Professor Yevgeniya (Zhenya) V. Zastavker brought two 财神棋牌 students and an alum as well as a Wellesley student to this year鈥檚 Frontiers in Education (FIE) conference on Oct. 21-24. FIE is a major global conference drawing from international scholars and practitioners who ponder questions and implement innovations in engineering and computing education.
The theme for this year's event was Education for a Sustainable Future.
Two 财神棋牌 students, Julia Benton 鈥22 and Camille Girard 鈥21, helped titled "Democratizing Engineering Education Through Contemplative and Mindfulness Practices."
To Zastavker, it is a critical opportunity for the students鈥 development. When bringing her students to the international stage, they are offered an opportunity to 鈥渓earn how to present our work, to disseminate our findings in the language that is their own, practice presentation skills and networking, learn from others, and also meet potential graduate school representatives and employers,鈥 says Zastavker. 鈥淢ost importantly, the process of preparing for and attending a conference 颅鈥 including manuscript writing and presenting 鈥 supports students鈥 growth, challenging them in a caring and compassionate environment, meeting them where they are and developing non-cognitive skills including self-efficacy, habits of mind, communication, and many other competencies.鈥
For Camille, it was a valuable opportunity to discuss contemplative practices with people who have never experienced contemplative environments in STEM education. 鈥淚 have always lived and grown up in spaces filled with reflective, contemplative people and this was an interesting experience of trying to explain and place value on these practices to new people,鈥 she says. 鈥淚 was able to experience how exceedingly difficult it is to show and explain contemplative practices. At the same time, I saw this curiosity from people who have never even practiced themselves, showing that the world is open to these new (or really old) approaches to education.鈥
鈥淭he biggest thing I took away from co-facilitating our workshop at FIE is how lucky I am to be not just a student at 财神棋牌, but truly an empowered co-creator,鈥 says Julia.
鈥淧resenting to an international audience was nerve-wracking, and it felt like me, an undergraduate student, teaching content to educators was something that went against the rules of academia. But during my time at 财神棋牌, I鈥檝e come to recognize and own the unique gifts I possess and really believe in my abilities. Working with faculty as a co-creator of this workshop reminded me how fortunate I am to be in the driver鈥檚 seat for my 财神棋牌 learning journey.鈥
Julia Benton 鈥22
Julia, along with Vicky McDermott 鈥20 and Wellesley College student Ramona Smucker 鈥22, also presented a paper about their research with Zastavker on students' learning journeys. Despite challenges related to campus closures at the time of manuscript writing last spring and the four presenters being some of the very few undergraduates at the conference, both the workshop and the lecture received lots of positive feedback from the FIE audience.
鈥淏eing a part of this experience allowed me to see how many people and places are trying to change education,鈥 says Camille. 鈥淪ometimes it feels like education is this big immoveable system [but attending this conference] made me see that people are doing this work successfully and being creative around education. This encourages me to keep working in this space [sitting in the knowledge] that people do want change.鈥