Workshops and Abstracts

Presenter(s): Lara Beaty & Lucy McNair

The pandemic has been a collective trauma with individually diverse and frequently isolating details. Evidence suggests, however, that trauma is a constant if frequently invisible presence in higher education at community colleges. Many of us can make long lists of student stories of hardship and ask ourselves why students don’t try harder, don’t ask for help, and too often just disappear; or we encounter individuals we feel we cannot teach successfully and fear retraumatizing. The pandemic reveals that our community needs to address emotional experiences in learning and develop a shared model for approaching what is now a collective trauma.

Research and reflection can begin to provide insights. The CDC has identified clear connections between Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and a wide range of medical and psychological problems, which influenced the Student Experience Research Group (SERG) to study ACEs among LaGuardia students. Attempts to develop “trauma-informed pedagogy” have focused primarily on K-12 institutions, targeting the development of emotional awareness, self-regulation, and other characteristics. These goals can provide a basis for LaGuardia faculty to develop our own practices to address the many layers of crisis we face. This workshop will share an established model and begin a process of collectively developing a pedagogy appropriate to our students as we develop awareness of emotional needs in teaching and learning.

Presenter(s): Anita Baksh, Nancy Bandiera, Latchmie Dookie, Cory Feldman,Tomoaki Imamichi, Daniel Mann

In this workshop COIL practitioners and students discuss the impact of COIL partnerships on student success, especially during the pandemic; the digital tools and online strategies employed in their COIL courses; and innovative cross-border approaches to undergraduate research. Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) is a teaching method that facilitates global learning through collaborative teaching and learning practices in class-to-class international virtual exchanges. At LaGuardia, COIL serves as an innovative pedagogical tool that targets Global Learning and other Core Competencies, promotes equity by allowing our students who don’t have the ability to travel abroad to experience meaningful international exchange, and prepares students to compete in the global job market. Four LaGuardia faculty will discuss their COIL partnerships. Cory Feldman (Criminal Justice) and her colleague in Columbia used Google Classroom and Zoom to create spaces for discussions of international crime and justice. Drawing on the multilingual experience at LaGuardia, they harnessed the talents of our Latinx students. Tomoaki Imamichi (Psychology) partnered with colleagues in India. His COIL collaboration empowered students to explore course topics through different lenses and provided an international experience during the pandemic when other experiences are limited. Nancy Bandiera’s (Communications Studies) project with a professor in Russia had students research the United Nations Sustainability Goal on Climate Action. Daniel Mann’s (Sociology) virtual exchange examined social change and gentrification in Astoria, NYC and Santander, Colombia. LaGuardia student Latchmie Dookie will discuss her multinational collaboration with peers on the research project about the role of COIL in revitalizing urban education post-pandemic.

Presenter(s): David Brandt, Julissa Camilo, Estefany Gonzaga, & Ellen Quish

LaGuardia students are often busy and unable to avail themselves of learning experiences that fall outside of their class schedules. To this end, the CTL Student Success Team strives to address student needs and interests, honor and incorporate students’ varied experiences, and strengthen students’ connection to the LaGuardia community by offering a menu of unique co-curricular events, all informed by LaGuardia student experiences. Supporting Student Success through Co-curricular Engagement will provide an overview of the CTL Student Success Team’s process in designing and delivering student-focused innovative co-curricular events. Leveraging the student voice of CTL Peer Mentors and LaGuardia alumni, these events have been created to enhance student access, success, and inclusion, and have been delivered in a variety of formats and platforms, including asynchronous offerings of initially synchronous events. In addition to descriptions of the design and delivery process, student satisfaction data that emerged from these events will be shared. Finally, attendees will be invited to identify ways to help advance participation at college-wide co-curricular events as well as to collaborate on how to best streamline offerings.

Presenter(s): Milena Cuellar, Reem Jaafar

LaGuardia Community College prides itself in its mission to educate and graduate a diverse body of students. A true transformative higher education cannot be dissociated from the "real" world. Often national policies may hamper or propel the success of certain demographics. At the College level, we have the power to transform our students' lives by examining trends in retention and graduation. In this workshop we aim to give a brief overview about to develop, analyze, and use data to inform student success efforts and how it can help practitioners address equity-related challenges in the classroom. In break-out groups, teams will examine data related to students’ success metrics in certain majors, and identify issues related to equity. The entire team will then reconvene to brainstorm strategies for addressing those issues and its implications on pedagogy. This workshop is meant for any practitioner regardless of their discipline.

Presenter(s): Matthew S. Joffe, Dr. Shanté Bassett

The transition to distance learning in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic has greatly affected the mental health of our community, especially our students. It has taken a significant amount of time for students to adjust, and now they will need assistance readjusting to being on campus. This presentation will assist faculty and staff with identifying signs and symptoms of psychological distress while equipping them with tools to help students transition as they return to campus. Attendees will also learn what resources and tools would be helpful to share with students, as well as learn the step-by-step process for referring students to the Wellness Center for mental health counseling services.

Presenter(s): Pablo Avila, Michele de Goeas-Malone, Dominique Zino and J. Elizabeth Clark

ePortfolios have shaped teaching & learning and assessment at the college since 2000. A central component of First Year Seminars, benchmark assessments, and many capstone courses, ePortfolios have shaped how we understand our students and their learning--as individuals and within programs--as well as how we measure and evaluate student learning across the college. This presentation discusses the history and evolution of ePortfolios at LaGuardia, contextualizes ePortfolios as a signature pedagogy and a high impact practice, highlights teaching and learning goals for ePortfolios, and looks ahead to the future of ePortfolios on campus.

Presenter(s):Holly Porter Morgan, Joby Jacob, Ryan Mann-Hamilton

Over the past year, our President's Society: Environment students have developed a vision plan called the LaGuardia Community Greenway, which seeks to transform the streets adjacent to the campus into a plaza with open multi-use spaces, water access for recreational and educational purposes, and natural elements, such as gardens designed for native pollinators and food gardens to address food insecurity, that are accessible to students and community members alike. We have received support from LaGuardia administration, local businesses, elected officials, and community organizations.

Presenter(s): Tuli Chatterji, Yacquelin Nava, Stefania Dinu, Rocio Reynoso, Esther Rosa

This presentation will focus on the theory and praxis of LaGuardia Humanitarian Initiative. Celebrating the vision of “one college” as defined by our founder, Joseph Shenker, LHI’s collaborative platform of students, faculty, and staff foregrounds pedagogical inquiry, civic engagement, and academic service learning by facilitating a year-long college wide inquiry of a global issue as addressed by the United Nations. Through partnership with NGO’s students are mentored on how to translate their classroom learning to advocate, educate, and support their communities.

As a high impact practice that focuses on ethical global citizenship, global awareness, and commitment to human rights, LHI aims to help translate lived experiences, classroom learning and pedagogy into developing projects leading to sustainable solutions. By demonstrating how LHI supports the vision of LaGuardia’s both strategic priorities and General Education requirements, the presentation will highlight the five-step LHI methodology of learning: investigation, preparation, implementation, reflection, and celebration.

First we will focus on the goals of LHI and how faculty, staff, and students could contribute to the United Nations Academic Impact Program, of which LaGuardia is a recent member. Second, we will share LHI’s format (student-centered workshops), classroom expectations (deliverables), and support for faculty when designing high-stake and low-stake LHI assignments; all through reinforcing cross-divisional effort to enhance student learning outcomes. Third, we will discuss how LHI’s career readiness sessions help students document their LHI experiences when applying for jobs/internship positions. Finally, we will suggest opportunities to showcase, publish, and celebrate LHI’s pedagogical and experiential projects.