Building Community through Experiential Learning

April 5, 2024

Like many professors at WSU, Tracy Simmons has years of impressive experience, however, it is her love and passion for experiential learning and building community that truly sets her apart and fulfills WSU’s land-grant mission of being committed to positively impacting Washington state and its communities.

Simmons is an assistant professor with the Edward R. Murrow College of Communication at WSU. She is also the founder and executive director of FāVS News, an online publication that specializes in religion news coverage in the Inland Northwest. Through her involvement at FāVS News, Simmons works to promote religious literacy, ethical dialogue, and understanding across communities in Washington.

“By providing in-depth coverage of diverse faith traditions and perspectives, I hope that I’m fostering greater knowledge and respect,” Simmons said.

With FāVS News, Simmons also focuses on building community in Washington. On the journalism side, FāVS News collaborates with various media organizations to share resources and stories so that important voices, that may otherwise go unheard, are amplified. As for religious communities, Simmons has formed valuable relationships with leaders from different faith traditions and has spent time in cultural centers and houses of worship. This has helped her to capture the experiences, nuances, and complexities within various religious communities in the Inland Northwest.

FāVS News also frequently hosts community events and discussions to create a space for open and honest conversation, which Simmons has found to be very successful.

“I’ve witnessed warming connections and new levels of understanding emerge from these encounters,” Simmons said.

To share her expertise in religion reporting, in 2022, Simmons started the Religion Reporting Project at WSU. Within this experiential learning program, students engage in meaningful discussions, learn from professional religion reporters, and visit places of worship to dive deeper into culture and diversity. All these opportunities provide students with a chance to learn outside of the classroom and connect with communities.

“They go beyond just reading about religions,” Simmons said. “They are discovering rich traditions firsthand by meeting faith leaders, asking questions, and touring sacred spaces.”

Simmons also co-leads Murrow’s Epic Storytelling in Greece trip, in which students travel across Greece and take strategic communication and journalism courses. Within this trip, Simmons teaches the Backpack Journalism class, where students create multimedia stories as they travel throughout the country, giving students real-world experience in field journalism and communication.

Chloe Woodward, a WSU senior who went on the study abroad trip last Summer, felt especially thankful to have Simmons lead the trip.

“Tracy was the perfect person to lead this trip, and I feel like I gained so much in her class,” Woodward said. “She brought such a valuable and helpful perspective to the rich cultures and religions that we were reporting on.”

“I think getting students outside the classroom is key,” Simmons said. “It makes a lasting difference.”

Whether it’s through her experiential learning program in Greece, or the Religion Reporting Project, or FāVS News, Simmons’ work demonstrates a commitment to bridging differences, bringing people together, and creating community in the state of Washington and beyond.

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