SUNY Online Teaching Ambassador 2023: Alfred – Melissa Blake

Melissa Blake is an associate professor of court reporting in the Business Department at Alfred State College. Melissa has lived in Cuba, NY, her entire life and started her college education at Alfred State in 1978 in the medical office assistant program. After leaving college to get married and raise a family, she returned to Alfred State’s court reporting program in 2003, graduating in 2005. She then completed the technology management bachelor’s degree at Alfred State in 2008 and went on to the technology management master’s program at SUNY IT, finishing in 2012. She has been teaching both in person and online for 18 years, strictly online for the past two years.

Melissa has been very involved with the National Court Reporters Association since she began teaching and earned certification as both a court reporting instructor and program evaluator for other NCRA-approved court reporting programs. She enjoys time with her family, grandchildren, and working outside.

As someone who completed online courses for my associate’s, bachelor’s, and master’s degrees, I have been able to participate in online classes that were built by many people using many different types of formats. I have tried to incorporate things that I thought worked well from those classes as well as incorporating feedback received by students to improve my courses. I want every student to be successful in my classes so that we can prepare the next generation of court reporters and captioners which are so needed in our industry.

These days, so many people are either going to college for the first time or returning to college in order to start a new career. Many of these people have jobs or families or both which make it impossible for them to go to a college campus and take traditional in-person daytime classes. I feel blessed that we are able to present our courses in the online format that allows any student, anywhere, at any time of the day to access our courses and complete their education so they can embark on the next chapter of their lives. The majority of our students fall into this category. No matter where they are located, they can interact through technology to support each other or interact with me.

I am honored to have been nominated as a SUNY Online Teaching Ambassador.