Northwestern University Alumni

Transcript:

HELEN KIM: Welcome to a new season of Northwestern Intersections podcast, where we talk to alumni about how key experiences and intersections propel them in their life's work. I'm your host, Helen Kim, with the Northwestern Alumni Association. 

This month is October, which means schools have been back in session for about a couple of weeks now. So the Northwestern Intersections team is kicking off our latest season with a four-part back-to-school miniseries where we'll speak with Wildcats at the intersection of education and the pandemic, discussing how they are approaching their work in our ever changing virtual world. 

Our guest for today's episode is Melissa Foster. She's a full-time senior lecturer in the theater department, and a member of the musical theater voice faculty in the School of Communication. In addition to these positions, she is one of the five Northwestern faculty members that live with their families in residence halls with undergraduate students. 

What once was an intimate setting of teaching private lessons now looks a little different. Yet there are so many pros that she shares that come with teaching vocal lessons virtually. 

Hey, Melissa. Thank you so much for being here today. 

MELISSA FOSTER: Hi, it's great to be here. Thanks for having me. 

HELEN KIM: Yeah. So where are you calling in from right now? 

MELISSA FOSTER: I am actually on campus. I live in a dorm, so I'm a faculty in residence, which means that my family-- my husband, my daughter, and myself-- live in a beautiful home that is actually adjacent to Shepard Hall, which is on South Campus. 

HELEN KIM: How do you become a faculty in residence? Can you talk a little bit about that, and what does that mean? Do you have some sort of responsibilities as a faculty in residence? 

MELISSA FOSTER: Yeah, absolutely. This is my fifth year-- I love it so much. I can't even tell you how fulfilling it is. I know that sounds like a promotional thing to say, but I truly just adore this role. 

It was an application process-- I feel like maybe a five-month-long application process. You know, written interviews and things like that with different people in Residential Services all the way up through the Provost. 

And if you are placed, you move in with your family and completely and-- this is real life. So I guess I was going to say like everything's intersectional. So I live here, I teach here-- everything is on campus. My daughter's backyard is the courtyard between Shepard 1838 and Allison. And then if people are out there, she goes, Mom, people are in my backyard. And I'm thinking, I'm going to let that go, but you can keep thinking that. 

So that is sort of how you become one, and there are faculty in residence in Bobb, McCulloch, Goodrich. For the South Area, which is Shepard, there's one in Allison Hall, there's one in Willard, and there's one in Elder. So we're placed sort of all around, and our job is to bridge the educational and residential gap, so to make professors more approachable, to provide opportunities-- enrichment opportunities-- that both build community in the area and also bridge that social, educational gap. 

So sometimes we'll have faculty dinners where a faculty member will come over and we'll talk about a hot button topic. And I'll cater in some sushi from Koi, or something really fun, and we have sort of a discussion about, like I said, something that's-- usually I try to do something that's going on in the world, like activism or something. 

But then we also have fun events-- not in quarantine, but we're working on that, and that's a whole different set of programming. And faculty residencing is still going on, and we are connecting with all of the students in the area that are remote, as well as the ones on campus. 

So I just had a program on Wednesday night that was over Zoom, and 29 residents came. And some were on campus, living in different residence halls in my area, or they are living in apartments, because they are part of the South Area, even though their housing contract was changed because of COVID. Or they are freshmen that are home and remote. So that's what's going on this year. 

HELEN KIM: Very different than what it has been like the past five years since you were faculty in residence. 

MELISSA FOSTER: I mean so different-- 

HELEN KIM: So different. 

MELISSA FOSTER: --and I could talk about all the great events that we do when we're here, and that will happen again. But just one, for instance, is we have something called Sunday Fun Day, and that's every few weeks. And it's in the Engagement Center, and 150 kids come and there's great food. And I bring an entertainment group like an A capella group, and there is a prize wheel and prizes and it's just this crazy social event. 

Obviously that can't happen, but we will be back. And in the meantime, we'll do virtual events that are just as hopefully sufficient and efficient at building connections between the students. 

HELEN KIM: What's really cool about being a faculty in residence is that you get to interact with students in a more intimate setting. These are students that you may or may not ever teach in your classes, but these are just students from all over with different backgrounds, and you become the go-to person when they need to, I don't know, just find a faculty that they can just chat with. 

MELISSA FOSTER: That's exactly it. It's so amazing because I'm a theater professor-- that while that's wonderful, I interact with theater majors. And so I get to engage with people from all disciplines, and it's so wonderful just to talk to different Northwestern students and hear different perspectives, and exactly right-- introduce them to different resources on campus that they might not know of and connect them with faculty that they might not have a chance to otherwise know. So it's great. 

HELEN KIM: It's been about, what, a couple weeks-- about a month since school started. So how has virtual learning been for you as a theater professor. Usually in the music, arts world, what's special about those areas is that you have a more intimate setting where you're in-person, you coached through them while you're standing right next to them. So this is so unexpected, and probably very new to you, or may not be. But how has it been for you, and are there any challenges that you're going through right now? 

MELISSA FOSTER: Sure. And I mean, I'm extremely lucky because I teach a lot of-- especially this quarter-- I teach one-and-one voice lessons to the music theater certificate students. So meeting with someone one on one, it's much easier to engage and keep that engagement going. 

Also, the nature of my course-- there's a lot of interaction and communication between virtual office hours between lessons. So there's a steady stream of contact, connection, and information that I think keeps the students engaged. And my students have said so. So I hope that's the case continuing in the fall. 

I did teach a course over the summer, and that was nerve-wracking, because A, it's summer school. So do people want to elect to go to a summer school class? Because it was an elective course. B, Zoom fatigue. And now in the middle of a pandemic-- and now I'm all of a sudden saying come back to Zoom and do three-hour courses in the summer. 

But that course filled up. It was actually filled to capacity-- I was shocked-- and those students were amazing. So I think it can be done, but I just think that you have to have a mutual understanding with the student-- that the student is getting what they need, and it's about the student. 

I mean, yes, I'm informing them and giving them-- hopefully enriching them with knowledge. But I think this is a really particular time, where I think you need to read the student and the student needs to be very aware of their capacity and their bandwidth for learning in a pandemic, and learning in this setting. And I think they need to decide when it's just going to do more harm than good to soldier on, and take a break. Take a break. 

HELEN KIM: Can you walk us through what a virtual lesson looks like? 

MELISSA FOSTER: Sure. And again, it's nice because that is something that is done in the voice world. I just did a Zoom masterclass for a different university a few weeks ago, and I'm doing a Zoom panel to talk about applying to college virtually. So I'm giving advice on that. 

Luckily, my field sort of has an established normalcy about this, but the student logs on and we talk about what they've been doing this week regarding homework and what worked and what didn't-- is sort of how I start things. And then we [INAUDIBLE] technique. 

And that's one thing that's got to be very different, because there's a Zoom lag. So if I play something on the piano, I can't play that with them. So if I was normally going to say-- for instance sing [VOCALIZING] I have to say [PLAYS NOTE ON PIANO] and then they had to say [VOCALIZING] A capella. 

And so it's fine-- it just takes getting used to, and it leaves them exposed. However, I'm not looking at the piano when they're singing, so I get to pay more attention to exactly what they're doing. I'm seeing tension and things like that, and it's great for their ear training. 

So I mean, there's always a pro and con in every single thing that's different about Zoom. But that lag is something, and then that's another thing-- is usually there's a pianist-- an accompanist-- in the room with us working with us collaboratively for that lesson. And obviously they can't be there, because we're not even together. 

So we do recorded tracks instead, which means the students-- well, we have pianists, but the students will send sheet music to that pianist. The pianist will record a the track, send it back to the student, and then that student plays that through a speaker and sings to that. And that's odd, but also then they have a track to practice with all week. 

So I'm going to keep saying that there's always a bright side, and I really do mean it. The close-up nature of them onscreen, because I'm certainly not so close to them in a lesson that I can see their tongue from a foot away, whereas on the Zoom screen I can. So it really does help teach nuances in pedagogy that I would not normally be able to do. So I think for everything I lose, there's something else that's gained. 

HELEN KIM: Are there any other pros for-- especially for students who are trying to learn how to navigate singing virtually and figuring out how to record things? Are there any pros for them? 

MELISSA FOSTER: I mean, there are definitely Zoom audio settings that you have to have, or else the Zoom program thinks that-- if you sing high or low-- it thinks that's background noise, and it cancels that sound out. So there's a lot of fixing settings. It helps the students a lot if they have a microphone, because singing through the MacBook speakers or whatever-- it's hard to pick up that nuanced sound. 

Sometimes people need headphones, sometimes they don't. I mean, now we start to just get into Zoom talk. But I think there-- I mean, my students are resilient and adaptive. And something that I've just worked very hard on is incentive. What can be the incentive to keep them going? 

And in the spring, I knew those students because I have my students all year. So it was spring quarter, and I knew them very well. So I gave a lot of encouraging prizes-- virtual prizes along the way. And I would send a big email every week saying these are your goals for the week. Try really hard to meet this. Sort of like a step goal or water drinking goal. I mean, it's very similar-- practice this many times. And if I can tell that you are, you get to see-- I sent a silly picture of me looking terrible as a middle schooler as a prize. 

HELEN KIM: What a great prize. 

MELISSA FOSTER: I'm like I will send you something. It will be great, and you will get to make fun of me. So I did that in spring, and that was sort of nurturing, because everyone was home. This fall, I'm sort of in the mode of we're back and we're ready to work. And so I've used sort of a different incentive program, and that's more tough love and driven-based with lots of, lots of, lots of homework they need to steadily be doing. 

And that seems to be working fine, and they are liking it, because they say it keeps them-- it forces them to do it. And it's engaged homework, so they have to turn in things mid-week, things like that. That's my way that I'm trying to handle it, and I'm trying to keep it sort of alive for them. But I'm also pretty in tune if I'm seeing one just not doing well, because I'm lucky again where I see one on one. 

But I think that that's the big thing. I mean, even as a professor, there are days where I'm struggling to keep doing this. And I soldier on because I'm old and an adult, and I can do that. But I really do think that the students need to figure out when they've hit their wall. 

And also, I mean, students at Northwestern are very yes and. And so I think that a benefit of this time is that there are a lot of activities that aren't able to happen right now on campus, like clubs and things like that. And as sad as that is, and of course I'm not happy that that's the case, I think that the students getting time to take a breath besides classes is something that they'll never see again. 

And so I'm trying to encourage myself, and also my students, and also my friends to think of this point in life is this weird pause button where you have this opportunity to do something that you would have never done. Like pick up the guitar, or actually read a book for fun, or actually play video games. 

I mean it can be anything-- spend actual time with friends. Get more than four hours of sleep. I mean, whatever it is, and sort of appreciate those weird opportunities that you have to explore some thing, errand, or to take care of yourself, that you normally wouldn't have been able to do because you're a Northwestern student and you know that means you run 23 hours a day. 

HELEN KIM: And you would know that-- you were also a student at Northwestern a couple years back. So I know that you wanted to be an opera singer after you graduated, but you came across unexpected turns and health concerns. Tell us a little bit about your journey through that, and how you got to where you are right now. 

MELISSA FOSTER: Sure. Gosh, where do I begin? Yeah, I did. I went here as an undergrad. And I was in Bienen School of Music as an opera major, and I was actually supposed to leave school early to go do an apprenticeship at an opera company. Basically, to leave to go sing at an opera company in Denver, which was a really great opportunity. I was really lucky to get it. I don't know how I got it so young, but yay. 

So I was going to leave and do that, and I got really sick my senior year with the flu or something like that, and it triggered something in my body that made it really difficult to talk. And that's unfortunate for someone who's a singer. We couldn't figure it out for a long time. 

Obviously I couldn't go away to Denver. I spent a few years in doctors' offices constantly, and after thinking we solved it, I went back to get my master's degree at Northwestern in Voice and Music Ed. So I was sort of doing that, and then kept just getting sick, and kept securing awesome opportunities that I was so fortunate to get. 

Like I was going to go on national tour for a musical, Showboat, but again, I was sick. | I was thinking, I have no idea how I'm going to get through eight shows a week. So every time I would think I [INAUDIBLE] whatever was going on, I would relapse and would not be able to talk. And there were other things wrong, like everything hurt in my body and we couldn't figure that out. 

I mean, while I'm dealing with all of this awfulness, I'm saying yeah, but I could be lucky. I was a TA in Bienen for a course, and that [INAUDIBLE] was retiring. And so he had all of these obligations that he had to do to be getting ready to retire. So he had constant meetings and constant places he had to be. And they always conflicted with the course. And so I ended up having to teach a lot of the course, which was a great opportunity as a grad student. 

And when he retired, the school offered to let me continue to teach it and be an adjunct. So I got an opportunity to be an adjunct professor at 25, I think? I was graduating. 

HELEN KIM: Wow, that's awesome. 

MELISSA FOSTER: It was pretty great. And at the same time-- again, lucky-- my voice teacher from high school was retiring and offered to give me her entire voice studio of high school students and things like that. And that was in my hometown, which is only an hour from Evanston. So I would commute back and forth and teach this voice studio. 

And at the time, I was thinking, oh, sure, I mean, that's a job. And then I realized wait, I'm really actually fascinated in this. But I'm fascinated surprisingly in the musical theater aspect. Because I was an opera singer. I mean as hard core opera singer. But what I was interested in pedagogically was how people are "belting", quote unquote, and doing this on tours. Like if you're a pop star or eight shows a week, if you're on Broadway, or on TV shows-- if you are The Descendants or whatever-- how are they doing this if supposedly it's deemed unhealthy? Because that was what a lot of the industry thought back then. 

So I started researching, and teaching that. And being able to figure out how to crack that code to get students help being able to healthfully sing popular and musical theater styles made me super happy. That's the simple way to put it. And so I started doing that, and that just led to lots of talking about that, and master classes and research, and teaching, and then starting teaching at the university level. 

And then I ultimately started teaching at Northwestern full time, and was at a few other universities as well, but ended up back here, and now I teach musical theater. And still I get to do all those master classes and all those the research and flying around the world and stuff. So I was very lucky. 

Now, I will tell you that there was a little hitch in the road, which I know you know about. And you're like, are you going to talk about it? And so I will say that in 2015-- because I would love to say and now the story ended in happily ever after. But you the listeners might be like, what about that illness, and what the heck was that? 

Well, we never found out, but I was sort of living, and I couldn't perform, but I was going along my life. And then in 2015, I was flying to New York to teach, because I was going back and forth to do that because I have a studio there. And I got sick on the plane, like just a cold. And I got off the plane, and the next morning I woke up and I couldn't talk. 

And I'm thinking, oh, my gosh. This is back? This is back. I can't believe this. No, it's fine. It's going to be fine. And it was not fine. And that was another year I had to take a leave. It was a pretty bad scene, because this came with other problems, like I couldn't move my left side sometimes, and just really weird things. 

Again, Northwestern was amazing about it. Being able to take leave was amazing. My students were amazing about supporting me in being gone while I figured this out. And luckily I flew to some doctors in New York at Columbia. I have three medical teams that we're all working on this-- Northwestern, North Shore, and Columbia-- the surgeons there. And they have figured out-- it's kind of neat, now that I think about it-- that I have a major artery that is abutted. And that means it's shoved up against and sort of like twists around a nerve in my central nervous system, and that's in my brain stem. 

And that's what's messing everything up. So it's been amazing to figure that out. Thank goodness for modern medicine. Thank goodness for medications, even with yucky side effects. And so now I can teach, and Northwestern has been-- I cannot say how amazing they have been. The Office of Equity is great. My department is great. And sometimes I won't be able to talk. 

So you know this, because we were like how we condense this podcast, just in case I lose my voice? And I never know when that's coming. So my studio is equipped with a huge, flat screen TV, and I'm hooked up to HDMI. So if there's a time where I can't speak, I just literally will motion to the student-- I'm like, I'm going to have to start typing now. And I just start typing whatever I would say in that lesson or that lecture, and that goes straight to a Google Doc that that student is sharing with me, and also on the screen. 

And students are so used to texting and looking at their phones that this switch is seamless. And wow have I learned to type quickly. I was worried about it for a couple years that oh, no. I'm slowing down the pace of lessons, because I have to talk to type. And oh, no. And the students-- again, see text. See text. 

And seniors who are graduating, who are emboldened, and they say as they're leaving, please stop worrying about typing. They love it. They get a transcript of their class, and so it's easy for them to look at exactly what we learned. There's a shorthand and a vocabulary, so it just cuts to the chase. And so now I teach sort of both ways. 

So obviously I'm talking to you, so today is a good day, but we never know. And again, I'm very fortunate. I'm fortunate that I keep finding-- I'm making these hand gestures, and you can't see this on podcast, but I'm making a winding road little imagery with my arm, and I feel like that's sort of my life. And when I hit sort of a dead end, I just make a sharp turn and figure it out. And I'm really lucky that I have support all along the way. 

HELEN KIM: What an incredible story, even hearing for the second time. I was just like oh, my gosh. You went through all that, especially during such formative years of your life right after college, trying to figure out what you want to do. You had this goal set, and you were so excited to go to Denver for your opera company. But like you said, it all worked out for the best. 

Thank you also for your vulnerability of sharing your story with your illness. There is a lot of stigma around artists who are physically or mentally suffering. And I think we need to talk more about that, because I think that is a way to create that bond between other artists. And just know that you are not alone. This is so common-- you need camaraderie between people, and you need that friendship to support you, to keep you moving forward. 

So thank you so much for sharing that. And just thank you so much for being on the show today, and I'm so glad we were able to chat with you during this incredibly busy time. We just wish you the best during this virtual learning time during a pandemic, and wish the best for your students as well. 

MELISSA FOSTER: Thanks. And I mean, again, it's about the students. And they are awesome. I mean, I don't know if any are listening or if parents are listening to this, but I have an 8-year-old, so I'm watching her virtual learn, and just all the way up the chain. I just-- I think people are really handling this like pros. I mean, it's hard. It's hard for everyone. 

And as far as my vulnerability, I'm happy to share my story if it helps anybody else. And also to just realize that no one's life is rosy. I mean, we all talk about that, and how social media paints that lovely picture of perfect lives. But nobody's life is perfect. But couldn't be happier about where I am and what I'm doing with my life and with my family. 

And even in a pandemic, crazily enough, I still feel lucky that we're figuring out a way to make this work. I mean, Northwestern students and the world, but Northwestern students just-- we soldier on. And I'm just-- I'm proud of that. And I'm proud of their parents. I'm proud of their families, proud of them. So we keep trucking. Eventually we'll combat this, and life will return back to normal. 

HELEN KIM: Thank you for tuning into today's episode of Northwestern Intersections. For more information about our podcast, please visit northwestern.edu/intersections. Again, that's northwestern.edu/intersections. Until next time, stay safe, and take care of yourself and your families.