these jokes fromas you need to keep them a
secret because they're good. AndI think you need explicit but
exclusivity, okay, on thiscorner of the market, if you
will starting to work and I saidas a part of build the show. I
(36:02):
like having its own littledynamic and little fun, you
know, at the end here, it's likeone more so why did the
anthropologist here's anotheranthropologist question? Why did
the anthropologist eat a lot ofyogurt?
Do you?
So he could understand theculture
(36:22):
Yeah, thank you.
So you have a laugh?
No, I if I if I commended Geofor I want to commend uj for
like I've never heard actualgood anthropologist jokes. That
was awesome. Yeah. So like, likeI like if you don't mind, I may
(36:43):
I may, I may quote that materiallooking good.
I definitely thought for sure.The the academic apologizing one
would heard that one. But I waslike, there was one out there in
case it gets and then try tosqueeze some of them in there.
So but then I have other ones inIraq, like, they don't work out.
I gotta work on some of thesesounds. Yeah, I gotta start
(37:05):
working on some of these soundboards and stuff, too. So.
But that's pretty much gonnawrap it up. However, though,
before I do, let both Hugo and Iknow, you know, it's almost that
time for you over there.Brandon. Maybe it's been a while
you want to stay up. But I know.Gina is there anything that you
would like to say someonetalented, maybe battling their
own addictions or know someonewho is looking to turn things
(37:26):
around, like an inspirationalmessage, you can even kind of
recite a little bit from yourcommencement speech or something
like that. Yeah, I just like toput out there that like, even
though you may not believe inyourself right away, eventually,
it will get to that point. And alot of times when you're in
(37:46):
addiction, you don't loveyourself at all. So it takes a
lot of work. And to eventuallyget that way. But you will be
able to love yourself. Again.
It is just a lot of work onyourself. And you have to be
willing to take the criticism,the criticism, take all the
feedback and just really reel itin and really find like who you
(38:09):
are, and like who you truly wantto be and, you know,
it's starting to go away. Butaddiction has a lot of like
stigmatism towards it and we'reall looked at like bad people or
like raised poorly or, but weall come from so many different
backgrounds. So not all of uswere raised poorly, or you know
(38:31):
what I mean? So it has nothingto do with that. It's just
addiction is a terrible disease,and it will take control of your
whole entire life. But as longas you fight the hardest,
basically, you probably willever have to fight in your life,
you will be able to overcome it.Yeah. And again, you're a
shining example of that you Casein point and again, grats on
your sobriety and continuedsobriety and what you're doing,
(38:53):
think you're doing amazing workand what you're going to be
doing, you're gonna be touchinga lot of many other lives. And I
think, you know, we're prettyproud of you to be here through,
you know, come through the rcbcprogram and have nothing but
great expectations for you. Sothank you. And thank you for
allowing me to be on yourpodcast. Yeah, absolutely. And
Brandon, was there anythingyou'd like to say to some
students that maybe looking toget in this type of study or
anything you want to plug orjokes? I think, you know,
(39:18):
sociology is a wonderfulpotential major for a lot of
different students with a lot ofdifferent backgrounds. I think
you can it's one of thosethings, you know, a lot of
college students can beundecided and a lot of it's very
common for students to changemajors, you know, as they go
along. If you feel you havemaybe multiple paths that you
may want to go along, if you'revery much interested in how, you
(39:39):
know, some specific, you know,Avenue within society, you know,
try Sociology course, I thinkyou'll be pleasantly surprised
at the variety of things thatyou can learn from a lot of
different perspectives that youmay not get in some other
disciplines, traditionally, so,go for it. We are we are
welcoming, I think just thepiggyback off doc
(40:00):
To Troutman a little bit, Ithink no matter what you want to
do in life, taking sociology isextremely important. Because it
allows you to grow and likerespect others, and their
culture and like know, like, howto interact with people
basically. And just like all allrespect, yeah, so I think it's a
(40:20):
huge thing, especially in thesocial media world where it's
too easy to kind of have theinformation that's out there,
people just kind of gravitatetowards on things is what I'm
expected to think of is what mygroup, here's my thinking stuff.
But, yes, you get what AmericanAmericans are exceptional in
many ways. But America is alsoAmericans, generally speaking,
can be a little bit insulatedfrom the world in some respects.
(40:42):
And I think it's one of my, as acultural anthropologist to one
of my broad goals to justintroduce a lot of different
cultures to people. And, youknow, it's, I don't know, I
mean, I know some high schoolstudents in the region and take
world cultures or something likethat sometimes as an elective
that is an elective offered, Ibelieve, at some of our area
(41:04):
high schools. And that'swonderful. But it's not, you
know, it's not always the casethat high school, especially our
high school students come inwith
necessarily as much knowledge ofthe world as maybe they should.
And so taking a sociology oreven an anthropology course, is
is one of the better ways thatone can achieve that sort of
cross cultural knowledge as GISis so eloquently describing,
(41:29):
think both your eloquentlydescribing it. Not so much me.
But I'm here just to kind offacilitate and have you guys on
the show. And, you know, again,thank you for sharing your
stories. Again, that's gonna doit for the much this episode of
the program pod. And hope youenjoyed today's show is I want
to thank our guest again todayfor bringing us a little more
insight into the socialbehavioral sciences program.
Meta major here at rcbc. Ourguests once again, Gia Carcillo,
(41:54):
the, our little student here, alittle recent graduate in human
services rcbc. well on our wayto many other degrees there
through Rowan University, and ofcourse, Dr. Brandon Chapman
rcbc, instructor and departmentchair of social behavior
science. So I am J. Vargas. Andif you wanna learn more about
rcbc programs, you can visitrcbc.edu. And you want to find
out about other rcbc podcasts wehave like the Baroness podcast.
(42:18):
Well, you can go ahead and checkus out at rcbc.edu/podcast. And
be sure to subscribe to theprogram pod wherever you get
your podcasts. So till nexttime, thanks for listening.
Thank you guys for coming on theshow. Thank you. You're welcome.
Thank you. You're welcome.
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