'Her positivity rubs off on people:' Communication faculty member brings warmth, enthusiasm to students
Faculty Alysa Lucas teaches class on Sept. 11 in Moore 105.
Communication faculty member Alysa Lucas is nothing if not a fireball of enthusiasm.
Her enthusiasm shows up in different places -- it could make an appearance while Lucas researches an audience’s emotional ties to characters on “The Walking Dead” or while she discusses “Anne of Green Gables” on her podcast dedicated to friendship, “Best Forevers.” It could show up when she brings in one of her favorite podcasters from “The Mental Illness Happy Hour” to Skype with students for a Dark Side of Communication class session.
Sometimes, her excitement comes out while she beams about how cool T-shirt cannons are at football games, or how she’s considered combining her love of sewing and cats to start an Etsy store selling catnip toys.
When Lucas took her first communication class at Lansing Community College, she knew she’d found a field that engaged her enthusiasm.
Communication research and theories helped provide possible explanations for commonplace issues, like why one person was mad at another or why someone was too shy to talk to their crush.
"All the things that 18 year old Alysa was probably interested in,” Lucas joked.
Some students don't share this enthusiasm and feel they don’t need to learn about communication since they communicate every day, Lucas said.
Still, Lucas believes the field is important precisely because it is something people do every day and can have positive or negative impacts on both oneself and others.
As she frequently tells her students, “I could play basketball every day, (but that) doesn’t make me Lebron James.”
Even with a doctoral degree in communication, Lucas conceded she still sometimes struggles in her relationships.
“My cats and I are fine, though,” Lucas said with a laugh.
Over her years in the communication field, Lucas has focused her research on platonic friendship, starting with a study on jealousy in female friendships for her undergraduate thesis at Michigan State University.
Lucas has also studied sexual communication, including research for her master’s program on how people communicate their sexual history to their romantic partners and more recent research on how college students talk about sex with friends.
Another topic Lucas has studied is a unique kind of “friendship:" parasocial relationships, which are one-sided relationships fans have with celebrities or fictional characters.
Lucas’ love of TV shows and pop culture has shown up in classes as examples that help students learn, former students Markie Heideman and Autumn Gairaud said.
Both students said they admired the faculty member’s warmth, enthusiasm and ability to tie pop culture references to course material.
Heideman, a Twining senior, described Lucas’ teaching style as “untraditionally effective.”
“She brings such an energy and a light to the classroom no matter what day it is, no matter what’s going on outside the classroom for her,” Heideman said. “She always brings her best foot forward and brings all she has.”
“Her positivity rubs off on people,” Heideman continued.
Former CMU student Autumn Gairaud painted a similar portrait of Lucas.
Gairaud, who graduated in May with bachelor's degrees in political science and women and gender studies, is now pursuing a studies master’s degree in ethnic studies from Colorado State University.
She said Lucas encouraged her as she was preparing for graduate school, even though Gairaud only took one class from the faculty member during her time at CMU.
“She kept constantly telling me, 'You are good enough and it’s going to be okay,'” Gairaud said. “She also reminded me it’s okay to feel stressed, to feel overwhelmed and that’s normal."
Lucas acknowledges when she has difficult days and brings up difficult topics like mental health in class, Gairaud said. By doing this, Lucas helps students feel comfortable approaching her for help finding resources they need.
Both Heideman and Gairaud would occasionally meet with Lucas for coffee or lunch and consider her a mentor in their lives. They say they are only two of many students Lucas integrates into her life.
“Not many professors take the time to know people on that level,” Gairaud said.
