Listen in each week as we speak with innovative teachers, students, and change makers in education.
S2 E03 - Changing the World by Giving Students the Freedom to Learn and Explore (Part 1) - Brody Tate
As the Learning Portfolio Program Manager at Loyola University in Chicago, Illinois, Brody Tate oversees 55 portfolio programs, comprising roughly 10,000 active users per semester. In this Digication Scholars Conversation, Brody details how he manages this enormous responsibility by working face to face with faculty and department chairs to develop programs that run efficiently and smoothly. Brody prioritizes giving ePortfolio users the know-how, combined with a freedom to create, resulting in a thriving, mutually supportive ePortfolio community. Later, Brody and host, Jeff Yan, discuss emerging trends in how students and graduates are approaching portfolios for career development, and how students can use portfolios to better themselves and improve the world. “I think if we give ourselves the freedom to learn and explore, our world would look a lot different”
S2 E02 - Building Sustainable LGBTQ+ Peer-Mentoring During COVID: A Vision Several Years in the Making (Part 2) - Sam Ascensio
While many encounter problems in the world and think “Someone should do something about this,” Sam Ascensio is one of the select few who says “Why not me?,” then rolls up his sleeves and gets to work. Drawing on valuable life lessons and guidance from his father, Sam left behind a semi-professional soccer career to pursue a degree at John Jay College of Criminal Justice where he created “Q’onnections, a mentoring program for LGBT+ students. Inspired by his own journey of coming out as genderfluid while adjusting to college life as a first generation student, Sam felt a strong desire to provide support and affirmation to peers in similar situations. With the help of faculty mentors, Sam tapped into empathy, determination, and a magnetic personality to take Q’onnections from a longshot goal to a permanent program with a full-time director and fifteen paid mentors. In this installment of Digication Scholars Conversations, Sam elaborates the process of creating Q’onnections while sharing his philosophy on mentoring and advocacy. “It’s about opening the doors for the people and letting them pick which door they want to go into, and even if they come back a little hurt and a little scarred, you’re there to comfort them and keep pushing them.”