student success

Counting to three and then flying

Anonymous — Tue, 02 Jan 2024 21:14:31 +0000

Counting to three and then flying Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 01/02/2024 - 14:14

Neuroscience and art practices major Rachel Suter joins The Ampersand podcast to discuss asking ‘Why not?’ and stepping into the unknown

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Rachel Suter steps to the precipice and looks over the edge. Below her, a glowing aqua pool that’s 30 feet down. As many times as she’s pushed off the edge, she still feels a little zing.

She dives into a pool at the newly renovated Casa Bonita restaurant in Denver. The way the water blends in and out of sapphire blue reminds her of her newest painting, exploring neurological degeneration, which reminds her, in turn, to finish her neuroscience homework before she can get to her next student body government meeting.

Amid the noise of the restaurant, the sweet fried scent of sopapillas, her fellow performer in a gorilla costume, she takes a breath, counts back from three and soars.

Rachel is a lot of things, not just a woman who flies. She crafts visual art based on scientific systems and principles she explores in her neuroscience coursework. She guides the College of Arts and Sciences student body as vice president. She's a model, she dives, she approaches new opportunities asking, “Why not?”

At the top of the page: Rachel Suter works on her art. Photo by Kylie Clarke. Above: "Vibrant" by Rachel Suter.

She recently joined host Erika Randall, associate dean for student success in the College of Arts and Sciences, on "The Ampersand,” the college podcast. Randall—who also is a dancer, professor, mother, filmmaker and writer—joins guests in exploring stories about “ANDing” as a “full sensory verb” that describes experience and possibility.

Their free-wheeling discussion addressed confronting fear, the mechanics of diving and oatmeal baths, among many other topics.

Suter: When I was younger, I always wanted to dive, but I couldn't because I have pretty bad eczema. I was a competitive gymnast, and then, following that, I did competitive dance. So, you know, just parallel sports, almost. And then senior year of high school, I just kind of decided, like, end of COVID, I'm really bored. I'm just going to give it a try, you know, just for fun?

Randall: Screw the eczema. There's oatmeal baths for that.

Suter: So true.

Randall: Yeah. (laughs) My kiddo has eczema. OK, so you're going to try it.

Suter: Yes.

Randall: You're going to go in.

Suter: Mm-hmm, and like, in the past, I had gone cliff-diving with friends just at lakes and vacations and…

Randall: See, again, you say that so casually: ‘In the past, I'd gone cliff diving.’ There isn't a world where I walk up to the edge of something and jump off of it. There was no fear for you there.

Suter: Yeah, I have two brothers, and they're the type that they see a cliff, and they will jump off of it. I just don't want to be left out of that, you know? And then, just having the gymnastics background, and the worst that could happen in gymnastics is you fall on a really hard surface, and that's really scary. But with diving, it's like you're falling on water, so there's only so much bad that could happen. And the hurt, it's going to hurt, but it won't last that long. And cliff diving, I don't go from too high, so the risk is minimal.

But I think the most important thing is when I do the one, two, three count, I have to trust myself that I'm going to go for it, you know? And it's like…

Randall: Is that what you say literally every time you get to the edge?

Suter: Yep.

Randall: OK, well, I want to hear it. Walk me through. Put me in your body.

Suter: Oh, man. Yeah, I think it's just a quick visualization of the dive. I mean, if it's a forward dive or a backflip, not too much. It's pretty simple. But if it's more of like a twisty dive, just stepping through what my arms are going to do and whatnot, and then standing on the edge, marking my place in the water. And if it's a smaller pool, just making a plan for what I'm going to do underwater because you can flip out of it either way.

So, choosing space and also choosing if I'm going to flip out of it right away or if it's safe enough to go and bounce off the bottom almost, which I can do at pools like Casa Bonita, but I can't at cliff diving spots like Paradise Cove. So, yeah, just making a plan, going through it, and then just counting off, like one, two, three, go, and just trusting that on three, I would go.

Randall: Life lessons with Rachel Suter, making a plan, trusting it. One, two, three, go. OK, so is that what took you to interview at Casa Bonita, that just one, two, three, go, let's do this?

Suter: Yeah. I mean, I didn't expect to get the job. So, it was more of a, ‘I might as well.’ That would just be so cool. I have a dance background, so I have the performance aspect.

Randall: And had you been there as a kiddo if you're from the Springs?

Suter: No, I'd heard all about it, but I had never actually been.

Randall: OK, so you heard the lore.

Suter: Yes.

Randall: But you had never been and had the terrible taco salad with the Pepto-Bismol chaser.

Suter: Never had it.

Randall: Never had it. And did you hear about how there used to be the electrical room at the bottom of the dive pool?

Suter: They fixed that.

Randall: OK. (laughs)

Suter: Yeah, so I ended up going because just so many of my friends and family had just been, like, oh, you have to. You dive. You just have to do it. I was like, OK.

Randall: So, when we think about this pattern of success, this way that you set up the visualization, all of the things, does this show up for you in other ways in your life? Because on top of being now this enigmatic Casa Bonita diver, you are also a neuroscience student. You're also a visual artist. You are on student government.

You are a leader in your community. You are one of the kindest humans I know. And, and, and, and then you tell me you model, and I just couldn't even put that part into the Rachel egg. Talk to me about if that method for getting to the edge and looking over, does that serve you in other spaces?

Suter: Yeah, it's more of like, I'm young and I know that this is the time in my life where I will most be able to try new things and pursue different things and have no consequences if it doesn't work out.

Randall: OK, wait a second. You really just have that freedom in your mind, like this is the time when I'm young. How good were your parents, or did they just never know if you were home?

Suter: (laughs) No, my parents are amazing. They’re very adventurous and pushed us, my brothers and I, all to try new things and just be confident in what we're doing.

Randall: Did they throw you into the pool when you were a little kid with all your clothes on and see if you would drown?

Suter: I don't know, but they might have.

"Too Much to Hold" by Rachel Suter

Randall: They might. They were that parenting book.

Suter: Yes. And if we had a little interest in something, they would help us and support us and provide the materials to do those, which I really appreciate and I know not everybody has. So, I think that definitely has allowed me to become a better artist and interested in sciences because they allowed me to have those resources as a kid. And so now that I have the freedom of my own time, I'm able to explore those.

Randall: Were science and art always married for you? Because when I look at your art, first of all, it's astounding to me.

Suter: Thank you.

Randall: I had seen the original piece that you shared with me with, this gesture of hands under the sternum and the heart dripping out of your cage. And then there were other things that showed up in your art, this perspective, detail, that kind of pencil sketch fury. Like, there's a quickness that also maybe is not showing how much time it takes. I mean, it's a lot of time.

Suter: Yes, quite. And a project will take probably 15 more hours. It really depends. But the more time-consuming part is the research and development portion.

Randall: Yes, and you can see that the science is in it. And the research is in the science.

Suter: Yeah, because a lot of my art does deal with scientific topics. A lot of times, I just don't even know what I want to do, and it starts with the research and just taking notes and deciding on a topic that I like and I'm passionate about. And so, I'll continue doing research and start with little one-inch by one-inch thumbnail sketches of little ideas I could do.

Randall: Kind of storyboarding?

Suter: Yes, so it starts with just a lot of research and then thumbnail sketches. And then it almost becomes a conversation on the page of, oh, I like this idea, but not this. So, it's a way to have a conversation with myself because I never know what it's going to be when I first start. And it goes through so many stages. And sometimes what I end up with is not even on the same topic as what I began with.

Click the button below to hear the entire episode.

Listen to The Ampersand

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Neuroscience and art practices major Rachel Suter joins The Ampersand podcast to discuss saying ‘Why not?’ and stepping into the unknown .

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Grad pondered death by black hole and found a life’s work

Anonymous — Mon, 18 Dec 2023 20:40:54 +0000

Grad pondered death by black hole and found a life’s work Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 12/18/2023 - 13:40

Rachel Sauer

College of Arts and Sciences outstanding graduate Abby Hartley embraces the complementary relationship between science and art

Some children gaze up in wonder at the boundless night sky and the universe of stars scattered in it—counting them, wishing on them, seeing shapes in them and weaving fantastical stories.

But not Abby Hartley. Abby gazed up and pondered death by black hole.

What if they (Abby uses they/them pronouns) fell into one of the massive and mysterious objects? What is the math underlying spaghettification? (Don’t ask.) (Actually, do ask: It’s the vertical stretching and horizontal compression of objects—including people—falling into black holes.) Would they be grateful for the deeper understanding of time dilation—or the phenomenon of time passing at different rates for different observers—as they were drawn farther and farther into the black hole?

Abby Hartley, the College of Arts and Sciences fall 2023 outstanding graduate, first became interested in astrophysics by pondering death by black hole.

So, Abby pursued an astronomy and astrophysics education at the University of Colorado Boulder to get answers. Named the College of Arts and Sciences outstanding graduate for the fall 2023 semester, they are graduating this week with their honors thesis, “The First Quiescent Galaxies in TNG300," already published in an academic journal.

“Abby is a brilliant, hard-working, organized and frighteningly mature young scientist,” notes Erica Nelson, a �� Boulder assistant professor of astrophysical and planetary sciences and Abby’s research mentor and thesis advisor. “They are already operating at the level of a senior graduate student. I have no doubt that Abby will be a leader in the field.”

Which is a profoundly meaningful recognition of their hard work and expression of confidence in all that they have yet to achieve, but here’s what Abby considers a crowning accomplishment from the previous three and a half years: When Abby published their first research paper—yes, first, meaning there’s more than one—their mom proofread it before publication and their dad printed it out after. And like the proud parents they are, they stuck it on the refrigerator.

“My dad even highlighted some parts,” Abby recalls with a laugh. “He said, ‘I don’t totally understand all of it, but it’s so cool.’ Just knowing that I’ve always had that support from my family and friends has been so important. It’s a big part of why I’ve been able to accomplish what I have so far.”

Wanting to know more math

Speaking of Abby’s dad, he gets a decent amount of the credit for Abby’s first steps into science. An avid fan of science himself, he shared his passion for it by passing along the books he’d read to his adolescent child. Abby was the kid in middle school clutching a copy of The Elegant Universe and wishing they knew more math.

It wasn’t all science, though. Abby also cultivated a deep love for writing and art, nurtured by a voracious appetite for science fiction, and found as much fulfillment in pens and drawing paper as they found in the depths of differential geometry and tensor calculus.

For a long time, though, Abby thought it had to be one or the other—that declaring a major in astrophysics meant relegating art to the thing they did at home if they had time.

There was no particular moment when Abby realized that art and science can exist in symbiosis—as hand in glove rather than as two parallel but untouching tracks—but studying relativity helped.

“Initially, the rules of math and physics can seem pretty rigid,” Abby says. “But when you get to relativity, things bend a little bit more. Things are a little more fluid, and that’s been really exciting to me.”

So, while studying extragalactic astronomy as a member of Erica Nelson’s research group, Abby also tapped back into their love for art, designing an astrophysics art outreach project mentored by Zachory Berta-Thompson, a professor of astrophysics. As part of their project, Abby created digital illustrations highlighting the accomplishments of women and minorities in astrophysics; several are currently featured on the digital screens in common spaces in the Duane Physics building.

Abby Hartley's art highlighting the accomplishments of women and minorities in astrophysics includes Aomawa Shields, a University of California Irvine professor and one of Abby's heroes.

“Too many times, I’ve found myself to be the only non-male audience member in a seminar or presenter at a student talk series,” Abby says. “This inequity can be disheartening, but it has never dulled my passion for science. My goal as an astrophysicist is to help humanity unravel the mathematical mysteries of the cosmos, and to show other young scientists from historically underrepresented groups that they, too, belong in this field.

“We are all multifaceted human beings, and we shouldn’t feel pressured to stifle one passion to pursue a career in another. I was a scientist when I gave talks about my research into the first galaxies to stop forming stars in a cosmological simulation, but I was also a scientist when I painted a space-themed mural on the wall of a cat cafe.”

Abby contacted some of the scientists they featured in their art, including Jessica Mink and Aomawa Shields, and heard back from them, “so I got to talk with some of my personal heroes in astrophysics, which has been pretty amazing,” Abby says.

Pursue creative outlets

For their thesis research, Abby—whose educational path has focused on theoretical astrophysics—considered their scientific progression that began with black holes, extended to extragalactic astronomy and landed in quiescent galaxies, or galaxies that stop forming stars.

“They have dust, so in theory they should be perpetually creating stars,” Abby says. “Why aren’t they?

Using simulations from the IlustrisTNG project, a suite of cosmological galaxy-formation simulations, Abby and their research colleagues predicted that the first quiescent galaxies located by the James Webb Space Telescope will host massive black holes.

Abby Hartley defended their thesis on Halloween and, to emphasize the fact that science is fun, dressed as Howl Pendragon for the occasion.

During their research, Abby contacted noted astrophysicist Lars Hernquist at Harvard University, who became a study co-author and invited them to present their paper at Harvard. Another of Abby’s favorite memories of their studies is practicing their presentation at 2 a.m. with their mom, after going to a Beyonce concert several hours earlier, then flying to Massachusetts later that morning to present at Harvard.

Because science should be fun, Abby says, and because they defended their thesis on Halloween, they dressed as Howl Pendragon from Howl’s Moving Castle to do so and invited their thesis committee members to come in costume as well (one member came in a Starfleet uniform from Star Trek).

“I think that’s probably one of the most important things I’ve learned, that science is challenging and exciting and fun,” Abby says.

Last week, Abby submitted 11 graduate school applications and hopes to begin graduate studies next fall, which the ultimate goal of becoming a university professor and researcher. In the meantime, they will continue working with Nelson as a full-time researcher studying brand-new James Webb Space Telescope data. The one bummer is, due to scheduling conflicts, needing to give up a beloved job as a part-time barista and shelter worker at Purrfect Pause cat café in Boulder. That’s where they painted the space-themed mural, which features their cat, Oreo.

So, if Abby could offer advice to anyone considering a leap into science, they would “encourage other students to pursue their creative outlets alongside their technical research, so that no one feels like they have to leave a part of themselves behind to do scientific work.”

Abby Hartley creates digital art highlighting the the accomplishments of women and minorities in astrophysics

College of Arts and Sciences outstanding graduate Abby Hartley embraces the complementary relationship between science and art.

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�� students follow their noses, disprove math conjecture

Anonymous — Thu, 30 Nov 2023 18:03:21 +0000

�� students follow their noses, disprove math conjecture Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 11/30/2023 - 11:03

Daniel Long

Summer Haag and Clyde Kertzer made major news in the math world while working on a summer research project

Prior to the end of the 2022-2023 academic year, graduate student Summer Haag and junior Clyde Kertzer were looking for summer research opportunities in mathematics, their subject of study.

It was an REU (Research Experience for Undergrads) with Katherine (Kate) Stange, �� Boulder associate professor in the Department of Mathematics, and James Rickards, a postdoctoral researcher in the same department, that caught their eye, as it dealt with a topic in which they both had an abiding interest: number theory.

“I knew in undergrad that number theory is what I wanted to do,” says Haag. “When I saw Kate and James were doing a number theory REU, I said, ‘That one! I want that one!’”

�� Boulder students Clyde Kertzer and Summer Haag disproved a longstanding conjecture in mathematical number theory during their summer research experience.

“I’ve taken a bunch of number theory courses here at �� that I’ve really enjoyed,” says Kertzer, who withdrew his applications to other REUs when he was accepted into the one with Stange and Rickards. “I was super excited.”

The REU would explore a branch of number theory called Apollonian circle packings, which are fractals, or never-ending patterns, made up of infinite circles just touching each other but never overlapping.

Neither Haag nor Kertzer had much experience with circle packings.

“I’d seen quadratic forms before, and I’d seen Mobius inversions, but I’d never seen them pertaining to circle packings,” says Haag. “I was excited to learn that stuff.”

“I went to the library and got a book, the only book I could find on circle packings, and started reading,” says Kertzer.

Room to explore

For the first few weeks of the REU, Stange and Rickards gave Haag and Kertzer the background information they’d need for the project and taught them how to use code that Rickards had developed to gather data on circle packings. After that, they gave Haag and Kertzer room to explore.

“We set out with a fun project idea that would give students a chance to experience research by collecting data, looking for patterns and proving them,” says Stange. “We didn't have a very definitive goal.”

“We had a long list of possible problems to explore,” Rickards adds. “There was no real end goal in sight.”

�� Boulder scholars Katherine Stange (left) and James Rickards research number theory, an aspect of which includes Apollonian circle packings.

That changed, however, when Haag and Kertzer’s explorations produced data that called a well-known math conjecture into question.

The local-global conjecture, widely accepted for the better part of two decades, predicts the curvatures of the circles inside a circle packing. According to this conjecture, if a researcher knows the curvatures of a few circles in a packing (the “local” circles), that researcher can then predict the curvatures of the circles in the rest of the packing (the “global” circles).

Time and again, evidence seemed to support the local-global conjecture, to the point that pretty much everyone familiar with it assumed it was true.

“Even though it hadn’t been proven, it was almost guaranteed to be true,” says Haag.

Two numbers instead of one

But then, while entering numbers into Rickards’ code, Haag and Kertzer decided to do something that hadn’t yet been done. Instead of entering one number into the code, they entered two and looked at the resultant packings.

That’s when things got interesting. Numbers that, according to the local-global conjecture, should have appeared together in the same packings didn’t.

Stange likens the situation to a jail. It was as though the numbers that were supposed to be locked up had dug a tunnel when no one was looking and escaped.

Katherine Stange partnered with engineering PhD graduate Daniel Martin to create a pattern for an Apollonian circle packing puzzle laser cut from wood; the pattern can be found here.

Haag, Kertzer, Stange and Rickards all knew what this data meant for the local-global conjecture, which is why Rickards’ immediate reaction was to double-check his code for errors. But there were none. The code was correct. The local-global conjecture, on the other hand, was not.

Over the next few days, Stange and Rickards put together a proof of their findings, working so fast, so feverishly and so precisely that Haag and Kertzer couldn’t help but be inspired.

“It was really impressive,” says Kertzer. “That’s the point where we want to be as mathematicians.”

The four published a paper in the preprint server arXiv with a title as unambiguous as its content is eye-opening: “The Local-Global Conjecture for Apollonian Circle Packings Is False.”

Not bad for a summer research project.

The playful side of math

But what Haag and Kertzer found even more gratifying than disproving a major outstanding conjecture was experiencing first-hand the creative side of mathematics research. It wasn’t all formulas and rules. It was intuition, exploration, play.

“Some advice Kate gave me will stick with me for a while,” Kertzer recalls. “‘If you’re not sure, just follow your nose.’”

Math research, Stange explains, “often feels like exploring a jungle. You aren't sure what you'll find, but the creativity comes in deciding what leaf to turn over, which path to take, what questions you are trying to answer, and how you will go about answering them. Some of the deepest insights in mathematics come from creative leaps connecting apparently unconnected ideas.”

Luckily for Haag and Kertzer, there is plenty more jungle to explore.

“Some of my students are so thoroughly confused that I want to do research in math,” Haag says. “They’re like, ‘Isn’t math done? How many questions could possibly be unsolved in math?’”

Haag smiles when she answers: “So many.”

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Summer Haag and Clyde Kertzer made major news in the math world while working on a summer research project.

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�� Art Museum earns first-time accreditation

Anonymous — Tue, 15 Aug 2023 17:42:22 +0000

�� Art Museum earns first-time accreditation Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 08/15/2023 - 11:42

Rachel Sauer

Following a rigorous, five-year process, the museum joins peer institutions with a recognition of its quality and credibility

The University of Colorado Boulder Art Museum recently joined an elite group of peer institutions when it received first-time accreditation from the American Alliance of Museums.

This distinction recognizes “a museum’s quality and credibility to the entire museum community, to governments and outside agencies, and to the museum-going public,” the American Alliance of Museums notes, adding that the accreditation program ensures the integrity and accessibility of museum collections, reinforces the educational and public service roles of museums and promotes good governance practices and ethical behavior.

“This is an important milestone,” says Sandra Q. Firmin, museum director. “It increases our credibility as a trusted resource and partner on the �� campus and in the community and also among our peer institutions. It applauds the work we do to fuel imagination and collaboration through art.”

Top of the page: "Pool" by Sandra Kaplan is featured in the current Lush: Prolific Nature exhibit. Above: Sandra Q. Firmin is director of the University of Colorado Art Museum and led the successful accreditation process.

Of the nation’s estimated 33,000 museums, more than 1,099 are accredited. The �� Art Museum is one of 26 museums accredited in Colorado. “We are thrilled to join this esteemed community of museums in Colorado and nationwide,” Firmin says.

Reflecting on purpose

The road to accreditation traversed a winding five years, extended by a global pandemic that saw the museum close from March 13, 2020, to Aug. 17, 2021. “We knew the process was going to be rigorous, but that added a whole new dimension,” says Maggie Mazzullo, head registrar and collection manager. “It really gave us an opportunity to reflect on our role and our identity.”

The accreditation process began in 2018 with submitting key operational documents for evaluation, then completing a more in-depth self-study. The first prompt in the self-study was deceptively simple: “Briefly describe what stories and messages the museum wants to convey; and the museum’s interpretive philosophy, educational goals and target audiences.”

“That was a whole-museum effort,” says Hope Saska, chief curator and director of academic engagement. “It was so much more than asking whether we’re good stewards of the collection, which is a great strength of this museum. It was looking at how we create learning opportunities and partnerships with faculty and students. Reviewers recognized our student-centered perspective and noted the excellence of students in our Museum Attendant Program.”

Maggie Mazzullo, �� Art Museum head registrar and collection manager (left), and Hope Saska, chief curator and director of academic engagement, helped guide the five-year accreditation process.

In the self-study, museum staff noted, “We are a collecting institution with artworks representing 10,000 years of human history. Because of the historical depth and geographic scope of the collection, the museum is able to mobilize the collection to relate a wide range of stories and messages. Our exhibitions are designed to contextualize our collection, make visible campus research through collaborative projects, and present new artistic productions.”

Saska highlights as an example the recently opened Lush: Prolific Nature exhibition, which brings together artworks from the museum’s collection that focus on the natural world. Not only are different geographies and time periods represented in many different media, but several pieces are on display for the first time.

One such piece is “Volcán” by artist Fernanda Brunet, a fiberglass, wood and metal sculpture abundantly blooming with vibrant migajón flowers made from a bread-based clay. “We’re really excited to be displaying this for the first time,” Saska says. “We’re thinking about so many things as we’re envisioning our exhibitions, and an important aspect of that is the idea that any faculty member can find an artwork here that relates to what they’re teaching in class, and any student can come here to see what they’re learning about.”

In-depth peer evaluation

Another important aspect of the accreditation process is a multi-day, on-site evaluation completed by peer reviewers. These reviewers considered not only practical aspects of museum operations—such as whether environmental conditions are appropriate for the collection and whether the interpretive materials are accurate, informed and professionally presented—but also how well the museum encourages and facilitates community discourse and how it asserts its public service role.

In their final evaluation, the peer reviewers note that not only do museum staff take pride in the power of strategic planning to guide the museum to new heights, but also ground their work in student-centeredness and a commitment to the museum’s educational mission.

Tim Whiten: Tools of Conveyance was a featured exhibit in 2021.

The �� Art Museum “emphasizes its learner-centeredness through its interdisciplinary teaching, using its strong and developing art collection to educate audiences about subjects well beyond the boundaries of art and art history,” the peer reviewers observed. “Additionally, students and faculty learn through collaborative label writing for exhibitions and object writing for the newsletter, as well as exhibitions that they curate with staff guidance (these include thesis work for art students).”

Firmin adds that while the accreditation process was long and rigorous, achieving the distinction “is validating and acknowledges the expertise of our staff and all the ways the museum supports education and our partners in the community. It recognizes the museum as a dynamic and growing institution.”

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Following a rigorous, five-year process, the museum joins peer institutions with a recognition of its quality and credibility.

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Helping students boost individual, community wellness in a pandemic

Anonymous — Wed, 02 Sep 2020 14:27:22 +0000

Helping students boost individual, community wellness in a pandemic Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 09/02/2020 - 08:27

Tim Grassley

New course designed in part by students delves into the interrelationship between COVID-19 and systemic racism; Anthony Fauci to be special guest

How can studying different points of view on the coronavirus and its overlap with the movement for social justice help students find their own interests and galvanize them to action?

A new University of Colorado Boulder course investigates the challenges students face while building their ability to improve personal and collective wellness. Titled ARSC 1520: Health, Society and Wellness in COVID-19 Times, the one-credit, online class offers a series of lectures taught by 35 scholars from across the university and one special guest: Dr. Anthony Fauci.

“We decided that we would come up with, not only a course in which students think about the coronavirus, but think more broadly about health, society, disease, wellness, equality and inequality,” says Daryl Maeda, associate dean for student success in the College of Arts and Sciences.

One of the elements that is particularly captivating to me was the opportunity to work with students, faculty and staff to design a course that was immediately relevant to students."

The Renée Crown Wellness Institute at �� Boulder was pivotal in designing the course’s interdisciplinary approach. “The Crown Institute was founded with the belief that, if we are going to come together to address challenges that have been pervasive and enduring in our world, it requires bringing together multiple perspectives to create solutions,” says Sona Dimidjian, director of the Crown Institute.

The course will be co-taught by Maeda, who is also an associate professor of ethnic studies, Dimidjian, who is also professor of psychology and neuroscience, and Donna Mejia, associate professor of theater and dance.

Through the course, more than 3,500 incoming students in the College of Arts and Sciences, the School of Education and the College of Media, Communication and Information will critically analyze the interrelationship between the COVID-19 pandemic and systemic racism, and gain tools to cultivate a socially responsible campus and maintain their wellness.

Kathy Schultz, who is dean of the School of Education and a faculty affiliate with the Crown Institute, was also able to arrange an exclusive interview in which Chancellor Phil DiStefano will ask Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, about his career advising six U.S. presidents on global health issues. The interview, which is scheduled to occur in late October, is another example of the way the course examines issues pertinent to students’ everyday lives.

“One of the elements that is particularly captivating to me was the opportunity to work with students, faculty and staff to design a course that was immediately relevant to students,” says Dimidjian, adding:

“Core to the approach of the Crown Institute is the belief that, if we are going to come together to address challenges that have been pervasive and enduring in our world, it requires bringing together multiple perspectives to create solutions.”

A course designed in partnership with students

In spring 2020, two concepts to support �� Boulder students came together to inspire the new course.

�� Boulder leaders realized students needed practical information to stem the spread of COVID-19 and instruction in antiracism. Rather than study them separately, Maeda believed faculty could create an academic experience that explored the historical moments together.

“We are not treating the pandemic of COVID-19 and the recognition of the widespread, ongoing pandemic of racism in our society to be separate phenomena,” says Maeda. “For us, it's really important that students understand racism as a systemic problem that is often exacerbated in a time of crisis.”

At the same time, Dimidjian and her team at the Crown Institute began a wellness practice series to help improve the individual and community wellness of faculty and staff working remotely.

“In our discussions after that wellness series, Dr. Patricia Crown, who established the transformative endowment for the Crown Institute, asked how we could share more widely the tools that were of such benefit to our own teams,” says Dimidjian. “How could we come together to support our students and the �� Boulder community during these challenging times?”

Dimidjian contacted James W.C. White, interim dean in the College of Arts and Sciences, and Schultz about teaching a seminar exploring mindfulness and compassion-based practices. Excited by the content, they asked if she would partner with Maeda to blend their class ideas.

Together, Maeda and Dimidjian worked with partners Mejia and Schultz to forge a design team of faculty and staff from the College of Arts and Sciences, School of Education, College of Media, Communication and Information and the Office of Student Affairs, including Christine Jackson, Erica Van Steenis, Jennifer MacDuffie, Jade Gutierrez, Leah Peña Teeters, Kourtney Kelley, Krishna Pattisapu, Joey Levy, Paula Battistelli, Julia Zigarelli, Tina Pittman Wagers and Cindy White.

The course design team believed the challenges and stressors students face starting college at this point in history offered opportunities for them to think creatively and critically about the way they structured the class—which included asking students to co-design the course.

Fourteen students, including those from local high schools, as well as incoming, current and recently graduated �� Boulder students, identified content they thought students needed to know, skills that were most relevant to students’ circumstances and ways instructors could most effectively deliver that information.

Faculty were then invited to deliver 15-minute lessons to the student teams that demonstrated how their area of study intersected with the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The outcome was revealing and astonishing,” says Meija. “There is no part of our complex lives untouched.”

No matter the faculty’s background or credentials, they were encouraged to synthesize students’ feedback into their final video lessons. Nobel Laureate Tom Cech was one of the first faculty to submit a lesson.

“He brought his first draft of his lecture to the student design team of high school students and college students and entering students. And they provided feedback from a student's perspective about elements to change and elements to keep,” says Dimidjian. “That’s a powerful opportunity to share knowledge that is accessible and actionable to students. It’s unique, and it’s baked into the design of the course.”

No matter the faculty’s background or credentials, they were encouraged to synthesize students’ feedback into their final video lessons."

The result?

“There's something in this class for everyone,” says Maeda. “If you're an artist, if you're a sociologist, if you are a microbiologist, any and all of these interests will be addressed.”

An unprecedented opportunity to shape campus community

Beyond showcasing �� Boulder’s interdisciplinary scholarship, Maeda says that the course offers an exciting opportunity to shape the way students create an inclusive community.

“Our hope is to convey to students that, as students at the University of Colorado Boulder, as �� Buffs, we have opportunities to support each other,” says Maeda. “To be a common community, and to build connections with each other that might not have been possible in a different world.”

Despite the class’s large scale, Dimidjian hopes students feel recognized and cared for as individual members of �� Boulder’s campus community. She explains that the class effectively models how cooperation and collaboration provide powerful, innovative solutions to complex challenges.

“I hope this course will provide students an experience of interdisciplinary learning and the ways in which the kinds of learning, which can happen at a university like ours, can help address the urgent questions and challenges of our time,” says Dimidjian.

“The complex problems of our world are asking us to come together in new, different ways and envision new futures.”

New course designed in part by students delves into the interrelationship between COVID-19 and systemic racism; Anthony Fauci to be special guest.

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‘Uninhibited, robust and wide-open debate’ helps you and us

Anonymous — Tue, 17 Dec 2019 21:00:56 +0000

‘Uninhibited, robust and wide-open debate’ helps you and us Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 12/17/2019 - 14:00

James W.C. White

Next time you start to turn away from an opinion you find hard to hear, pause and listen; take a deep breath and test your critical-thinking skills

The two newspapers on my desk—The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times—have won more than 150 Pulitzer prizes in total, and their journalistic bona fides are beyond dispute.

James W.C. White

In some respects, the comparison ends there. If you follow current events or political controversies—and there are certainly many of both—you’ll find diametrically opposed views of those issues on the newspapers’ editorial pages.

Such diversity of opinion can strengthen you and also democracy.

But if you’re like most people, you gravitate toward one view or the other, seeking the editorial opinion of the Times or the Journal, but not both. That is a missed opportunity to learn and think critically, and understanding why is relevant to our mission at the university.

The Laws of the Regents, which govern the University of Colorado system, clearly articulate this mission. Specifically, the laws state that every member of the university community, regents, administrators, faculty, staff and students have a duty to “protect the university as a forum for the free expression of ideas.”

The regent laws continue:

The University of Colorado is an institution of higher education, and its campuses are devoted to the pursuit of learning and the advancement of knowledge through the free exchange of ideas. The free exchange of ideas includes not only the right to speak, but the right to listen.

Citizens have a right to listen. We also a responsibility to listen, particularly to those with whom we disagree. Universities are where we learn how to listen most effectively—with discernment and reason.

A liberal-arts education conveys skills in critical thinking. Like any physical ability, critical-thinking skills must be used. When used, they strengthen. When neglected, they atrophy.

A liberal-arts education conveys skills in critical thinking. Like any physical ability, critical-thinking skills must be used. When used, they strengthen. When neglected, they atrophy."

Honing one’s critical thinking is like training one’s muscles. If you challenge them with heavier weights, you get strong. If you consistently pick up only the lightest weights, you stay weak.

This brings us back to the editorial pages. If you listen only to those opinions that confirm your own, you become the cognitive equivalent of a couch potato. Sure, the easy route is comfortable. But absorbing only those views that buttress yours perpetrates “confirmation bias,” which is the tendency to seek information or opinions that reinforce those you already hold. This yields feeble civic discourse, and flabby thinking.

People who live in echo chambers don’t discuss issues; they hurl prefabricated talking points at each other. They do not engage in the reasonable but “uninhibited, robust and wide-open debate” that, the U.S. Supreme Court famously said, fortifies our society. In thus shirking their civic duty, they weaken our democracy.

Being a responsible citizen is hard. The world is complex. Evidence can point in multiple directions. Logic that might seem sound can be faulty when examined more critically. Reasonable people of good faith disagree.

If you feel the warm glow of concurrence with Times editorials and read only them, you fail to challenge yourself the way you should, as a scholar and a citizen entrusted with the health of our democracy. Pick up The Wall Street Journal, read it, and challenge yourself to think critically about why you disagree, or agree, with their opinions.

Some will demur, arguing that some speech should not be heard because some arguments are based on falsehoods. There has always been deficient and misleading speech, but the answer to bad speech is not suppression. The answer—as the Supreme Court also said—should be “more speech,” better speech, enlightened speech, which depends on critical thought.

These points reflect the First Amendment and our first principles. So next time you start to turn away from an opinion you find hard to hear, pause and listen. Take a deep breath and test your critical-thinking skills. You might emerge with your view unchanged. But you will be stronger, your thoughts clearer, and we’ll have a more perfect union.

James W.C. White is interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

Next time you start to turn away from an opinion you find hard to hear, pause and listen; take a deep breath and test your critical-thinking skills

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Message to motivated students: you belong here

Anonymous — Wed, 06 Nov 2019 15:39:22 +0000

Message to motivated students: you belong here Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 11/06/2019 - 08:39

James W.C. White

Stereotypes can limit students’ growth, but we are striving to overcome that barrier

Ask a kid to describe a scientist, and she will likely describe a white guy wearing a lab coat. Ask the same child to describe an intellectual, scholar or professor, and the answer will probably be the same, minus the lab coat.

James W.C. White, interim dean of the college, soaks up the scenery in the foothills above Boulder. At the top of the page, students in MASP's summer bridge program find a social and academic community here.

Helping students see that scholars are, in fact, diverse is one way to help young people to study what they love. But while it’s critical to debunk broad stereotypes, it’s also crucial to help talented students understand that inside each one of them is an intellectual—who not only could but actually does belong in academe. At the University of Colorado Boulder, one program that strives, successfully, to overcome the harm of stereotype is the Miramontes Arts and Sciences Program—or MASP.

Launched in 1993, the program’s first focus was biology students of color who were dropping out of school at alarming rates. Soon, the college expanded the program to cover more students from all fields of study along with first-generation students.

Today, MASP’s mission is to support “motivated, traditionally under-represented or first-generation students who want to be part of a diverse academic community” in the college. Through a holistic application process, MASP accepts community-minded and academically motivated students. In addition to demonstrated leadership abilities, the past two incoming classes have had an average unweighted high school GPA of 3.8.

MASP gets results: 90% of MASP students return to �� after their first year. That retention rate exceeds that of �� Boulder students in similar demographics—but not part of MASP—by about 5% to 15%, depending on the year.

Similarly, the six-year graduation rates of MASP students in the years between 2000 and 2012 ranged between about 75% and 85%. Those results exceed the graduation rates of the whole college by about 10 percent, a truly impressive achievement.

The program achieves these results with tools including these:

A residential summer “bridge” program that prepares students both academically and socially for college life,
“High Impact Practices” that are academically rigorous, including study-abroad participation, internships, undergraduate research experience, and honors theses,
Interdisciplinary seminars,
One-on-one advising with a faculty mentor,
Scholarship support,
And, importantly, a supportive community.

Celeste Montoya, who serves as MASP’s director and is an associate professor in the Department of Women and Gender Studies, says the idea is to foster student success by helping students develop their identities as scholars, to facilitate their sense of agency and belonging at the university.

Education is the great equalizer, but only when our institutions of learning fully embrace equality."

“Building an inclusive academic community, which requires teaching them to work across difference, is a powerful tool and/or resource for them to draw from in their academic (and life) endeavors,” Montoya says.

Building that community, she adds, is just one way “to let our students know they belong here and they are capable scholars” who have the confidence, skill and knowledge to excel in life.

The program encourages open-mindedness, critical thinking, life skills and talent growth, helping each student to be their best self. Because MASP is successful, we want to expand it, and we hope alumni and other friends will help us do so. If you find the MASP story compelling, go online and support it.

One MASP student underscored the program’s efficacy by noting that she expected she’d only gain knowledge needed to graduate. However, she added:

“What I was not expecting was to find myself surrounded by a supportive network of faculty, staff and students that not only created an atmosphere conducive to my social and personal growth but remained unwavering in encouraging my intellectual development as well.”

These are some of the many reasons I praise MASP and other student-success programs. Education is the great equalizer, but only when our institutions of learning fully embrace equality, when they are truly welcoming and inclusive, when they genuinely become an instrument of rather than an impediment to social mobility and intellectual growth.

James W.C. White is interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

Stereotypes can limit students’ growth, but we are striving to overcome that barrier.

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White

Student success is our duty, mission and calling

Anonymous — Wed, 11 Sep 2019 19:19:47 +0000

Student success is our duty, mission and calling Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 09/11/2019 - 13:19

James W.C. White

Our mission is to pursue each student's potential, to make it real

The early weeks of the fall semester are exhilarating. At this time of year, blue crystalline skies seem to touch bright green trees that reach for the horizon. The semester is fresh, and everything from novel classes to new college roommates holds promise.

James W.C. White

To students, new and returning, I want to reiterate a key fact: We are glad you are here. Also, I want to emphasize an underlying truth: We want you to succeed.

To students, new and returning, I want to reiterate a key fact: We are glad you are here. Also, I want to emphasize an underlying truth: We want you to succeed.

It is, as always, important to define our terms. By “student success,” I mean that we want all students to pursue a course of study that they love, to graduate in a reasonable amount of time, and to apply their new knowledge and honed skills in satisfying civic and professional lives. That’s success.

In the coming year, I will distribute regular communiques to expand and expound on this idea. Among the topics I hope to address are the following:

Top-notch research is our forte, but excellent teaching is our mission. All members of the college family—faculty and staff—must work together to advance and support student success.
Students should be aware of the plethora of options they have to customize their education to meet their needs and follow their passions. Each year, more students add a second major, a minor course of study in a complementary field or a certificate for marketable skills and knowledge. Our obligation is to help students identify and pursue these options.
We hope at least half of our students will pursue opportunities for undergraduate research. We hope this because students who perform undergraduate research have higher graduation rates and, later, life success.
Diversity is our strength, and inclusion is our calling. We are particularly keen to support and expand those efforts—such as the Miramontes Arts & Sciences Program—that help all members of our college community realize the potential benefits of higher education.

Like a stunning autumn day, each student has unique promise. Our mission is to pursue that potential. Let’s make it real.

James W.C. White is interim dean of the College of Arts & Sciences.

To students, new and returning, I want to reiterate a key fact: We are glad you are here. Also, I want to emphasize an underlying truth: We want you to succeed.

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White

student success

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