Make the World a Better Place: Building Empathy and Improving Outcomes

Zoom Room 1

Our positions as educators afford us the opportunity to develop students who are more skilled, deeper thinkers and who are more actively engaged in making the world a better place to live. University students are eager to learn ways to enact social change. Through my talk, we will discuss how our assets and access as faculty members can create hope in higher education through novel, high-impact practice assignments that engage with the community while still meeting the course's learning objectives. Although the specific projects to which I will refer are directly related to visual arts curriculum, I will discuss how to take stock of available resources (i.e. knowledge, equipment, time, personnel, etc.), how to connect one's classes with community entities and how to brainstorm projects that are both service oriented and academic in nature. The goal is to show how to take a high-level overview of a class and to discover ways of incorporating social awareness and community engagement to make our students better and more prepared for life after college.