EPIC Newsletter:
 June 2019

Thank you for stopping by and reading this month’s EPIC Newsletter. 

I’m the new EPIC and Inclusive Classrooms Program Coordinator and editor of the newsletter. As an experienced administrator with a B.A. in English from UCLA, and an M.A. in English Literature from Trinity College Dublin, my professional background ranges from small technical startups to large financial institutions. In addition, I have several years’ experience teaching English as a foreign language internationally. 

I’m pleased to present our summer edition, which includes a UCLA undergraduate’s takeaway from the 1st Gen Conference: "Everyday Superheroes" and an interview with the founder of UCLA’s 1st Gen Latinx Student Group, who is also an organizer of the 1st Gen Conference.

EPIC’s Instructional Designer, Dr. Dana Milstein, provides educational and specific guidelines to develop learning outcomes, including an in-depth look at ABCD questions and the 8 quality measures, while stressing the importance of transparency and accessibility for learning.

Congratulations are also due to our Summer GSR Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Recipients, whose interesting pedagogical projects will be shared to EPIC's website and upcoming UCLA community learning events. 

Please keep an eye out for our next EPIC newsletter, which will return in the Fall. 

Tegan Artho-Bentz
EPIC & Inclusive Classrooms Coordinator

UCLA's 1st Gen Conference: "Everyday Superheroes"  

Nearly ten thousand UCLA undergraduates—one third of the entire student body—identify as first generation college students. Leticia Trevino, founder of the 1st Gen Latinx Student Group, had these students in mind when she first pitched the idea for a first generation conference to Symone Morales of First To Go, a program housed under the First Year Experience Office and UCLA Residential Life. Morales encouraged her to “think big, and even after I thought big, to think bigger,” Trevino reported to EPIC. On May 17, Trevino and Morales’ joint efforts came to fruition with UCLA’s first annual 1st Gen Conference: "Everyday Superheroes," an event that brought together our sizable first generation community for a day that combined academic, creative, and pedagogical discussions.

"I knew I wanted to do a conference that had some traditional elements, so students were exposed to what a conference looks like, but that was also changed slightly enough that it was much more accessible to the first gen demographic,” Trevino said. “I didn’t want a traditional keynote speaker. I wanted a variety of panelists to talk about their first gen experience, and to hit the note in terms of different identities, different spaces on campus, and really show people that even though the first gen identity is diverse, people can tackle it in different ways. I also wanted there to be a space for creativity and feelings at the conference. [...] So no matter what the goal is for you at this conference, you would walk away with something. There would be a space for almost everyone.”

The keynote panel, “The Superheroes That Keep Us Going,” featured a range of first gen speakers from the UCLA community: Professor Maite Zubiaurre; Stephanie Toledo, an undergraduate student; Juan Espinoza, staff and UCLA alumnus; Antwann Simpkins, a graduate student; and Leticia Trevino as moderator. The panelists emphasized the importance of having a mentor, and shared stories of the “superheroes” that helped them arrive at UCLA. “Women of color have always been busting down the doors for me,” Simpkins said. Beyond mentorship, it is vital that first gen students and faculty have a support network—both personally and institutionally—to help them succeed. UCLA has an “ethical obligation” to become more diverse in its faculty as well as its student body, Professor Zubiaurre commented. An audience member asked the panelists to describe “first gen superpowers,” and they cited their resilience, determination, strength, creativity, and resourcefulness.

The second highlight of the conference was the performance by actor and writer Alex Alpharoah, “WET: An UnDACAmented Journey.” Alpharoah’s semi-autobiographical performance recounted his quest to become a permanent resident after having lived as an undocumented American for thirty-five years. He skillfully wove together snapshots from different moments in time and from different characters’ perspectives. The 1st Gen Conference also featured a variety of breakout sessions on academic, creative, and pedagogical topics, including EPIC’s workshop “TILT Your Classroom” on Transparency in Learning and Teaching methods.

"Sometimes academic spaces seem so far removed from reality, real people, and real struggles,” Trevino said, explaining why the conference featured a combination of academic and creative works. “When I think about all of the academic spaces I’ve been in, when I felt like I could get the most out of the space, when I could engage the most with that material, they were spaces that were not formal. They were on an informal register, they didn’t have an elitist tone, it wasn’t all about academics. It was about people, it was about feelings, it was about expressing some of your personal experience, and really focusing on experiential knowledge,” she said. In addition to academics, the 1st Gen Conference was “about visibility, community building, being honest about what we were going through, and then trying to make connections so we could work on it together.”

The 1st Gen Conference certainly helped create connections among the first generation students, faculty, and staff at UCLA. It created a space for the first gen community to come together, and this simple fact of being made aware of one another and sharing each others’ stories can instill a sense of belonging and confidence crucial to academic success.

An Undergraduate Perspective on the 1st Gen Conference

EPIC Congratulates the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Recipients

This Month in Innovation: Rethinking Learning Outcomes

     The development of formal curriculum in the United States has historically bounced across the spectrum of utilitarian and hedonistic models; since the inception of our first public high school (Boston, 1821) and development of tax-subsidized elementary schools (1870), metrics were created to assess teaching, learning spaces, attendance, and student performance. In 1918, John Franklin Bobbitt published a utilitarian, "efficient" approach to education in his work The Curriculum. He wrote that "education is now to develop a type of wisdom that can grow only out of participation in the living experiences of mankind, and never out of mere memorization of verbal statements of facts. It must, therefore, train thought and judgment in connection with actual life situations...develop the good-will, the spirit of service, the social valuations...necessary for effective group action...citizenship...maintaining robust health...and use of ideas in practical situations." In other words, the modern education should translate into effective action in the real world (L. efficere, "accomplishment").

     One method we use to objectively assess educational accomplishment is by developing learning outcomes. Although this phrase may trigger memories of Bush's failed No Child Left Behind program, current pedagogical research suggests that listing the learning outcomes on your syllabi and assignments will provide the two characteristics that are necessary for all students to accomplish learning equally and inclusively in the higher education classroom: