COVID-19 in U.S. migrant communities. Increased antenatal care among young mothers in rural India. Suicide risk trends and mental health amongst college students in South Korea. This is just a small sample of the 28 remarkable student projects featured in GHELI’s new virtual gallery, World Health Challenges: Influencing Policy and Inspiring Action. The gallery features work by Harvard College students as a part of a final project for GenEd 1063: World Health: Challenge and Opportunities, the 2020 General Education course taught by GHELI Faculty Director, Sue J. Goldie.
Representing diverse modalities from podcasts to paintings, the student projects were selected exceptional, inspired qualities, creative thinking, and analytic clarity. For their final assignment, students were asked to systematically analyze a societal health challenge that they were passionate about, and to create a “problem-inspired” product intended to influence policy, motivate action, and inspire real-world change. While the analytic component assessed critical thinking skills, the “call to action” component encouraged students to step beyond their comfort zone, think outside the box, and take risks.
The depth and breadth of projects were particularly poignant and powerful amidst a semester where COVID-19 forced students and educators alike to pivot to a virtual learning environment. For Professor Goldie, this challenge was an opportunity to pilot the Incubator’s innovations in remote teaching. Acknowledging the diverse and demanding contexts that many Harvard College students returned to, the course blended short, dynamic, and asynchronous lectures with Goldie alongside live discussion sections with teaching fellows.
“That flexibility is so important to the architecture of the class,” Goldie said during the virtual gallery opening celebrating the students’ achievements, reflecting on the essential transitions in course design to respond to student needs.
Students echoed the sentiment, sharing their own experiences of learning during the ongoing pandemic. Many emphasized how the creative final assignment in Goldie’s course helped them feel a deeper connection to the material, during a collective moment of educational disconnection.
“Knowing that we were going to have a creative project instead of a final exam at the end of the year made me enjoy the day to day of class more,” remarked Emily Pardy (Harvard College, ’21). “I could just sit back and absorb everything. Then, when it came time for application of that information it was much easier to do and much more fun to do.”
“A year from now, I probably won't remember what I learned in one of my freshman math classes, but we'll definitely remember how the project made us feel when we were writing it,” said Michael Yin (Harvard College, ’22).
With another remote semester around the corner, the Incubator continues exploring choices about content and pedagogy that promote accessibility, inclusion, and connection without physical presence. And amidst it all, the laughter and reflection from the virtual gallery opening and celebration gave a glimpse of possibility and hope for semesters ahead. Explore some of the outstanding projects in the full gallery.