As an African-American student at Eastern Michigan University, I have sometimes felt that I was either black or smart, and never both. If I was smart I was too white, and thus was not black. But if I was black then I could never be smart. 

This resulted not only in a conflict within myself but with other students, teachers, and outsiders attempting to define me as in their eyes. How could I, a black girl, want to be smart and achieve higher intelligence?

In my session, I will not only bring awareness to this common feeling among African-Americans, and colored individuals in general, but I will give professors and staff the tools to be able to help their African-Americans students realize that you can be both black and Intelligent. 

Instead of creating slides and explaining all of the points from the slides to your students, an alternative method can be providing students with a topic and requesting that they research it on their own and come to the next class prepared with some discussion points. By doing this, students will be more interested in the subject and be able to bounce ideas back and forth with other students. With this teaching method, grading is determined by the participation and preparation that students put forth. This may help students become more engaged in their learning by being active participants in the classroom.

Clinical-based educational programs are responsible for teaching students various techniques and styles related to their specialty. Hands-on learning, or experiential learning, is defined as “learning where a student participates or carries out physical activities relating to subject material rather than listening to a lecture” (The Thinking Kid, 2021). Without hands-on learning, students are lacking the resources that should be provided to them before entering into the work field. The reason this is important is because it allows instructors to see potential growth areas in their students, rather than allowing these mistakes to go unnoticed and occur in the work environment, which for some professions can lead to life altering events (New School of Architecture and Design, 2021). By including this type of learning, it not only improves the education that students receive, thus increasing their ability to perform their respective specialties, but it also assists in setting educational programs apart from other schools by offering experiences other schools are lacking in. 

A robust syllabus design encourages student learning, connection, and mental wellness. As doctoral students with backgrounds in both special education and faculty development, we assert that syllabus design is a key factor in supporting students’ needs and building a healthy classroom culture. Guided by current research on the topic, EMU-specific data, and our own experiences as both students and professionals in education, we aim to facilitate a conversation on best practices when developing a sound and equitable syllabus.

 In this workshop, attendees can expect to: 

1. Learn best practices on accessibility and usability from the student perspective 

2. Reflect upon their own experiences with syllabus design and content 

3. Receive real-time syllabus feedback from students and peers

The presentation will offer a comprehensive overview of generative AI, delving into its underlying principles, applications, and implications for various industries. Through compelling examples and real-world cases, the audience will gain a clear understanding of how generative AI is reshaping art, literature, healthcare, and business. What sets this presentation apart is its ability to strike a balance between technical depth and accessibility. I will try my best to distill complex concepts into easily digestible insights, making it suitable for both experts and those new to the topic. Moreover, a strong emphasis on ethics and responsible AI will ensure that the audience leaves with a well-rounded perspective on the subject. In summary, this generative AI presentation promises to be an enlightening and inspiring experience, shedding light on the limitless possibilities of artificial intelligence and sparking meaningful conversations about its impact on our society. 

Join me in my examination of Eastern Michigan University through the lens of institutional racism. This presentation explores how the foundation of the U.S. educational system translates to modern day academia through racial bias in the classroom. By sharing the experiences of BIPOC students I have compiled through interviews and by considering the impact of white supremacy on teaching and learning, we will identify ways to improve racial awareness at EMU and, in doing so, consider next steps towards meaningful, lasting change. 

Incorporating active learning into graduate and undergraduate teaching is essential to building meaningful skills that last beyond the final exam. It can also feel intimidating, time consuming, or too vague to apply. This session will provide skills through action, practice, and exploration that empower educators to trust their students with course material outside of the classroom, and move from lecture-based learned to applied learning. Digital active learning techniques and options within fixed curricula will also be discussed. 

Every person embodies an intersection of identities, some visible, some invisible. This panel discussion explores the areas of cultural identity, disability/accessibility, and gender and sexual identity as they relate to the classroom experience. Educators can expect insights from students about representation and inclusion, as well as concrete steps to move into cultural curiosity and inclusive education. 

My presentation will be about my experience with working 1-on-1 with a faculty member in a collaborative partnership. I will compare this to the collaborative partnerships that are possible within the Collaborative Course (Re)Design process. My presentation will touch on my experience with going into the partnership without formal training on the content, but rather my experience-based knowledge. I will discuss relevant literature that supports the benefits of faculty-student partnerships within higher education, and how my experience of working 1-on-1 with a faculty member has impacted other areas of my education. I will comment on how these partnerships shift the traditional power dynamics seen between faculty and students within higher education, and how we fostered this equality within our collaboration. 

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on pre-professional program students has been profound. Restriction to in-person activities, clinical opportunities, lab environments, and increased responsibilities/hardships outside the classroom have negatively impacted the journey of pre-professional students. I entered Eastern as a Fall 2020 freshman, the first semester post-initial onset of the pandemic. Although I am now graduating college in a post-pandemic world, the implications of these things on my graduate education applications is evident. In pre-law programs, researchers found a decrease in discussion based on career plans, student engagement, and partnership post-pandemic. Even though we are currently entering a world post-COVID (LSSSE Annual Results, 2021), researchers found that students, specifically first-generation and underrepresented minority students, faced increased disadvantages with accessing resources that could benefit their post-graduate applications (Rohr-Kirchgraber et al. 2021). In my presentation, I will present the disparities felt by Eastern’s students in these programs, and small, but impactful, experiences faculty in these disciplines can implement into their classes, syllabi, etc., that can work towards providing support for this incredibly diverse student population. 

My proposed session will be based off of my personal experiences as a disabled person and student at EMU. We will discuss the following points:

1. How being disabled can impact classroom engagement such as accommodations, campus and classroom accessibility, and advocacy.

   • The Importance of the Disability Resource Center

2. Specific impacts of being disabled 

   • Personal experiences with ableism, stigmas, discrimination and how that affects the mental well-being of someone who’s disabled, since people receiving care can burnout while managing schoolwork.

3. Teaching people about disability 

   • Being disabled can be a whirlwind. Often times, it’s not the disability that’s limiting, it’s the lack of accessibility, discrimination, and stigmas that are. There are many different types of disabilities, and we will discuss how we can make campus ultimately accessible, how to advocate for the disabled community, how to combat ableism, becoming disability allies, and acceptance. 

COVID-19 brought about many changes to the delivery of education. Most of these adaptations took the form of virtual learning, seeing classes and assignments moved entirely to online formats. Though these methods served an invaluable purpose in our navigation of the pandemic, certain aspects of online learning have shown to be less effective in providing valuable student engagement than in-person methods (Hollister et al., 2022). Though classes have returned to in-person instruction, some of these inferior online practices remain – notably, discussion posts. We argue that the practice of online engagement via discussion posts does not serve to enhance student learning, but instead provides little more than rote busy work. We also argue that replacement practices should be implemented in order to facilitate true engagement. 

This workshop is meant to shed light on the experiences of first-generation students. Through detailed discussion and shared experiences from our peers, we intend to show first-generation students in the light they should be shown and to identify adversities thrown their way versus other students. Their perspectives are worth sharing and should be heard throughout the community to help reconsider the societal norm and to provide diversity in the culture at Eastern Michigan University. Through interactive activities, we intend to show the importance of our first-generation students to the university as well as their abilities to thrive within different programs, even against adversity. We intend to show that first-generation students are beyond capable of exceeding expectations in the higher education realm and how their experiences enhance our day-to-day lives.

Breaking Barriers and Building Relationships is about highlighting and emphasizing the relationship between faculty and students. Faculty have much to gain by breaking communication barriers, working towards improving the classroom environment, and going out of their way to ensure students are successful.  Based on my own experience as a student and as an instructor in my department, I will highlight what it means to break barriers and build relationships, how faculty can support students, and how they can help students find their purpose, success, and motivation, and be a part of their success story - all by building a connection with a student and recognizing the existence of a student. 

Over the past decade, an unprecedented mental health crisis has affected university students, high rates of whom rate their mental health as “poor” (Prowse et al., 2021), report feeling depressed (Sheldon, et al., 2021), or suicidal (Gunnel et al., 2020). Faculty, including EMU’s professors, have been looking for ways to support students’ mental health such as through facilitated wellness check-ins. Indeed, an instructor is a student’s first institutional point of contact and plays a key role in supporting their mental health (Kalkbrenner & Carlisle et al., 2019). To this end, I will build on my mentor’s research by sharing my own data from 30 undergraduate students’ anonymous surveys and three qualitative interviews. Diving deeper into the specifics of why student wellbeing is paramount, I will end by sharing my own experience with mental health as it relates to my identity as a transgender/non-binary student and my success at EMU.