Welcome
to my site
An interdisciplinary approach to fostering growth
Affiliate Sponsor 2025
2024
Photo credit: Juniper Tree Studio
j. Nicholas & Company collaborates with clients to suit their curriculum development needs. Whether your focus is to develop a program from scratch or enrich existing programming, I'd like to work with you to achieve your goals. As someone with over twenty years of experience, I have enjoyed working with individuals, schools, within the corporate sector and with non-profit and community organizations on small to large scale projects.
Hello
My name is Dr. Jason N. Vasser-Elong
I am an applied anthropologist and author whose research is centered on the Global Epistemology and Poetics of Black Experience and factors that improve student retention, which is another way of saying that I am really interested in how people learn.
As an interdisciplinary scholar, my practice involves course design and curriculum development through the use of arts-based pedagogy.
My research has taken me from St. Louis, MO to Biscayne National Park in Florida to Yaoundé, Cameroon, Cape Town, South Africa and Monrovia, Liberia.
A literary arts collaborative...
In collaboration with The Village, I serve as a teaching artist for Narrative Wisdom and African Arts at the Saint Louis Art Museum. Using narrative and artifact exploration, participants learn about the significance of items in the exhibit and relate the use of those items to their own lives.
In collaboration with Diving With a Purpose,
I served as creative writing director for its
Youth Diving With a Purpose program. In July of 2023, as part of 'The Search' for the Guerrero, a Spanish slave ship that wrecked off the Florida coast in 1827, I developed curricula that helped learners process historical trauma as it related to the Trans - Atlantic Slave Trade.
Learn more about the mission at the link below:
Photo credit: Juniper Tree Studio
Expertise
My skillsets include applying theory to solve real-world problems, learning experience development,
as well as curriculum and course design.
Learning Experience Designer
I developed the African American Studies courses that are currently part of the curriculum for the Pierre Laclede Honors College at the University of Missouri - St. Louis.
Curriculum Developer
My arts-based curriculum, Let's W.R.A.P. was presented and piloted with k-12 educators as part of their professional development during the COCAedu Summer Institute.
Seminar Facilitation
To foster good corporate citizenship, I developed a company-wide seminar to address best practices while considering the needs of clients and stakeholders.
Action research
As a scholar practitioner, I specialize in curriculum development and action research.
Services
During our consultation we will discuss your programming needs.
Whether they are to develop something new from scratch or enrich existing programming,
I'd like to work with you to achieve your goals.
Contextual Engagement
Workshop Facilitation
Programming tailored to provide you with personalized communication to meet your needs.
We can start from scratch to develop a program or expound upon existing projects.
I offer in-person and remote workshop facilitation.
Whether serving primary school to university students and community organizations, I offer tailored workshops to fit your needs.
Instructional Design
Using the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Standards, and evidence based curricula, my curricula can be used for elementary schools, universities, corporations and community organizations.
Workshops
All of my workshops are designed to aid in supplemental instruction.
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Access
With a degree in anthropology and as a Certified Diversity FaciliTrainer (CDFT) with NCCJ-St. Louis, I bring a wholistic approach to understanding the nuance of difference. As the recipient of the Focus on Teaching and Learning with Technology Award for Instruction, my pedagogy builds on what students already know.
Key terms: Diversity, Training.
Arts - Based Curricula
As a Community Arts Training Fellow, my creative writing workshops combine play with arts-based pedagogy and social awareness. Workshop topics involve poetry, prose and storytelling and while didactic in nature, all workshops also involve hands on elements of play.
Key terms: Creative writing, Poetry, Play.
Rhyme & Reason
From a historical perspectives, this workshop delves into the contributions of African American writers who added their works to the canon of American literary tradition. This workshop is based off of my course "Rhyme & Reason: African American Poets in Dialogue with notions of Slavery, Identity and Existence".
Key term: Instructional Design
Allyship Across Time & Space
This workshop delves into little known movements and the sacrifices of people who are lost to history that demonstrate allyship in times of conflict and unrest. This workshop is based off of my course "Allies, Spies and Secret Friends".
Key term: Instructional Design
By design
We can also design a workshop together based off of your needs.
Robert V., CA
“Professor Vasser-Elong's workshop really hit home for me, as I have never had the opportunity to take a social justice related class. I have been excited to attend college next year to enjoy taking classes like this with like minds, so today felt like a taste of what's to come."
Brigid D., MO
"Jason volunteered to lead a poetry workshop with students at the high school where I work as a school librarian. He shared some of his poems and invited students to begin writing their own poems by leading them in some creative writing activities...What most impressed me was how he managed to captivate this group of teens. They were hanging on his every word."
Patrilie, H., DC
“I had the opportunity to observe Jason while he taught youth about Anthropological concepts. His interpersonal skills are impeccable, and has the ability to engage students in a way that makes them excited about the subject matter....His passion shows in all the work that he does, and his verbal communication skills are excellent. He would be an asset to any organization."
Photo gallery
j. Nicholas & Co.
goes to Liberia
Fostering Growth
For each of my clients,
a tree is planted by
Forest ReLeaf Missouri!!
To schedule your consultation, email me directly at jnicholasandcompany@gmail.com or call me at 314. 441.6794
