2023-2024 STLI Learn, Discover, Innovate Grant Recipients
Dr. R. Benedito Ferrão
Assistant Professor of English & Asian and Pacific Islander American Studies
Dr. Yixuan (Janice) Zhang
Clinical Associate Professor, OISM
Dr. Jessica (Jess) Paga
Associate Professor, Classics
Project Description:
“As educators, how do we help students become ethical travelers as concerns about climate change mount? How do we develop a conscientious pedagogy about cultural consumption, especially in such uneven circumstances as those involving travel to the developing world? Using the STLI grant, I have created a graphic resource in collaboration with artists Angela Ferrão and Maria Vanessa de Sa. Our comic book, The Uninvited Host: Goa and the Parties not Meant for its People, focuses on a location central to my research and teaching. It is also one of W&M’s study abroad locations.
Goa is one of the most visited destinations in South Asia, a fact that results in the arrival of fifteen million tourists per annum. Compare this to the local population of just two million residents in a region that is just 2300 square miles (think Delaware!). This onslaught of visitors has threatened the region’s coastal ecology while also increasing noise and air pollution. Accordingly, the comic book we have developed will provide students in my classroom, and those that study abroad in Goa, with a tool to better understand local concerns. Even though Goa-specific, the resource is of pedagogical use in multiple disciplines.”
Project Description:
“Programming education faces a fast-changing landscape, and traditional methods often lag in effectiveness and fail to meet diverse learning needs as students come from various disciplines. While Large Language Models (LLMs) such as OpenAI’s GPT series offer many possibilities for enhanced learning experiences, they also present ethical challenges that cannot be overlooked. Therefore, this work not only aims to leverage LLMs for educational benefit but also seeks to address and mitigate the ethical issues associated with their use.”
Project Description:
“How can we make the world of Greco-Roman antiquity accessible and comprehensible to a diverse modern audience? How can we bring the past to life in a meaningful way? In this project, I propose employing digital materials and VR technologies to create immersive experiential learning opportunities for students, while simultaneously developing research data related to pathways, viewsheds, and movement patterns. In this way, students and researchers can come to an embodied understanding of past lived experiences.”
Dr. Jaimie Stickl Haugen & Dr. Pamela Harris
Lisa Eddy & Hilary Parmentier
Project Description:
“School counselors play a vital role in supporting students in K-12 schools, yet preservice school counselors reported a gap in essential skills necessary to serve students. Our project seeks to address the need for specialized content in the online school counseling program. Through the development of targeted workshops and a dedicated virtual resource hub, our goal is to equip students with the necessary skills to excel, with the ultimate aim of enhancing overall student support and well-being in schools.”
Project Description:
“Complex conservation and resilience issues require researchers and team leaders who can effectively work on multi-disciplinary and cross-sector teams to solve problems. Virginia Sea Grant (VASG) has previously partnered with team science experts to develop team science training and we now propose to bring this training to students at the Institute for International Conservation (IIC) at William & Mary via a one-day team science workshop. VASG and IIC have been working together to bring team-science training to the IIC undergraduate students who will be taking part in the Conservation Research Program. Twenty-five William and Mary undergraduates will be taking part in day long training sessions on March 1st and 29th, as well as an introductory training/meeting on February 9th. The training will focus on teaching students from various majors to collaborate in a diverse team setting.”