C.C. Chapman's Blog

It is back to school season, and for me, that means I’ll be back on campus before I know it.

Last year, for my Graduate Capstone at ASU, I had to research and identify a communication challenge. Then, plan and create a detailed training module to help with the issue. The challenge I chose to focus on was helping first-year college students communicate better with their professors. 

I had hoped to give a version of this training, but it never came to be, so this year I committed to myself that I’d ...

After an interesting year and another challenging one ahead, I promised myself that I would approach my summer break a bit differently than I have in the past. I’m still not used to having a break this long, but I don’t want to waste the time either.

Wasting time is a concept that is difficult to define, as we all approach it differently. Idling well is something we can all learn to do better. Remember when we could get bored and let our minds wander instead of pulling out our phone and getting l...

One of my favorite extra pieces of work I do every summer is participating in Wheaton College’s summer orientation program for the incoming class of students. We answer their questions, talk to them about majors, and at the end of the day, help them register for their first semester classes.

At the beginning of the day, we’ve started hosting five to six minute MAPTalks around a theme to give them a little inspiration first thing in the morning. The theme was “abundance and reciprocity,” inspired...

Yesterday, I turned in my final grades for the semester. While there are still some final workshops, meetings, and celebrations in the coming days, another academic year has ended.

This one was full of learning for me. It was a weird cocktail of embracing and fighting reality while trying to always focus on what matters most to me. 

Anyone who has not been a Posse Mentor can not fully appreciate what this responsibility entails. Each mentor approaches it differently, but the ten st...

Yesterday, I discovered that as the calendars flipped to 2025, a college friend passed away in her sleep. She had been battling cancer, and a positive update she shared on Christmas Eve made me think that I should reach out to her since I was on winter break and we hadn’t spoken directly in a long time. Sadly, that conversation will never happen.

I’m reading 4,000 Weeks by Oliver Burkeman, which is all about time management because our current life expectancy is roughly four thousand weeks. It's ...

2025 has arrived, and the significance of the days ahead weighs heavily on me (and probably many of you).

Looking back, this was another interesting year on earth for me. When you stop and think about it, aren’t they all?

The first half had me focused on finishing graduate school at ASU. It was the final semester of two of the most challenging years of my adult life, trying to juggle all the chainsaws that come with trying to do this as an adult. I will never forget the deep breath of the desert a...

In a few short days, I’ll celebrate with my students at Wheaton College’s 2024 Commencement. Many won’t know, but I’ll be celebrating a bit more than usual as a fellow member of the Class of 2024.

I spent last week in Arizona taking part in the graduation celebrations at Arizona State University alongside 20,700 other Sun Devils graduating as part of their largest class ever. I earned my MA in Communication from the Hugh Downs School of Human Communication in The College of Liberal Arts and Scie...

Ten years ago, I was invited to give a guest lecture to a marketing class at Bentley University. As an alum, it was a big deal for me to be asked back to the campus I loved. Leaving that day, I was eager to return to a classroom as soon as possible. 

An email expressing my desire to try teaching eventually led to an opportunity as an adjunct for several semesters at Bentley and then to a full-time teaching position at Wheaton College, where I recently celebrated my sixth anniversary.

While I love ...

I spent the last week of 2023 battling a cold. Looking back, it seems I typically get a bit sick this time of year, and since it was what I learned is called “dead week,” I guess my body knew I wouldn’t be doing much anyway.

Looking back, I didn’t create as much as I would have liked. Sure, I took many photos and journaled a bunch, but there was not enough photography and writing. That will only make sense to some of you, I know.

Pearl Jam is screaming out of my speakers as I contemplate the reality that today, I’ve been on this big blue marble for half a century. It is only a grain of sand in the universe, but for this New Hampshire kid, it is pretty damn amazing.

December always finds me overly reflective. Work winds down, holiday music plays everywhere, and my birthday arrives. I’ve been worried about this December, but the reality is that I’m good with turning fifty. Much better than I was when I turned forty.

Laura ha...