The first step to improving a system is understanding its shortcomings. Jeremiah Henning, though still a relatively new instructor, already understands the importance of pushing for healthier environments—both within higher education and in the natural world.

Jeremiah is an assistant professor at the University of South Alabama, where he teaches a variety of biology courses. Outside of his work with EDU-STEM, Jeremiah’s main focus is ecology, and most recently, how climate change affects the intricate relationships between plants and the microbes that live in them. He’s spent the majority of his education studying Mycorrhizae—tiny fungi that live among the roots of plants. The mutualistic relationship they form with the flora they live on can be essential for plants to survive and thrive in difficult conditions. As it turns out, these little fungi are essential for everyone else to thrive too—not only do strong plants make for strong ecosystems, but 20% of all the carbon absorbed by their plant hosts is paid directly to the fungi.

However, when Mycorrhizae are lost, native flora suffer and biodiversity plummets. One of the greatest threats to this relationship is climate change. During his PhD, Jeremiah traveled around the globe to place warming domes that would simulate a temperature increase of just a few degrees. He found that even small changes could completely shift how an ecosystem functioned, and while some could tough out the pressure, others crumbled completely.

Jeremiah has seen similar results in his teaching and learning research, and he believes the two fields have more in common than many people realize. College classrooms are diverse—some students easily brush off unpleasant interactions, but for others, microaggressions that are invisible to many can be the deciding factor in whether or not they’re able to succeed. Seeing the disastrous effects negative interactions can have firsthand is what propelled Jeremiah into teaching and learning research in the first place.

During his PhD, Jeremiah taught a general ecology lab that had students work in small groups. One of the students in this class was transgender and still exploring his gender identity and expression. The student was adamant that a group setting wouldn’t work for him and brought his concerns to Jeremiah time and again. Still green to leading a classroom, Jeremiah encouraged the student to push through and keep trying. The student became increasingly uncomfortable in his group after being repeatedly misgendered, and eventually stopped coming to class entirely—effectively failing the course.

By the time Jeremiah had realized his approach was wrong, it was too late. None of his training had prepared him for such a situation and upon coming to terms with how ill-equipped he was, he decided that it was his responsibility to change. “What am I doing as an instructor for inclusivity? What am I doing to help students that are super marginalized?” Jeremiah began working towards goals that would be fundamental to shaping his future career. He began attending safe zone and inclusivity training, and reaching out to researchers in those fields. His efforts would lead him to find studies on how LGBTQ+ students fared in active learning environments, which inspired the framework he used to begin his own work in the field.

Eventually he would move to the University of Minnesota and begin work on his post-doc. While there he would meet Cissy Ballen and others who worked with Sehoya Cotner to study marginalized identities in the classroom. He teamed up with them, repeating his previous studies with new populations and comparing results with the other researchers. Now, as a part of EDU-STEM, he’ll be able to work with an even wider data set. “At any one site, I may only have a handful of students that identify as trans, or who identify as gay or bisexual.” Jeremiah hopes that a larger data set will bring in more information about students who only make up a small percentage of classes.

Jeremiah also has a great interest in furthering our understanding of how LGBTQ+ identities and race intersect and affect a student’s participation in the classroom. In early August, he received an NSF grant that will allow him to bring his research to a university level. His work is guided by one question: “What can I do to use my privilege to help [marginalized students] gain a better foothold - to have a few less barriers. I guess that's one of my life goals.” Jeremiah understands that even small changes can make a world of difference for students, and following that logic, he’s taken to organizing workshops that teach inclusive language. Being based in the deep south means that his coworkers may not all be up to date on which words and phrases can be covertly damaging to students - so by creating events that inform them, he can begin to build an environment that accommodates everyone.

Jeremiah was going strong in his first year as an assistant professor - but like many others, he found himself thrown into disarray in March when the first waves of COVID-19 hit the States. His lack of experience left him at a disadvantage in some areas, but he found that it also meant he was more flexible and willing to try new things. For instance, he began using Flipgrid - a Snapchat-like video app - to facilitate class discussions. It’s an example of what Jeremiah calls “communicating in the language of the young people” - a fluency that is all the more crucial in such strange and trying times.

While creative uses of available materials certainly helped students through the transition to online classes, overall access to resources was spotty and a major struggle for students and teachers alike. “I know a few faculty members who had to come to campus to get their work computers and bring them home.” Many of Jeremiah’s students returned home to rural Alabama, where Wi-Fi - and computers in general - weren’t a given. He found that some students were forced to share laptops with family members or friends, and others without access to Wi-Fi were driving 45 minutes to the nearest Walmart parking lot to attend lectures.

Though many institutions are opting to return to at least partially in person teaching in the coming semester, the inequalities students face have been laid bare like never before. Many instructors have become much more aware of the poverty, time constraints, and lack of resources. It’s also brought the need for research like Jeremiah’s into sharp focus. Students can have wildly different backgrounds - it’s not enough to place them in one standard classroom environment and assume their footing is equal.

Now more than ever Jeremiah knows that his work is not only an asset to students who face barriers to education, but vital for moving the field toward a future where everyone has a chance to succeed - even in unprecedented or dire situations. No one knows better how much impact a little change can have on the world.