This presentation and communal dance class aim to explore the multifaceted approaches that dance educators employ to cultivate mentally healthy and culturally relevant classroom environments. I wanted to create this project based on my research that I started in my senior seminar class and have continued to my Core Milestone Experience. I created a survey for my CME project to investigate the various pedagogical strategies that dance teachers implement to foster an inclusive and supportive atmosphere, considering factors such as communication styles, feedback methods, and the incorporation of culturally relevant language. I will be sharing the results of the survey in a presentation and putting the results into real-world experiences for the community. After the conclusion of the presentation, I will be teaching a dance class open to anyone who would like to participate. No prior experience is needed! It will be a collaborative dance environment starting with a follow-along warm-up. Then we will move into creating movement together as a community. This will in turn create a dance phrase that we have all contributed to. Then there will be a follow-along cool down and feedback session. I want to hear from the participants of the class. What did they think about the information they have learned as well as how was their experience taking the class? Finally, my inspiration for this project comes from my passion for teaching dance. My goal in life is to be a lifelong learner, therefore the more information I can offer and receive will spark me further in my journey of becoming a dance educator. 

keywords:  Dance, Pedagogy

Advocacy and civic engagement has played a role in my life ever since high school and I’ve gotten to see firsthand the impact that civic engagement has on a federal and state level. Because of this, I believe that everyone should have access to the tools necessary to make change in their community. As a country, we struggle with getting our youth involved with the government and making them passionate about the system. With youth (18-29) voter turnout rates consistently hovering at approximately 50%, we are clearly lacking in promoting youth to vote. CutTheBull is an impact-generating website that changes the way that youth perceive civic engagement and politics as a whole. CutTheBull’s approach to civic engagement has three parts: providing nonpartisan news to help youth discover issues that they are passionate about, connecting them with organizations that make change not only in their communities, but also across the nation, and providing youth with action-centered resources such as voter registration information as well as the current composition of our government and who represents them. With all this combined, CutTheBull’s goal is to make youth passionate about national issues and give them the information they need to be informed and impactful citizens that will become leaders in our world.

keywords:  Politics, Advocacy, Civic Engagement, Voter Turnout, Youth Voice