Flipping the Script: A Transformative Day

By:  AnnaBelle Favre & Trinity Perkins

As undergraduate assistants at the Faculty Development Center, we have the pleasure to co-organize the third annual Flipping the Script student-led teaching conference, which will take place on December 5, 2025 in the Student Center (note the new location!).  Flipping the Script has grown so much over the last few years. Last year, we had 16 presentations and over 130 people in attendance. This year's Flipping the Script will feature 33 presentations, over double the amount we had in previous years, and we are hoping to get even more attendees!

Flipping the Script has come to mean so much to both the students who are able to present their work to faculty and staff as well as to the faculty and staff themselves who come to listen to students. Not only do students take on the role of faculty by presenting, but they are also given the opportunity to think deeply about how teaching works and why professors make the choices they do. They get to give their perspective while also hearing the perspectives of the faculty that attend their sessions. The presenters in this conference have all found a true sense of empathy for their professors by looking closer at what they do. They have a better understanding of the challenges and expectations that faculty have, making them better presenters and better students.

 AnnaBelle found her way to Flipping the Script as a student presenter last year, giving her the unique experience of both being a student presenter and now organizing the conference for others to thrive. One of the professors who attended AnnaBelle’s session last year had her in class the next semester, and the two collaborated to change the way the class was taught. These faculty-student connections are important to us at the FDC, and Flipping the Script creates many opportunities to build new relationships. 

AnnaBelle has since worked on many projects with the FDC on similar topics; she never would have found this passion without Flipping the Script. She has used her experience as a student presenter when mentoring this year’s presenters, encouraging participants to speak about something they are passionate about, mixing their own experiences with research to convey their point. She is an advocate for interactive learning, and helped participants come up with their own ideas for including the faculty attendees, and the entire audience, in their presentations.

Trinity has been able to work as an undergraduate assistant at all of the past conferences, but she also had the unique opportunity to participate in both of the last conferences as a panelist and also as a moderator for a session. She has been able to see the impact that Flipping the Script has on both the presenters and the faculty who attend. Student presenters are able to grow over the journey of preparing for the conference and are excited to share all they have been working on with faculty, who are equally as passionate about the presentation as they are. 

In the past weeks, we have been able to meet with the fantastic presenters by holding workshop sessions where presenters talk through their ideas and get feedback both from us and their peers. We have been so pleased with the level of interaction and interest our student presenters have shown each other at these sessions. They are consistently engaging in meaningful dialogues about how to make each person’s presentation the best that it can be. They have been sharing resources, ideas, and constructive comments so much, in fact, that they are basically doing our jobs for us! 

We are so excited to show you the hard work that these students have been putting into their presentations to create something truly meaningful. Everyone who attends Flipping the Script will have something important that they take from the day (hopefully more than one thing!). We cannot wait to see our presenters' interactions with attendees, whether that be in workshop sessions, through audience participation, or in simple Q & A. Each and every student is excited to include their professors and fellow students within these conversations. 

We cannot recommend enough that you attend this year’s Flipping the Script conference. You will get an opportunity to hear honest, well-researched student feedback, make connections with fellow faculty as well as students, and the two free meals (and a snack) certainly don’t hurt either! We hope to see you there!