As of June 1, I have the honor of serving as chair for the Human Development, Culture and Learning Sciences (HDCLS) area within the Department of Education Psychology in the College of Education at The University of Texas at Austin.
It’s a department that is ranked #4 among public colleges and #6 overall in the U.S., which tells you a little something about the excellence of our areas, our students, and my fellow faculty members. Working together with the other area chairs, I will be supporting the day-to-day operations of our department in fulfilling its mission: to prepare undergraduate and graduate students with the knowledge and skills to be excellent in both research and teaching.
I am especially appreciative of the chance to work under the leadership of our new department chair, Dr. Kevin Cokley, and I am especially grateful to my predecessor as HDCLS area chair, Dr. Gigi Awad. There are no words that express the amount of gratitude I have for her leadership over the past four years. Gigi showed great poise under pressure and the ability to navigate complex and systemic challenges. We are all very fortunate to have been under her care, and I look forward to working with her closely during this hand-off of the baton.
We’re All Managing a Transition
This fall, we are part of an entire university that is recalibrating, reuniting, and reevaluating how we do this thing called higher education in new historical and societal contexts. Even if we’ve been on campus for many years, we’re all beginning again in some way.
To our new cohorts, a special welcome to our community. To our previous cohorts, welcome home — back to campus and to our beautifully renovated Sanchez building!
I think a lot about transitions in my own research and as one of the College’s signature impact areas — both the obvious transitions and those that are not-so-obvious, the planned milestones and those surprises on your life journey. When I share my insights with educators, employers, and parents about transition, I often refer to moving from a checklist mentality — the short term to-do list — to a design mindset. In a design mindset, we think about core values, self determination, and creating a flexible plan that allows for pivots on the way to achieving long-term goals (and lifelong success).
Being Ready to Connect, Learn, and Innovate
In the commencement speech I gave last winter, I advised graduates to prioritize people over projects, lean into their communities, be wholehearted, and find their champions — assuring them that it really is okay to make a mistake.
I now ask the same thing I asked those graduates: What would you do if you weren’t afraid?
The paths from here will be challenging, there is no doubt about it. This pandemic has brought (and will continue to bring) changes that none of us can anticipate, but we can be ready.
What students do here at UT Austin is part of being ready. Your critical thinking. Your degree, and all that it represents. Your hard work. You have the chance to truly change the world with your grit, innovation, and passion.
With that, here are three front-of-mind priorities for me this fall.
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To connect. It’s been a while, and we’re all a little rusty. But let’s build connections — either in person, via email, or even on social media — and use all of our avenues in ways that support our connection with each other.
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To learn. Voracious curiosity is said to be a key trait behind the success of Steve Jobs. Our curiosity to learn from each other will boost our core mission — to authentically pursue learning opportunities, both formal and informal, that support our continued growth and development.
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To innovate. The “new” normal is anything but normal! There are many innovations from the pandemic that we can carry forward with us. Let’s rethink what assumptions we hold about how our systems need to function, and work together to build better ways of doing and being.
For each of these, it is easy to feel overwhelmed and like you have to everything at once.
I am committing myself, and invite you to do the same, to do one small thing each day towards these larger priorities. They can be our atomic habits for HDCLS — to connect, learn, and innovate a little bit each day, to make the most of our time together and help each of us reach our bigger goals.
I look forward to this journey ahead! You can expect regular emails from me throughout the year, roughly once a month or so, to share information, invite conversation, and celebrate all the wonderful things happening in HDCLS.
Stay in touch,
Stephanie