Nov. 13 at 8 a.m. — I am barely awake and uncaffeinated. Opening my laptop, I log into my.SDSU to register for my Spring semester classes, crossing my fingers and manifesting that I get to enroll in JMS489 and JMS418 with Jayla Lee.
At the time, I had no idea who this professor was, only that all my other journalism major friends who had Lee already recommended taking her class. They raved about how much they enjoyed spending their time with Lee, and I was excited to have a similar experience.
Then, two weeks into the semester, she posted a Canvas announcement to her classes that after eight years of teaching at San Diego State University as a part-time instructor and lecturer, she has now accepted a full-time professor position at another college, and a transition was in the works for a new class instructor.
“NO FREAKING WAY,” one of my friends texted back, replying to the screenshot I took of the Canvas announcement.
Although I had only spent two weeks in Lee’s class, I could already tell how much love she had for her students and how much passion she had for her job.
“I forgot it was a job almost because I cared so much,” Lee said. “I would stay up late sometimes to two or three a.m. preparing my lectures for the next day just wanting to get it right.”
Even after eight years of teaching experience, Lee says she still gets nervous sometimes on the first day of classes because it comes from that place of care — caring enough to get to know her students as individuals and caring enough to want to meet them where they are at to make sure they feel seen.
The students Lee would meet are not just from SDSU, but a variety of schools she had taught over the years: Miramar College, San Diego City College, University of San Diego, Scripps Ranch High School, Mira Mesa High School and San Diego School of Creative Performing Arts.
Lee notes that although she has learned so much from interacting with all of these different kinds of school communities around San Diego, one thing that she would like to do more of is fully immersing herself in a campus community — to get involved more with events and having more time available to mentoring students.
“That’s why I pursued a full time position,” Lee said. “I am currently a full time tenure track assistant professor at Mesa College, which is a community college here in our San Diego Community College District, and I’m teaching in our communication studies department, and I’m very excited.”
At Mesa College, she is currently teaching COMS103: Introduction to Public Speaking and COMS135: Interpersonal Communication.
In addition to wanting to add more classes to her course list, Lee wants to get involved in CCAP (College, Career, and Access Pathways) as a liaison, coaching Mesa’s speech and debate team, empowering her students for career readiness, and participatory governance to advocate for mental health.
“Something that I’m excited about with being at Mesa is that I have a lot of students who are interested in transferring to SDSU, so with my JMS background and my JMS experience and teaching there, I’m excited that I can be a resource,” Lee said. “I can be someone who can talk to my students about SDSU and answer any questions they have about transferring and what’s going on at SDSU’s campus.”
For Lee, connecting with the JMS community is one of the things that she loves about SDSU.
“Inclusivity is huge in JMS,” Lee said. “I always have felt a sense of community. I always felt valued and respected.”
Before becoming a professor, Lee had been a graduate student at SDSU. She attributes the JMS faculty for being the strong support system that inspired her to become a professor.
“The JMS faculty truly believed in me,” Lee said, reminiscing. “They made the time for me, they met with me outside of class and genuinely cared about my goals and what my research interests were. And because they went the extra mile for me, they helped redefine the possible for me. That’s why, ultimately, becoming professor was my dream job because I want to be for my students what those professors were for me.”
As soon as she got into the JMS program for communication with a specialization in mass communication and media studies, the JMS director at the time reached out to Lee if she was interested in teaching as a graduate instructor.
“My dream was to teach my own college course,” Lee said. “It wasn’t so much about the title, it didn’t really matter to me what my title was yet at that point. I just wanted to be able to say I am teaching my very own college course.”
Lee’s first classes that she taught on her own were JMS489: Research Methods in Mediated Communication and JMS480: Principles of Public Relations, both having a special place in her heart.
In her time in and outside the classroom, as a student and especially as a teacher, that learning never stops and there are so many opportunities to learn and grow.
“When I first started teaching, I had this idea that professors need to show that we always have it together and always know the answer to every question,” Lee said. “Throughout the years, I’ve learned there’s so much more value in transparency and authenticity when it comes to working with college students. So now, it’s important to me to normalize making mistakes.”
Although Lee’s journey as a professor at SDSU has ended, she is still just as dedicated to Aztec students as she is to Olympians. Lee hopes the time she dedicates to her students allows them to grow to pursue the goals they have set for themselves.
“I feel compelled to be here,” Lee said. “I love teaching at the end of the day, even when some of the days are hard because this work matters to me. That’s why I’m here and I’m very grateful. Yeah, at the end of the day it’s my job, but it’s also a matter of the heart.”
