Chelsea Woodard
English Instructor Chelsea Woodard may write poetry now, but her first introduction to the creative world wasn’t through words. Coming from a family of visual artists who inspired her to see the craft as “something worthwhile,” Woodard decided to pursue studio art in college.
However, her career plans changed after a professor recommended her to a Johns Hopkins MFA (Master of Fine Arts) program in creative writing. “Part of the [program] was to teach an undergraduate creative writing class each term,” she said. “I was just kind of thrown into teaching, and I was only a year or two older than my students.” Despite her initial struggles, she instantly felt a connection with the pedagogical side of writing and decided to pursue it further.
After her program at Johns Hopkins, Woodard taught English at other schools and served as the Coordinator of the Assessment Resources Program at Dartmouth College before arriving at Exeter in 2018.
Upon her arrival at Exeter, Woodard found that the quality of the students increased the merits of the Harkness pedagogy. “I love that [the education here] is more democratic and about letting the students initiate or negotiate how they arrive at conclusions, rather than having the teacher be the only one who asks the questions,” she said. “I love that active ownership that students take over the material and over the process of the conversation.”
Woodard fondly recalled her senior elective poetry course last fall, noting her unique connection with the genre. “Poetry is the genre that I write in, that I’ve studied,” she said. “I think it’s always special to be able to teach the thing you love to students who are so smart and engaged and talented. I was excited to go to that class every day. It felt like such a privilege.”
Besides teaching English at Exeter, Woodard serves as an affiliate dorm faculty in Lamont Hall and an advisor to the literary and art magazine Pendulum, the Daniel Webster debate society, and the Bob Ross painting club. She has also continued experimenting with the visual arts and earned her yoga teaching certification at Exeter.
Students from Lamont Hall find Woodard to be understanding and kind in the dorm. “When you have a problem and you go to talk to her about it, she will try to help you, even if she doesn’t know about the problem,” lower and advisee of Woodard Hannah Henris said.
Henris believed that having Woodard as her advisor and dorm faculty has made her life at Exeter more enjoyable. “I could always just go up to her to talk.” Henris said. “She’s also not quick to judge and she handles different personalities really well.”
Woodard’s understanding of other people can be seen in her collections of poetry, another vital element of Woodard’s creative expression. While she initially developed her attachment to the genre through recitation assignments in elementary school, it wasn’t until her senior year of college when she took a poetry class and realized that “it was something I was interested in writing as well,” she said.
Coming to Exeter, Woodard had already published two poetry collections: Vellum in 2014, and Solitary Bee in 2016. Over this summer, she completed her third manuscript and is sending it out to publishers.
Woodard noted that the Exeter English curriculum has served as an inspiration for her writing. “I get a lot of ideas for poems by what I’m reading and teaching,” she said. She is also motivated by dynamic, artistic culture on campus. “I think there’s so much that’s inspiring in the creative work and thinking that students and colleagues are doing on campus,” she said. “To be around that creative, intellectual environment is always really inspiring for your own work.”
Woodard remembers one instance when she attended a student and faculty art exhibit last spring. “A student had made this incredible painting. She asked us to find where the gun was hidden in it,” she recalled. “I ended up writing a poem about that because I found her painting so interesting.”
While Woodard usually only gives her own visual art pieces as gifts now, she nonetheless incorporates her knowledge of studio art into her writing. “I do write some ekphrastic poems and poems about the process of artistic making,” she said. “I find it really interesting, partially because it’s a process that I know myself.”