Voices - Vol 3

Alumni Connections: Cat Flynn, the food justice advocate

Anonymous — Wed, 25 Nov 2020 17:13:47 +0000

Alumni Connections: Cat Flynn, the food justice advocate Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 11/25/2020 - 10:13

Hannah Fletcher

As a student teacher in Denver Public Schools, Cat Flynn (elementary licensure, 2019) fell in love with the community at the historic Denver elementary, Dora Moore Elementary. She also recognized many of her students’ challenges.

“I learned so much about the biggest issues that students face both in and outside the classroom that impact their learning,” she said. “Some of the main challenges my students persevered through were food access, homelessness, abuse, and inadequate representation.

“I saw myself in these students trying their best to be present, and I felt so inspired to support them in the ways that I had not been (supported) as a student.”

Growing up in a large Honduran-Irish family, first in New York and later in Littleton, Colorado, Flynn became aware of the importance of diet and the systemic obstacles that prevent many from having a sufficient diet.

Flynn was looking forward to starting a long-term substitute teaching position after student teaching when her dream job, lead education facilitator at GrowHaus, became available marrying her interests in education and food justice issues — the perfect recipe to continue addressing the food scarcity concerns she witnessed in the classroom.

GrowHaus is a food justice nonprofit indoor farm, sliding scale marketplace, and educational center that serves the diverse Elyria Swansea and Globeville communities in Denver. Its vision is a world where all communities have the means to nourish themselves, and its mission is to create a community-driven, neighborhood-based food system by serving as a hub for food distribution, production, education, and economic opportunity, she said.

Flynn leads the education program which encompasses adult wellness classes, multi-generational wellness and gardening classes, after school classes for Denver partner schools, summer programs with community partners for 3-year-olds to seniors in high school, and service learning opportunities.

“We work hard to create experiential learning spaces where everyone feels empowered to advocate for their rights, especially their basic right to access to healthy and affordable food,” she said.

“I am thrilled to have found a position that combines my passions for education and social justice and allows me to be so hands-on in creating change.”

This story is part of an Alumni Connections series featuring alumni who are putting their education background to work in meaningful ways and on the fringes of the field.

Know an alum who is doing interesting things with their degree? We would love to learn more. Submit story ideas to edu-communications@colorado.edu

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Alumni Connections: Holly Kurtz, the research journalist

Anonymous — Wed, 25 Nov 2020 17:11:51 +0000

Alumni Connections: Holly Kurtz, the research journalist Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 11/25/2020 - 10:11

Hannah Fletcher

As a journalist covering the education beat in Denver, Holly Kurtz (PhDEdu’13) turned to CU ��«��Ƶ professor and National Education Policy Center Director Kevin Welner many times as an expert source. One fateful conversation changed the trajectory for Kurtz, who went from Welner’s interviewer to advisee in the educational foundations, policy and practice doctoral program in the CU ��«��Ƶ School of Education.

“I wanted to acquire the knowledge and skills to provide a more in-depth analysis and understanding of educational issues, especially those related to the many inequities I had observed firsthand as a reporter and that continued to haunt me,” she said.

“It turned out to be one of the best decisions of my life. CU’s approach was perfect for me in that I experienced the program as close knit and nurturing even as I got to work with some of the top scholars in our field.”

Welner has become a lifelong collaborator, advisor and friend, said Kurtz, who is now the director for The Education Week Research Center. After graduating from the PhD program, she enjoyed a postdoctoral research position with CU Denver’s School of Public Affairs, but she missed journalism and had always admired EdWeek’s stellar reporting. A temporary position with the EdWeek Research Center, which has been a staple of the publication for more than 20 years, led to a full-time job as the center director, a role she has held for the past six years.

“One thing I love about my job is that I feel like the work we do helps inform the practitioners and policymakers and others who are doing the critical job of educating and supporting our nation’s children, especially students of color and low-income families who have not been well-served in the past,” she said, adding EdWeek is known for its satisfied staff and low-turnover rates, an impressive feat in the field.

Kurtz’s graduate studies continue to strengthen her work as a journalist. She has helped expand the mission of the Research Center to include more contract research for external clients in addition to the publication’s longstanding Quality Counts annual report on states’ student achievement and school finance ratings. She admitted the thing that had initially worried her most about her doctoral studies—statistics—was an area she ended up enjoying in graduate school and continues to provide a robust foundation for her work today. The faculty provided care and compassion for graduate students who, like Kurtz, dreaded the statistics involved in the required quantitative research methods coursework. She ended up taking more advanced electives in factor analysis and hierarchical linear modeling and being admitted twice to the national Educational Testing Service’s competitive internship program.

One thing I love about my job is that I feel like the work we do helps inform the practitioners and policymakers and others who are doing the critical job of educating and supporting our nation’s children, especially students of color and low-income families who have not been well-served in the past."

“Because all the work was applied to the issues that interested me most deeply (education and educational equity), I was incredibly motivated to learn so that I could, in turn, share my knowledge with others,” she said. “I also had less trouble understanding because my instructors constantly demonstrated how the content applied to real world educational settings.”

Today, she is paying it forward as an education journalist committed to designing solid research studies and thoroughly reporting on the complexities of education policy and practice.

“Even those who consider themselves experts often make misguided statements or decisions about issues such as tracking and detracking, social promotion and other topics associated with large and definitive research bases that are too often ignored in favor of opinion or ‘common sense,’” she said.

“I now have the knowledge I need to counter these misconceptions as well as the ability to identify legitimate research when new misconceptions arise. The capacity to provide the best available evidence is obviously a critical skill for a journalist.

This story is part of an Alumni Connections series featuring alumni who are putting their education background to work in meaningful ways and on the fringes of the field.

Know an alum who is doing interesting things with their degree? We would love to learn more. Submit story ideas to edu-communications@colorado.edu

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Alumni Connections: Jonathan Lev, the community center director

Anonymous — Wed, 25 Nov 2020 17:08:13 +0000

Alumni Connections: Jonathan Lev, the community center director Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 11/25/2020 - 10:08

Hannah Fletcher

Jonathan Lev’s career came full circle when he joined the ��«��Ƶ Jewish Community Center (��«��Ƶ JCC) as Executive Director in 2010. While his path to his current position was winding, he credits his CU ��«��Ƶ teacher education experience as foundational to his work now and experiences along the way.

“So much of what I do is because of my education background,” he said.

After graduating with teacher licensure in mathematics in December 2001, Lev was not interested in substitute teaching, so to pass the time, he went to work for a renewable energy startup, where his education background helped him articulate the benefits of the burgeoning field. He later moved to the East Coast as the director of a Jewish summer camp, where his education background helped strengthen the outdoor education curriculum. After completing a Master’s in Public Administration from New York University and Hebrew and Judaic studies coursework, the Chicago native found himself back in ��«��Ƶ after a recruiter encouraged him to apply for the Executive Director position at the ��«��Ƶ Jewish Community Center (JCC).

At the ��«��Ƶ JCC, Lev has helped build a new campus offering robust programming for community members from infants through older adults. The center is a community-wide resource that is founded on Jewish principles yet open to community members of all faiths and backgrounds. Since taking the helm ten years ago, Lev has helped grow the center, which includes a working farm, early childhood center, art exhibitions, musical performances, and more. Leaders from other community centers around the country and internationally come to tour the ��«��Ƶ JCC’s early childhood center with its shared leadership and integrated pedagogy.

“We built a full-scale educational farm with goats and chickens, educational beds, a greenhouse, and barn,” he said. “ Our Early Childhood Center focuses on a constructivist approach. We use what the children are fascinated by and then enhance it by bringing in music or connecting it to art or being on the land. Those are all integrated pieces, so they’ll work on something in the classroom that then flows into the art studio and comes back to the classroom. They’re not coming into the art studio to do ‘crafts time.’ It’s not separate but part of the whole learning process.”

In many ways, the services the ��«��Ƶ JCC offers are an embodiment of Lev’s own varied interests in education, the outdoors, arts, activism, and community connections.
“What I really love doing is building community and bringing people together around common purpose,” he said.

“I love leading an organization that’s strongly rooted in powerful ideals and broadly connected to the entire ��«��Ƶ County community. To me, that’s where we can effectively create the community we want to live in, and we can uplift one another. I don’t know where else I would find all of these things. To me, that’s where we can effectively create the community we want to live in, and we can uplift one another. I don’t know where else I would find all of these things.”

This story is part of an Alumni Connections series featuring alumni who are putting their education background to work in meaningful ways and on the fringes of the field.

Know an alum who is doing interesting things with their degree? We would love to learn more. Submit story ideas to edu-communications@colorado.edu

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Alumni Connections: Claire France, the entrepreneur

Anonymous — Wed, 25 Nov 2020 17:07:35 +0000

Alumni Connections: Claire France, the entrepreneur Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 11/25/2020 - 10:07

Hannah Fletcher

Cruising along in a vintage van surrounded by the New Zealand landscape, Claire France (elementary education 2019) and her boyfriend began dreaming about their next steps after life as students at CU ��«��Ƶ. It was no ordinary trip, and France used that experience to plan for an extraordinary way to use her education and entrepreneurial spirit when she returned home.

France has always admired charitable startups like TOMS shoes and Charity: Water. As an education graduate, she is also keenly aware of the food scarcity issues many students face. Her student teaching semester taught her many students did not have the means to bring healthy snacks to school.

“They’d load up on a huge box of cheese puffs and call it a day,” she said.

“I knew what they were capable of in math class, but I saw their focus dwindle throughout the day. I wondered if providing healthy meals for students who needed better nutrition could really make a difference for their performance in the classroom, which would ultimately lead to a better future.”

After graduation, France and her beau settled in Chicago, Sam Soliz’s hometown, where France began her dream endeavor, My Launch Box, a lunch box meal delivery and catering service with a buy-one-give-one model. With the tagline Fuel the Future, Launch Box partners with one of the largest elementary schools in Chicago Public Schools, where 96% of the school’s 1,200 students qualify for free and reduced-price lunch.

France’s original plan was to sell lunch in city markets and cater to businesses for luncheons. When the pandemic broke, she began accepting donations that go directly toward the “give” lunches and delivering lunches to businesses and organizations offering essential services. Essential workers at police departments and hospitals could order lunches from Launch Box to feed employees, while also feeding some of the hungry, out of school kids of Chicago.

“Launch Box’s goal is to not only help feed nutritious and delicious meals to underserved youth in Chicago but to help connect the community, give people the chance to be part of something bigger than themselves and do good and feel good,” she said.

“I have known since high school that I wanted to come up with a product or service that helped people help others. This is what fuels me—service. I also love getting people excited about service.”

France may have taken a departure from teaching in the classroom, for now, but she is still happiest supporting students.

“Last night, I was packing up goodie bags to hand out with 100 lunches to kids tomorrow morning thinking to myself that this is the life of an entrepreneur and a teacher —the work doesn’t stop when the business day is over.”

This story is part of an Alumni Connections series featuring alumni who are putting their education background to work in meaningful ways and on the fringes of the field.

Know an alum who is doing interesting things with their degree? We would love to learn more. Submit story ideas to edu-communications@colorado.edu

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What we're reading

Anonymous — Wed, 18 Nov 2020 20:08:08 +0000

What we're reading Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 11/18/2020 - 13:08

A glimpse into what colleagues are saying about our faculty’s recent publications and more.

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HighlightED

Anonymous — Wed, 18 Nov 2020 19:31:42 +0000

HighlightED Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 11/18/2020 - 12:31

Brief updates about what’s new in the School of Education

New wellness institute brings together communities in research-practice partnerships

The Renée Crown Wellness Institute, established by Colorado philanthropist Patricia Crown, is committed to building a world in which health and wellness are valued, promoted and protected for all children and youth. The five founding faculty members include Professors Sona Dimidjian, Erik Willcutt and Yuko Munakata from the College of Arts and Sciences, and Professor Ben Kirshner and Dean Kathy Schultz from our School of Education.

The institute supports research-practice partnerships in which researchers, families, teachers, young people and community members work together as equal partners. Kalonji Nzinga, assistant professor of education and a recipient of the institute’s inaugural seed grant program, will lead the Lyripeutic Storytelling Project in collaboration with local teachers, students, artists and researchers.

“We cannot address the challenges we face in isolation,” said Dimidjian, the institute’s director. “By working across traditional boundaries on our campus and with community partners, we can co-create and study programs to help children, young people, families and educators thrive throughout their lives. These partnerships improve the quality of our science and scholarship, and expand the impact of our collective work.”

Innovative online Teacher Leadership program launches

Designed to address the teacher shortage in Colorado, particularly in rural communities, the School of Education launched an entirely online Teacher Leadership program this fall. This affordable program offers stackable graduate certificates that can lead to a master’s degree.

These certificates are designed with ideas from educators to help meet teachers’ needs. The curricula directly relate to teachers’ everyday practices while translating into practical tools that teachers can use in their own classrooms, schools and communities.

School of Education faculty program director Emily Gleason and faculty advisor Dan Liston worked with a series of focus groups with rural teachers in northeast Colorado to develop the content for the certificates: Teacher and Social and Emotional Learning; Teaching Culturally/ Linguistically Diverse Students; Cultivating Compassion and Dignity in Ourselves and Our Schools; and Leading for Change in Science Assessment Practice.

Right: Dean Kathy Schultz at a northeast Colorado Place-Based Partnership Gathering at the School of Education with Bret Miles, former northeast Colorado BOCES executive director; Kendra Anderson, elementary principal at Akron School District; and Rob Sanders, superintendent at Buffalo School District.

Moving into our new campus home in the Fleming Building

The School of Education community began the move into our new campus home, the Fleming Building, this summer. Our newly renovated building brings our inventive educational practices at the heart of our programs into the heart of our learning spaces.

Opening up to a student lounge, community space and locally created art on the first floor, the new building prioritizes community building to further strengthen the collaboration among students, faculty, staff, alumni and partners. The building will eventually house all our students, faculty, staff and research centers through a two-phase process planned to be completed in 2022. We look forward to hosting you when we are open for visitors!

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A sense of place

Anonymous — Wed, 18 Nov 2020 00:33:20 +0000

A sense of place Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 11/17/2020 - 17:33

Building for the future of education

We all know those places that feel like home. This summer our school moved into a newly renovated building on campus, and it just feels like home with its plentiful spaces for community building, colorful and technologically equipped classrooms, and locally created art honoring campus leaders who continue to fight for racial justice. We cannot wait to share this new campus home with you.

However, this was just phase one of the two-phase building project. We are grateful for university backing and for the generous donors who have helped us get this far, but we need continued support to create our innovative teaching labs and finish spaces that will bring all of our programs and research centers under one roof once complete.

With much of this year focused on social distancing from those closest to us and social unrest across the communities we love, we have been reminded how important it is to be together—physically and socially. We are reminded that one of the things that makes a place a home is its people. Having a physical space to be together and metaphorically holding space for one another is such an important part of who we are as a school of education and a community. We hope you will join us to make this new campus home all it can be so we can continue to work toward transformative change together. We need each other more than ever.

Join us

We need your help to make the School of Education’s new home in the Fleming Building all it can be for alumni returning home, current students and future generations of education leaders. Learn more about supporting this project at colorado.edu/education/buildingthefuture.

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At the heart of healing

Anonymous — Wed, 18 Nov 2020 00:02:18 +0000

At the heart of healing Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 11/17/2020 - 17:02

Kenna Bruner

Education alumna is transforming medicine through human caring

A tireless quest to expand knowledge and practices of human caring has sent Jean Watson around the world more than 20 times, where she has shared her theory of human caring and healing to educate the next generation of nursing and medical healers.

An internationally recognized nurse theorist and nursing professor, Watson is known for developing the Theory of Human Caring, as well as establishing the original Interdisciplinary Center for Human Caring and the Denver Nursing Project Human Caring. More recently she founded the nonprofit Watson Caring Science Institute to further this work in the world.

Giving voice to the basic human experience of caring and healing has inspired Watson to raise the concept of caring into the sphere of science, guided by a unitary world view of connectedness, rather than separation.

“Caring science is informed by a philosophical and ethical view of shared humanity,” said Watson, who holds a doctorate in education from CU ��«��Ƶ. “We don’t just deal with the physical body; nurses engage in the sacred circle of birth/life/death.”

After she suffered a traumatic eye injury, followed soon after by the death of her husband, Watson experienced human caring on a deeply personal level. Her theory evolved from her teaching and background in nursing, education, psychology, psychiatric nursing and her view of humanity, combined with her own healing journey.

Caring science is informed by a philosophical and ethical view of shared humanity. We don’t just deal with the physical body; nurses engage in the sacred circle of birth/life/death."

To focus only on disease and curing without genuinely caring about the patient as a person is not enough, Watson said. This is the heart of her Theory of Human Caring, for which she has received countless honors and awards, including 15 honorary doctorates.

“Everything in the universe is connected to everything else,” Watson said. “Our worldview in the Westernized world has been one of separation—mind separate from body, person separate from environment and so on. Human caring is about honoring the mystery of the infinite cosmos to which we all belong. A person can be totally cured, and yet not be healed. And someone who can’t be cured at all can have the ultimate healing through choosing a peaceful death with dignity.”

Watson developed 10 Caritas Processes considered universal to human caring, making new connections between caring and love. At the core of the practices is the concept that caring takes place when two people make an authentic heart-to-heart connection in a caring moment. That moment becomes transpersonal and transcends time and space. It lingers with both practitioner and patient beyond the moment.

“Higher vibration feelings are affecting the whole energy field around you,” Watson said. “So, the healing practitioner’s loving presence, even though they may not physically touch you, is surrounding you.”

Watson earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in nursing at CU ��«��Ƶ and CU Health Sciences Center in Denver. In 1973, she earned a PhD in educational psychology and counseling from CU ��«��Ƶ’s School of Education.

She began her career teaching nursing courses at the CU College of Nursing, which led to her becoming dean of the College of Nursing at the CU Anschutz Medical Campus. Watson was named a CU Distinguished Professor, a high honor bestowed to outstanding professors.

She helped establish the nursing school’s first doctoral program, a PhD in nursing, and the first clinical doctorate, Doctor of Nursing, which was the predecessor to today’s Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) program. For 16 years she held the nation’s first endowed chair in caring science at the College of Nursing at CU. The author of more than 30 books, Watson has been selected as a Living Legend of the American Academy of Nursing, its highest honor for contributions to nursing.

“The caritas processes provide a philosophy, language and practical guidelines,” Watson said, “giving theory-guided language to nurses and an understanding that compassionate caring moments transcend time and space and physicality. When they hold that space in that caring moment with that person, they’re actually living out these caritas processes.”

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Puksta Scholars: Working together toward a more just and equitable future

Anonymous — Tue, 17 Nov 2020 23:19:32 +0000

Puksta Scholars: Working together toward a more just and equitable future Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 11/17/2020 - 16:19

Giving students the opportunity to serve as catalysts for change in their communities, the Puksta Scholars program at CU ��«��Ƶ is a competitive scholarship supported by the Puksta Foundation.

For me, the Puksta Scholars program provides a beautiful look into the compassionate side of our humanity as the community comes together each and every day to try to make our world a better place to live in and work in."—John Mulstay

Founded in 2001 and named after Harry and Eva Puksta, the Puksta Foundation provides scholarships, mentorship and experiential community engagement training for undergraduate Colorado students. Before their deaths, the Pukstas entrusted financial planner John Mulstay to design and carry out their dream to help “the good kids of Colorado, so they could be afforded the chance to go to college.”

“For me, the Puksta Scholars program provides a beautiful look into the compassionate side of our humanity as the community comes together each and every day to try to make our world a better place to live in and work in,” said Mulstay, the executive director of the foundation that he leads with his wife, NiChel.

As part of the Puksta program, students develop a yearlong intensive civic engagement project addressing a social problem they feel passionate about. Based in CU Engage, the Center for Community-Based Learning and Research in the School of Education, the program supports students from all majors who are united by their interests as change-makers.

If you want to empower young people interested in creating a more just and equitable society, Mulstay has learned to “light the match and walk away, because the outcomes are often more powerful and brilliant than anything you had ever imagined.”

For Marwa Osman, joining the Puksta Scholars program created multiple leadership opportunities and lifelong connections.

Acknowledging my in betweenness allows me to exist freely. We wanted a space that honors us entirely, essentially celebrating in betweenness is an act of reclamation and liberation."—Marwa Osman

“Through the Puksta program, I have developed an incredible intercollegiate network of friends and fellow change-makers, which are what I consider to be my strongest assets when working to discover new ideas and reimagining a more just and sustainable world,” she said.

Osman’s Puksta project, combined with her work in the INVST Community Studies leadership program, culminated in launching “The in between: A Digital Media Platform Made by and for Womxn and Femmes of Color.” She developed the website with fellow INVST students Hailey Breaker, Mable Sanders and Nirguna Poudyal.

“Our goal was to create a digital space where womxn of color, femmes and nonbinary folxs could share their art, writing, stories and interests on their terms,” Osman said.

For Osman, the “in between” celebrates her identity as a Somali-Muslim-American woman, an identity she has rarely seen represented, which led her to feeling she “fit in” neither Somalian nor American culture.

“Acknowledging my in betweenness allows me to exist freely,” she said. “We wanted a space that honors us entirely, essentially celebrating in betweenness is an act of reclamation and liberation.”

Osman, a CU ��«��Ƶ senior, will continue the work with the in between by working on a physical publication of a series of interviews and conversations, as well as creating a micro-grant program for community members doing similar work.

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Learning the ropes

Anonymous — Thu, 12 Nov 2020 20:40:05 +0000

Learning the ropes Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 11/12/2020 - 13:40

Ichigo Takikawa

Rock climber uses wellness techniques in teaching

At the start of every class, Garrett Cease leads a group of sixth graders in a 30-second meditative moment. Encouraging the class to take three deep breaths together, he asks his students to sit quietly for a moment and observe how they feel.

“Consider how other people might be feeling,” he adds.

Cease, a recent CU ��«��Ƶ graduate, uses this time to center and orient the class before diving into the content for the day.

An enthusiast for meditation, yoga, rock climbing and skiing, Cease brought his passions and wellness techniques into his student teaching practicum classroom to guide his teaching and to connect with his students.

“When you’re rock climbing, it’s important to stay present and practice responding rather than reacting unconsciously,” he said. “In the classroom, I try to do the same thing.”

When Cease encounters an unexpected challenge in the classroom, he tries to navigate the situation by being aware of his own emotions, a technique he learned through climbing and meditation. While route finding, climbers often have moments when they are not sure they are going the correct and safest way. Instead of going forward and seeing what happens, Cease says that he stops, assesses the risks and works on mitigating them as much as he can.

“It’s important to admit when you don’t know something or when you’re uncomfortable and you need to take a different approach,” Cease said. “You have to mitigate risk depending on what you’re doing, and that’s the same thing in the classroom.”

Cease encourages others to “be open and honest with students about where you stand, what you think and what you might not be aware of.” By being vulnerable, he hopes students will be open to having a discussion together in a safe and respectful environment.

Originally from Pennsylvania, Cease wanted to explore a new place and fell in love with the mountains in Colorado.

Everything we do is shaped by our previous experiences, our culture, our identities and our history. I think the best we can do is to be open to seeing where our biases come up so that we can critically evaluate how we are interpreting ourselves and others."

After graduating from CU ��«��Ƶ with a double major in English and philosophy, he returned to complete a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction plus teacher licensure in English education from the School of Education.

“One of the biggest takeaways from the (master’s) program was that education and social justice are inextricably linked,” Cease said. “Everything we do is shaped by our previous experiences, our culture, our identities and our history. I think the best we can do is to be open to seeing where our biases come up so that we can critically evaluate how we are interpreting ourselves and others.”

Cease’s passion for education stems from his love of art, literature and critical thinking, as well as a desire to make a positive difference in the world.

“I always hoped to find ways to help students use their reading and writing to make sense of their world and to leave it a little better than they found it,” he said.

Now that he has graduated, Cease is seeking a teaching position in ��«��Ƶ or to travel and teach English abroad. Either way, he plans to continue connecting with his students through his interests.

“It’s important to find activities that can help us step away from our overactive minds and our turbulent emotions so that we can find some peace in the present moment,” he said. He underscores how this is crucial in a world where people digest a constant stream of information every day.

While for Cease finding peace means yoga, meditation, climbing and skiing, he hopes he can help students find an activity that works for each of them.

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