Professor Profile: Get to know Yuchen Boswell

Professor by Day, Furniture Flipper by Night

Meet our newest Assistant Professor of Communications, Professor Yuchen Boswell! Professor Boswell teaches public speaking and advanced media writing here at Kansas Wesleyan University. She is originally from China and moved to the United States 12 years ago for graduate school. Here is an interview featuring Professor Boswell; asking her a diverse array of questions about who she is personally, academically, and some random fun facts she may have about herself. Below are the questions and what she had to say:

• How do you unwind outside of work?

“I’m a runner, so when I’m not at work, one of the best ways for me to relax and to gain energy is to go work out, right? I’m not like a competitive runner. Runner is a big word…  That’s something that I found has always been working for me, either when I was at school or now it was work and kids. Other than that, I flipped furniture for fun.”

• What’s your comfort food during a stressful week?

“I love spicy noodles, yes… I grew up eating super spicy stuff. My province is, like, famous for spicy stuff, so I have been training my husband and his spice level…”

• Are you secretly good at something unrelated to your field?

“I actually flip furniture. So basically, like, I treasure hunt, right? I go to, like, is they sell, or garage sales or thrift stores… I try to find, like, good quality of furniture, but I might, like, look outdated or need little bit of repair.”

 

• What’s something students would be surprised to learn about you?

“I met Jackie Chan once when I was little… When I was little, I think I was in middle school, I went on a school trip… And for some reason, I was separated from the group. So I went to a different like area. And later on, I realized there was like a VIP lounge I didn’t know, nobody, like, stopped me or anything… So I just went over there, and I sat there, and then suddenly I saw, like, these people. Was like, you know, they look like bodyguards, yeah, but I did not know what’s going on… And then I saw Jackie Chan, and he just briefly, he, like, walked in, and then he walked out.”

• What songs or artists would students be shocked to find on your playlist?

“Nicki Minaj, that will be a surprise. A lot of people don’t think I like that. I like Drake too… I feel like Eminem is not a big surprise… Hosier… Taylor Swift…” 

• What was your favorite class you took as an undergraduate student?

“Interpersonal communication… I thought that was a class that was so practical, it did not sound practical at all, just based on the name, interpersonal communication… I just need the credit. I need to check the box. But I was shocked and surprised by that class… It’s literally a class that explains every single thing we do every single day, and just like the things that we’ve never thought from a theoretical perspective… At the time, my major was Communications and Journalism. I was actually leaning towards journalism because that’s something like, more tangible… I didn’t know much about communication, but that class was the class that opened my door, and that was the moment I decided I wanted to go with that route.”

• What do you enjoy most about teaching here at Kansas Wesleyan?

“Student interactions… students are very unique, because I’ve taught in public, four-year schools and two-year community colleges. So I feel like… they are very sharp, they know exactly what you’d want to do, and a lot of students that I met are very confident, which is very different compared to, like, a community college school, right? A lot of students are trying to figure out what they want. They’re still exploring. I like how confident our students are, and that just makes me, like, more motivated, and it’s a good challenge for me too.

• If you weren’t a professor, what do you think you’d be doing right now?

“I will be a full-time freelance designer… I started working on graphic design work when I was in undergrad, when I was a sophomore, junior. I think that was one summer I was kind of bored, and I always wanted to learn Adobe software…. I really liked it growing up. I always liked drawing, always laying out stuff.”

• What study habits do you think actually matter the most?

“First thing I would say, always be curious, even if it’s something that you find really boring. Always explore more, the more curious you are, the more you think, and the more you think, the more you understand the terms and the concept…”

• What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

“Don’t take things too personally… I think that goes with study, and that goes with work, and goes with life. In general, life is so short and so much, you know, like there are so many layers of life… You have so many layers of identity. If we take things too personally, just from one layer, that might impact other layers, right?”

To find Professor Boswell on the KWU staff directory, visit the link below: 

https://www.kwu.edu/about/faculty-staff-directory/yuchen-boswell/

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