Teaching — Jessica Navarro, MSW, PhD

Guiding principles

Student skill and professional readiness

I prioritize helping students build the applied skills, confidence, and reflective capacity needed for meaningful human service work and future professional roles, translating theory into practice.

Co-constructed, relational learning

I create relationship-rich learning environments where students and I learn with and from one another through shared inquiry, trust, and collaborative engagement. Student voice is central, not peripheral.

Inclusive and equitable communities

I design teaching and mentoring practices that honor diverse experiences, reduce barriers, and advocate for equity in classrooms, programs, and communities, including attention to neurodiversity and global power dynamics.

Ethical use of technology

I use technology, including AI, in ways that enhance learning and promote ethical digital habits. This includes a phone-free classroom policy grounded in neuroscience research on attention and learning.

Process over product

I ground my work in ongoing developmental processes, emphasizing iteration, growth, and meaning-making across time. Development, as both subject and pedagogical approach, is always ongoing.

Courses at Elon University

HSS 3981 Practicum Abroad in Costa Rica

Immersive community-based learning in rural Guanacaste, Costa Rica, focused on direct practice, cultural humility, and global citizenship. Students live with host families and collaborate with local communities.

Community-Based Learning

Mother Nature Award, hand-painted watercolor certificate awarded to Jess Navarro by students

Costa Rica, 2026 · filmed by students

HSS 1110 Art and Science of Human Service Studies

Gateway course to the HSS major, introducing students to the values, frameworks, and scope of human service practice through experiential and community-based learning.

Community-Based Learning

HSS 2850 Research Methods in Human Service Studies

Builds research literacy and critical thinking through scaffolded engagement with empirical work. Students move from uncertainty about research to genuine confidence in reading and applying evidence.

Advancing Equity · Data Intensive

HSS 4120 Advanced Theory and Interventions

Senior capstone integrating theory, ethics, positionality, and practice through the Just Practice Framework. Students apply course concepts directly to their 290-hour senior block internships.

HSS 3260 Dating and Intimate Relationships

Examines intimate relationships through scholarly frameworks and lived experience, blending personal and professional growth. Discussion-centered with book clubs, journals, and a culminating relationship poster fair.

HSS 3240 Perspectives and Issues in Aging

Community-based gerontology course with placements across contrasting settings, from well-resourced facilities to community-based programs serving lower-income older adults.

Community-Based Learning

COR 1100 The Global Experience

First-year seminar using Bronfenbrenner's bioecological theory as a lens for understanding how development unfolds through interactions between individuals, their contexts, and time.

HSS 1210 Modern Love

A first-year course on friendship, intimacy, and relationships, designed so students encounter foundational relationship education early in their time at Elon rather than waiting for upper-level electives.

GBL 1380 Preparatory Seminar for Practicum Abroad

Co-taught preparation seminar for the Costa Rica practicum, focused on unpacking cultural assumptions, positionality, saviorism, and ethical engagement before departure.

Mentoring & advising

16 letters of recommendation written
in 2025–26

14 students currently
advised

8+ undergraduate research
mentees since 2022

Mentoring is embedded in everything I do at Elon. I meet individually with students to support their professional development, write detailed letters of recommendation for graduate and professional programs in social work, counseling, law, and occupational therapy, and advise students through the full arc of their time at Elon. More than half of the students I have mentored have gone directly into graduate or professional programs.

I have mentored undergraduate researchers through Honors, Elon College Fellows, and Odyssey Scholar programs. Recent research mentees have presented work at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research and the Elon Spring Undergraduate Research Forum. I also mentor Teaching and Learning Assistants, working closely with them on course design, feedback practices, and the craft of supporting student learning.

Public writing & presentations

Blog post · 2025 Teaching as storytelling: How a neuroscience study changed my classroom smartphone policy Center for Engaged Learning, Elon University Read the post →
Blog post · 2025 The theory we thought we knew: Rediscovering Bronfenbrenner with students Society for Research on Adolescence Read the post →
Conference presentation · 2026 Developing Reflective Practice in Global Settings: The Integrative Processing Abroad Journal PACE Conference, Elon University View presentation →

Teaching is learning.
Both are lifelong.

Guiding principles

Student skill and professional readiness

Co-constructed, relational learning

Inclusive and equitable communities

Ethical use of technology

Process over product

Fellowships & recognition

Professional development

Teaching grants

Teaching is learning. Both are lifelong.

Guiding principles

Student skill and professional readiness

Co-constructed, relational learning

Inclusive and equitable communities

Ethical use of technology

Process over product

Fellowships & recognition

Professional development

Teaching grants

Teaching is learning.
Both are lifelong.