Andra Hansen adds expertise to department   as a one-year appointment

No matter how bright the sunlight, the wind was always cold in the early morning on the Fort Hall reservation. The grass at the edge of the festival grounds was high, almost waist deep, and the some of the children had clustered in the center of the bleachered circle, where they sat cross-legged, their notebooks lying open against their knees.

But the pages didn't fill up. It was Andra Hansen’s first summer working on the reservation as a writing teacher of sorts, and she hadn't thought about how foreign writing might feel to someone born into an oral culture.

Among her many strengths, Hansen, who is holding a one-year appointment in the communication department, is one that she can help students learn to communicate. She says, “I had taken them to the festival grounds because I remembered the ceremonies that were held there every August.” Gradually, they began to communicate their feelings through deep, difficult poetry.

“Some things are hard to write about. A past that bleeds into the present. A present made elegant by the past. What it means to be a native growing up on a reservation with 50 percent unemployment and a strong strain destructiveness borne of despair. But that's what the outsider who doesn't look hard enough sees. Beyond that lies a vibrance, the kind of beauty that once glimpsed is unforgettable.”

Hansen, who holds master’s and bachelor’s degrees from ISU and has taught English and Communication there for more than a decade, has used writing in many settings to build at-risk children: At the Log Cabin Literary Center, at Lincoln High School in Idaho Falls, in Boise and at Fort Hall, where she has run summer writing camps to help students explore deep feelings. “I love working with ‘at-risk kids,’” she says, “It’s very, very cool.”

She has become a powerful addition to the communication department this year, where she has been teaching writing and other communication courses. She co-owns Blue Pebble Press with her sister. They create and publish a magazine called Slice for readers ages 40 and older, as well as newsletters for a few clients. She is also a former aide to Idaho Sen. Larry Craig.

She has enjoyed her experience at BYU-Idaho, “Teaching and learning within a context founded on our faith has been a remarkable experience--life-altering for sure. I've not experienced this kind of energy and possibility in any other academic setting. I feel lucky just to be part of it.”