Audio Podcast

Related Resources

Submit Proposals for Symposium (priority deadline is October 15th), or contact connectedlearning@lasell.edu to learn more

Fall 2021 Career Readiness Symposium (December 7, 2021)

Spring 2020 Connected Learning Symposium

Fall 2020 Career Readiness through Connected Learning Symposium

Spring 2021 Symposium -- The Invention of Now

Spring 2021 Ten-minute Takeaway Presentations

NACE Competencies (National Association of Colleges and Employers)

NACE: What is Career Readiness

Transcript

Heidi: Welcome back to the Teaching and Learning at Lasell podcast with Matt and Heidi from the TLC. We're here today with administrative assistant Lee Means, who is the mastermind behind symposium at Lasell. Welcome, Lee.

Matt: Yes, welcome, Lee.

Lee: Hi, Matt. Hi, Heidi.

Q1: Can you tell us a little bit about Symposium?

Heidi: Can you tell us a little bit about symposium?

Lee: This spring will be the 20th anniversary of symposium at Lasell. Everyone who's been involved in the event for the past 20 years has contributed to what it is today. It's held at the end of each fall and spring semester. I work to organize the Student's Showcase Day, which makes a one day symposium in the fall. In the spring, the student showcase day is combined with the student fashion show, writing awards, capstone panels and other end of the year celebrations, turning symposium into a week long event.

The Student Connected Learning Symposium is a chance for students to showcase their knowledge, their skill, their scholarship and all their achievements through the semester. There are individual student presentations and there are booths and demonstration events in DeWitt Hall. Sometimes there are events woven into the day. It's never the same, and it's always memorable. A few semesters ago, we introduced the ten-minute takeaway. Students present on a topic for five minutes, and there are five minutes of questions and comments. It's fun and fast paced. We're the organizers, but it's the students who are the stars of the show.

Q2: How does symposium connect to the core curriculum and to Lasell's mission?

Heidi: So, Lee, how does symposium connect to the core curriculum and to the university mission?

Lee: Symposium is a reflection of everything we are at Lasell; it's about our core values and our core curriculum. That's why it's important for all majors to participate, because when we look at symposium, we're looking at Lasell. Students step outside of their comfort zones, and the philosophy of connected learning turns into reality. Our students are learning real world skills. They're collecting information, evaluating data, and then ethically and effectively applying that information to their knowledge base. They work as groups focused on teamwork or individually from their own understanding of the world.

I've heard from both faculty and students the importance of presenting at a symposium. The presentation itself is a confidence building process.

Matt: Thank you, Lee. So can you tell us a little bit about how symposium has changed over the past two years in response to both the pandemic and in other ways?

Lee: The pandemic really gave us a gold plated silver lining back in the spring of 2020, Stephanie Williams, Denny Frey, and myself formed a committee with three students, and we started organizing the spring symposium. We were planning a celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of Earth Day, and we really wanted to have a big, exciting celebration. That spring, we were meeting weekly with the students. They were each working on a project. It was a very fun time and faculty were sending in ideas. It was going to be something great. And then everybody knows what happened.

February and March, we all scattered to the far reaches of the earth and communication was very difficult for everyone. Denny was very optimistic in our ability to go online with a symposium knowing that you two, Matt and Heidi, would be able to help after transitioning the university fully into Canvas. Denny kept saying, "just hang on for a couple of weeks." And I really didn't believe that would happen because there were so many things going on. The TLC was a triage unit for the course design at that point. But in April, you did contact me.

I in turn contacted the faculty who had sent in proposals and not surprisingly, many of the faculty had taken a different direction in their courses. Symposium was no longer their goal, but some faculty did say they might have something to contribute. And in the end, it turned out to not be a huge symposium. But we did figure out how to present an online event and considering the situation, it really was successful. More importantly, we understood what it took to create an online event.

Going into fall 2020, we had another exciting change. Lasell was honored with a three year grant from the Davis Education Foundation to infuse career readiness with connected learning. Beginning last year for three years, the fall symposium is now the Career Readiness Symposium.

Q3: Can you tell a little more about the career readiness element of Symposium?

Matt: Can you tell us a little bit more about the career readiness element?

Lee: Career readiness relates to everything we are Lasell: academics, athletics, student activities, residential living, commuting. It's all about students developing into a well-rounded people, ready to focus on living and working towards their own goals and dreams. We ask faculty and staff to relate their symposium proposal to a NACE competency. That's the National Association of Colleges and Employers. And if you want more information on this, you can look it up on the NACE website. There's a relationship to at least one based competency in all presentations. Presenting in itself is a career readiness competency. Everyone in their lifetime is going to have to speak publicly, and we can't avoid it, whether it's for work or a volunteer job or just standing up for what you believe in.

We often have a theme for a symposium, but I want to make this really clear that symposium themes are designed to be inclusive. If you have a question about whether your students work should present at any given symposium, the answer is always yes. If you have any questions about this, just ask me.

One of the great parts of an online symposium is the ability to look back and see what we've done and what we've accomplished as a university, in addition to the topics, you can see various presentation styles. Last spring, a Lasell Works students presented in an interview style that was very effective. And the best part of that is that it's still on canvas to be viewed at any time. It's a time capsule of each semester at Lasell and now you can see those great events. We have proof of what Connected Learning is at Lasell.

Matt: Yeah, agreed. Part of what I like about symposium, especially the having it be a resource available online, is that it only provides enduring evidence of what students have been able to accomplish and also allows them so many ways to do that, both as a synchronous presentation, for example, but also to say, for example, an on demand presentation that is presented asynchronously. There's lots of ways for individuals to contribute or to participate in a symposium.

Q4: Where do you see symposium going in the future?

Heidi: Thank you Lee, so you've talked about the career readiness change. We talked about putting symposium online. Where do you see symposium going in the future? How many of these changes will last?

Lee: Symposium is constantly changing and evolving. I want symposium to be where students can voice their passions and their interests. Last year we had amazing ten-minute takeaway presentations. Some were Honors components, others were students speaking on topics they researched in their coursework. Students sharing their interests and passions is so important to both speaker and the audience. I know I said it before, but this is where the philosophy of connected learning turns into reality. We have students that volunteer with amazing organizations that are not connected to Lasell and others that are in volunteer organizations on campus. Whether it's a presentation on how puppies are found in shelters and trained to be service dogs or someone volunteering for Habitat for Humanity and videotaping a house being built,

I would like to tell all students, if you're passionate about it, do some research, talk to us, talk to a faculty member who can help. Those are the things we'd love to see. Presenting at a symposium doesn't necessarily mean standing up in front of an audience and speaking. It can mean sending in a video, a paper, a slide presentation. I'd love to see collaborations between majors. I'd love to see more from the Village, from undergrads interacting with villagers. I'd love to find a I'd love to find a way to involve athletes. I'd love to see things I haven't thought of, I'd like to go back to inviting campus emeritus faculty, friends, family and people who inspire the students, helping them with projects.

Last May, during the class of 2020 graduation, Rosa del Carmen Gomez was a student speaker and she mentioned a symposium in her list of activities and events that she took part and that she took part in while at Lasell. That's what I'd really like to see. I'd like to see a symposium as part of the vernacular.

Matt: Nice, so kind of a place to celebrate learning across the entirety of a student's time at Lasell, not just the silo of one semester. It's a very good point and a very interesting way of looking at it.

Q5: What ideas & practices learned from pandemic teaching and learning should we try and carry over into the new normal?

Matt: So the past 18 months that we've had before this upcoming fall semester or this current fall semester now have been very tumultuous, but we've learned a lot from them. What new ideas or practices should we try and carry over into the new normal?

Lee: Well, we've learned that the online symposium is just as important as the in-person symposium. We need to have both. We want students to send us the PowerPoint slides and then present those slides at the ten-minute takeaway. Last year, we had an education student present her 10 minutes away in a break room of the school where she was school student teaching at the end of the ten minutes the school bell rang.

It was a great reminder that this is connected learning. There's no limit on who can present and where they can present from. It's really exciting to see about all the things that are possible. The last three symposia are on canvas and are available for anyone on campus to access, I hope symposium can be a reflection of the entire semester.

Last spring, I reached out to the RA's, hoping they could be a voice and presented symposium. These students have a complex job on campus and we shouldn't hear from them. Within a couple of weeks, they sent me a video: "What does conscious awareness mean to me?" They made it last fall after a training course. It's fantastic and I'm thrilled that they presented it at a symposium. It didn't make any extra work for the RA's, but it gave them a voice at a symposium.

Matt: Nice. So the goal becomes providing a collective voice to students and create a space where their voice can be listened to.

Lee: Exactly.

Matt: Well, that brings us to the end of the questions that we have for you today. Thanks so much for joining us.

Heidi: Yes, thank you.

Lee: It was great to be here.

Matt: And if you want to find out more about resources on symposium, check the related resources section on the page where this podcast is currently hosted.

Thanks so much for listening to us, everybody. Faculty interested in learning more about teaching and learning here at Lasell can visit MyLasell at https://my.Lasell.edu, or you can send us an email at TLC@lasell.edu, or give us a call: 617-243-2001

See you later!