Category: Semester

Lily Petteway, BMC 25′

Educational Research and
Interpretation at Harriton House

Semester: Spring 2025

Praxis Course: HART 420 Museum Studies Fieldwork

Faculty Advisor: Monique Scott and Sylvia Houghteling

Field Site: Harriton House 

Field Supervisor: Laura Carpenter 

Praxis Poster:

HART_LilyPetteway_Revised

 

Further Context:

My work at Harriton this semester was detail-oriented and research-focused, contributing to the house’s current goal of reinterpretation for its various visitors. Historical homes are often small, intimate spaces, and Harriton certainly falls into these categories. Located just a few minutes from Bryn Mawr’s campus, Harriton House has been standing since 1704 and is best known as the residence of Charles Thomson, Secretary to the Continental Congress from 1774 to 1789. Harriton highlights the critical role that local histories play in shaping historical engagement, interest, and education. 

My work centered upon Hannah Harrison Thomson, the inheritor of the Harriton property and Charles Thomson’s wife. After his political career that took Hannah from city to city, Thomson decided to retire the two to Harriton. My goal was to find as much information on Hannah as possible, whether that be through memorandum books or epistolary commentary on Charles’ political affairs. This had me not just digging through Harriton’s archives, but also visiting Philadelphia-based institutions like the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, the American Philosophical Society, and the Independence National Historical Park Library. I sifted through and transcribed any letter I could find that was even tangentially related to Hannah, often having to read between the lines given how much historical commentary is focused on Charles instead. This was quiet, independent work but with a scavenger-hunt edge. Hannah’s letters were frequently witty, irreverent, and full of personality, which made highlighting her story at Harriton an exciting undertaking. 

Towards the end of the semester, I began compiling a Girl Scouts “Playing the Past” activity curriculum for girls aged 9-11 visiting Harriton. This ended up being more challenging than I had imagined as I had to think about how I wanted to interpret and synthesize my research for a younger audience. For the badge, girls visit a historical site and step into the shoes of a woman related to the site. I wanted to include a mix of activities that showed the potential limitations for late-eighteenth-century women but also show how women could still carve out spheres of influence for themselves; after all, Hannah’s life experience was so variant given her sudden shift out of the urban, social sphere into the homestead setting of Harriton. Letter/diary writing, mock portrait making, and exploring the house to locate Hannah’s influences were some activities I incorporated. 

Something I came to appreciate throughout my time at Harriton was how community-oriented the site is. The house is very receptive to outside visitors, nearby residents, volunteers, donors, and members that I frequently got to interact with. Harriton has become a staple of the surrounding community and serves not only to preserve that community’s past, but also consider its future. By hosting numerous events that celebrate Lower Merion’s history, running children’s programs, and even simply caring for the goats so beloved by visitors, Harriton fosters engagement that keeps local stories alive. 

Jiya Iyer (BMC 27′), Didialendy Linares (BMC 27′), Celia Huey (BMC 27′), Callie Rabins (BMC 25′)

Food and Community

Semester: Spring 2025

Praxis Course: SPAN 247: Gastropoetica Latinoamericana

Faculty Advisor: Juan Suárez Ontaneda

Field Site: Puentes de Salud, ACLAMO

Field Supervisor: Liv Raddatz

Praxis Poster: 

SPAN_Group 3_Praxis Poster

 

Further Context:

Over the course of this semester, our class has had the pleasure of working directly with two different community groups as part of our course, Gastropoetics of Latin America. As part of the conclusion of this course, we have put together this Praxis Poster that answers the question of how food has fostered a sense of community this semester in the classroom and working with our community partners. Our overarching answer to this question is that cooking, eating, and talking about food together is a powerful tool for creating long-lasting communities. The first community-engaged learning section of our poster describes our first community partner, Puentes de Salud, which is a nonprofit organization that serves the Latin community in South Philly through medical services, educational programs, and other services that support the health of the community. We have included a photo we took during one of our visits to Puentes of part of the mural in the building’s lobby, which shows a woman grinding corn using traditional tools called a mano and metate. This mural connects with one of the projects we did with Puentes; as smaller groups, we researched and wrote lessons on common ingredients in Latin American foodways, which we then presented to the students at Puentes so together we could learn more about the histories, preparations, and usages of ingredients like the corn mural.

Pictured in the middle of the poster are tostadas, which are one of the many dishes that we were able to collaboratively make with Puentes students during another visit to the partner organization. Through making dishes like tostadas, salsas, and guacamole together, we were able to share memories and recipes that are important to our families and cultures. Preparing food and sharing a meal with our friends at Puentes was a fantastic experience as we were able to connect with the students on a deeper level through these conversations about our commonalities and differences with food and recipes.

Our other community partner this semester was ACLAMO, an organization in Norrisotown focused on supporting the Latinx community through educational programs, medical services, social welfare, and other resources. ACLAMO strives to help the Latinx community to reach their full potential in life. We also had the opportunity to share a meal with the students from ACLAMO, although this time it was Bryn Mawr dining hall food instead of food we made ourselves. Sitting together and sharing a meal still provided the chance to sit together and talk, first about the dining hall food, and then about our broader respective familial foodways and school experiences.

The Praxis experience is all about meeting and connecting with community members, which can be intimidating at first, but for us it was made easier by consistently being able to connect with our community partners about food. We all have opinions about food, whether it’s certain ingredients we don’t like or specific ways our family cooks a well-known dish. Because of this commonality, we have found that it is always possible to strike up a lively conversation with someone about these opinions and in doing so, share something about our cultures and connect more deeply with one another. Overall, cooking and eating together create community as a way to share our cultures and learn about new cultures and foodways in a way that is fulfilling and meaningful.

Kyle Coll-Camalez Galindez (HC ’25), Georgia Svoboda (BMC ’26), Leah Sutton-Smith (BMC ’25), Arlene Ulloa (BMC ’28)

How has Food Restored a Sense of Community this Semester?

Semester: Spring 2025

Praxis Course: SPAN 247: Gastropoetica Latinoamericana

Faculty Advisor: Juan Suárez Ontaneda

Field Site: Puentes de Salud

Field Supervisor: Liv Raddatz

Praxis Poster: 

SPAN_Group 5 Poster

 

Further Context:

This semester, our class worked with students in the after-school program at Puentes de Salud. When we first met them they were excited about the prospect of doing cooking projects with us. For our next visit, we prepared recipes to cook with the students, working together in groups to make foods like tostadas, pico de gallo, and mangonadas.

Working with the students to make these recipes was a unique way to connect with them. We were brought together by the opportunity to work together with the goal of creating a final product that we could all enjoy. The process not only encouraged collaboration, but also gave us a chance to bond with them over favorite foods and cooking experiences, and helped everyone feel more comfortable and open with each other.

Through this experience, our class bonded both with the students at Puentes and with each other. The collaboration and work required in preparing and executing the recipes built trust and a sense of teamwork. Making the recipes with the Puentes students helped us connect with them because in addition to getting to know them and sharing experiences, we worked together to make something exciting, which brought us all together. Sharing all our efforts at the end of the day and eating together was a special moment because everyone had contributed, not only to the food but to the sense of community that we had developed.

Maya Carlino, BMC ’26

Public Trust Archival Display

Semester: Spring 2025

Praxis Course: HART 420 Museum Studies Fieldwork

Faculty Advisor: Monique Scott and Sylvia Houghteling

Field Site: Public Trust

Field Supervisor: Aaron Levy

Praxis Poster: 

HART_MAYACARLINO_Revised

 

Further Context:

This semester I interned at Public Trust, a small arts non-profit on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania. While they’ve been around since 2002, they’ve recently rebranded from the Slought Foundation and moved away from curating exhibits and installations to focusing more on one-off events and other interactive programming. They’re dedicated to engaging with the community and have an integrative approach and commitment to health, education, and ecology, which guide their programs.

As I mentioned, Public Trust no longer does temporary exhibitions, however, I was able to help them develop a couple different permanent displays for the space. During my first few weeks, a project by a former intern was wrapping up, and I assisted in hanging three large prints on the wall in the front room. It has been really neat to see how a few minor changes made to the space every week add up to big differences in the end. Aaron Levy, my supervisor, has been consistently upgrading the recording and projecting technology, and the tech booth has gone through a transformation since I’ve been there.

I was tasked with creating a series of archival displays of past programs. I did extensive research through the organization’s archived website, which is open and available to the public online, and designed 44 poster spreads that will soon be hung on the wall in the public forum. It was challenging to keep the designs consistent, as titles, pictures, and information available about dates and times varied between events.

InDesign to create the designs, which I taught to myself over the course of the semester. I had to figure out how to install the special fonts from the previous poster template, relink images, how to create guides to be consistent with my layout, how to place a gradient, and then how to manipulate the colors so they matched the image and also looked good. There is a notorious learning curve for Adobe programs, and InDesign was not any easier to learn how to use, especially for such a specific project like the one I was working on, however, if I hadn’t spent so much time getting things wrong, then I wouldn’t be so confident with the program now.

I am sure the final display will enrich the experiences of visitors to the space. As the audience attends present and future programs, they can learn about the history of knowledge that has been shared at Public Trust.

Emily Chau, BMC ’26

Autism, Language, and Construction of Gender

Semester: Spring 2025

Faculty Advisor: Dustin Albert

Field Site: Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP)’s Center for Autism Research (CAR)

Field Supervisor: Meg Lyons

Praxis Poster: 

PIS_Emily_Chau_PraxisPoster

 

Further Context: 

In my opinion, the creation of this independent study course was a little unorthodox. Last summer, I did a social work-related internship to explore a social work career path with the help of the Career and Civic Engagement Center’s Beyond Bryn Mawr summer internship program. However, in the Fall 2024 semester I took multiple classes that made me realize that, even though I intend to pursue social work, I deeply enjoyed learning about the behind-the-scenes research work, learning about data science, and exploring different study designs. I wanted to contribute my personal experience of having a sibling with autism, with my research interests in gender diversity, and the data science skills I learned in class into a summer internship. I saw that another student who was part of the Beyond Bryn Mawr program worked at CAR over the summer. Because I am from the area and knew about CHOP’s autism resources through my sibling, I was thrilled to apply. Based on my experience with my last internship, I wanted a more in-depth and longer internship to make deeper connections academically and socially, so I expanded my internship from just a summer internship to a spring and summer internship, leading me to create a Praxis Independent Study course. This way, I could be supported by my internship supervisor as well as a faculty member from the college when exploring my research and career interests.

During this internship, I transcribed audio samples for three studies. The first study examines similarities and differences between the way children and adolescents with autism speak and the way their peers without autism speak. The second study investigates behavioral sex differences in those with and without autism while tracking the gender development of those with gender diverse identities. The third study examines the impact of a social skills workshop intervention on adolescents with autism. Throughout the internship, I was able to observe in-person visits where I watched participants get interviewed, assessed for a potential autism diagnosis, and complete other research tasks. These observations were supported by informational materials and meetings with members of the lab. Furthermore, I worked on a literature review with my faculty advisor about the link between autism and gender diversity which helped contextualize and explain the practices and rationale employed at the lab.

One small aspect of this internship I enjoyed was learning the different quirks of the transcription software. For example, BMC is an acronym, but it must be transcribed as ~BMC since each letter is pronounced. However, an acronym like CHOP would be transcribed as @CHOP to denote that the acronym is pronounced like a word rather than separate letters. It was like learning a new language!

Overall, I am grateful to have worked at CAR during my spring semester, and I am excited about the new opportunities that will emerge when I return for the summer.  Given the current political climate and rhetoric around gender and disability, I am especially motivated to continue this work and serve this population both through this internship and through the other opportunities that this internship may open for me as I enter the Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research next semester.

Miles Colescott, HC ’25

Architecture in the Real World

Semester: Spring 2025

Faculty Advisor: Jeff Cohen

Field Site: AOS Architects

Field Supervisor:  Sam Olshin

Praxis Poster: 

PIS_Miles Colescott Revised Praxis Poster

 

Further Context:

After taking the first semester of the architecture studio course that is offered by the Growth and Structure of Cities major, City 226, in the fall of my junior year, I knew architecture was what I wanted to do as a career. From then on, it became all about trying to find as much time in an architecture studio as I could. Over the winter, I applied for jobs at home in Missoula, Montana, going from office to office and pitching myself to them and why they should hire me. Ultimately, these pitches were mostly misses, but one firm seemed promising, especially after talking in depth about going to school in Pennsylvania with the receptionist, who had gone to Villanova. What ultimately seemed like a far off, unlikely outcome was seeming more promising, and after two interviews, I thought I had it. But as the months passed, and contact became less frequent, so I started to look for other options. This search ultimately led to an internship with Daniela Voith, and VMA in Philadelphia for the summer. This opened the doors for me and showed me what it was like to work in an architecture office, and ever since, I have been trying to get more time in an office, working on real world projects besides the other architects. This desire led to me discovering the Praxis program, and ultimately landing a Praxis independent study with Sam Olshin, one of the other architecture study professors, at AOS Architects.

I was able to work on a few different projects while at AOS. The first main project was for St. Marks Episcopal Church, in Jacksonville, Florida. Unlike many church communities in the United States, the congregation at St. Marks is expanding. With this growth, the existing facilities have become strained, and the worship service the church is able to provide is less effective. While AOS did a comprehensive master plan for the congregation over a decade ago, due to circumstances at the time, the church couldn’t go ahead with the plan and start construction. This time around, however, the have secured funding and will be able to start construction once we finish the design documentation. I attended zoom meetings with members of the clergy and congregation, and documented their needs that the new building must address. From there, I helped to develop these needs into a detailed program list, with quantities, square footages, and associated adjacencies for each room. This was a lot of fun, and allowed me and the other architects on the project to focus on creating multiple schemes that allowed for different things to take center focus in each one. Lastly, I helped create the floorplans for the decided upon scheme and layout each section of the building, starting by hand before moving into Revit to create a more polished set that was shared with the church. This was a challenging, but very rewarding process, to iterate on these designs and see them come to life. At the end of my time with AOS, we had created a set of finalized floor plans and were polishing up some exterior and interior perspectives that would be shown to the congregation, so they could get a better sense of what the building would look like and the materials we were going to use.

This wasn’t the only project that I got to work on, however. I spent a few weeks diving into the work of Percival Goodman, one of the most prolific designers of synagogues in the United States. For this project, I was specifically looking for synagogues that he designed, which had been recently renovated and rethought, due to falling congregation numbers. I was hoping to find precedent to aid AOS in rethinking a Goodman designed synagogue in Springfield, Massachusetts as they facing this same challenge. Ultimately, this research led me to the shocking conclusion that despite the prevalence of this problem, most congregations would rather sell their existing, frequently historic building, and build something new instead of reconfiguring their existing space. Despite this outcome, the research gave me a much deeper understanding of synagogue architecture and what it means to create a religious space that is appropriate for the congregation that it serves.

As a result of this internship, I gained a lot. First and foremost, I became more familiar with the design programs that are standard in architecture firms today. This includes design drafting software like Sketchup, AutoCAD, and Revit, and rendering programs like Enscape. Next, I gained insights into the many different stakeholders in each project, and some skills and strategies for juggling their competing interests and objectives, to ultimately create a project that all parties are happy and excited about. Lastly, I improved my spatial thinking skills by applying them to design challenges, with real world constraints. This is something that I can refine with practice, and getting to work on projects like St. Marks is the best way for me to improve. Overall, I am incredibly grateful for Sam and the rest of the team at AOS for bringing me on for this spring semester, and I wouldn’t change it for the world. Thanks, guys! 🙂

Peyton Davis, BMC ’26

Drawing Boundaries: The Politics of Sovereignty in a Globalized World

Semester: Spring 2025

Faculty Advisor: Elizabeth Corredor

Field Site: New Lines Institute

Field Supervisor: Kallie Mitchell

Praxis Poster: 

PIS_REVISED_ Peyton_Davis_Praxis Poster

 

Further Context:

One of my first assignments for my Praxis course, “Drawing Boundaries: The Politics of Sovereignty in a Globalized World,” I assisted my field supervisor, Kallie Mitchell, on research for a 40-page report. She authored this report on gender-based violence in Tigray, Ethiopia in order to present to U.K. Parliament in March. I helped to find, cross-verify, and categorize facts and testimony related to these crimes. It was eye-opening and sobering to read of these experiences. I learned that, often, sovereignty of territory and sovereignty of body go hand-in-hand. Systemic gender-based violence was used as a method of “claiming” land and women.

The culminating, capstone element of my course was authoring an independent report. At first, I only had a broad idea of what I wanted to do—discuss gender dynamics in the Turkish-Kurdish conflict. Through my own research and feedback from my supervisor, I eventually decided to focus on one specific area. Rojava is a semi-autonomous region in Syria led by a predominately Kurdish government. I chose to analyze the gendered strengths of their democratic model and position it in relation to the fall of the Assad regime. The most interesting challenge in writing this was determining my audience. Unlike writing an essay for a professor, a published piece for a think tank is meant for policymakers and the general public alike.

One major lesson learned from this experience is how much a policy paper evolves over the course of its creation. My original idea underwent many changes as I worked through the process and received feedback. I learned that there is no need for attachment to the first direction I envisioned for the report—in fact, the truly critical writing will naturally evolve as one uncovers more information and develops an argument. Writing sometimes flows, and other times, it’s a frustrating uphill climb. The climb is the point in which I have grown the most!

Katelyn Hung, BMC ’27

(Un)Equitable Development in Chinatown

Semester: Spring 2025

Faculty Advisor: DJ Ferman-Leon

Field Site: Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation

Field Supervisor: Sophia Wan

Praxis Poster: 

PIS_Revised Katelyn Hung - (Un)Equitable Development in Chinatown

 

Further Context:

As a Cities Major with minors in Economics and Data Science, my coursework has consistently explored the causes and consequences of gentrification that disproportionately impact low-income and racial minority communities. This academic foundation sparked my curiosity about the mechanisms for mitigating and preventing gentrification. For my Praxis course, I was fortunate enough to find a role at the Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation (PCDC), an organization whose affordable housing and economic revitalization initiatives allowed me to explore place-based strategies for resisting displacement in ethnic neighborhoods.

As a Neighborhood Planning Intern, my responsibilities ranged from creating infographics about neighborhood programs to more in-depth analysis projects. In this role, I directly supported PCDC’s community development initiatives by contributing research and spatial analysis that informed ongoing planning efforts. One of my tasks consisted of taking pictures of an affordable housing development being constructed in Chinatown. Through this, I began to understand the extensive timeline and the various actors involved in a single housing development project. I also began conducting demographic and economic research through PolicyMap, a software that maps federal data to reveal the nuanced spatial patterns within a given neighborhood like Chinatown. The data I collected helped inform the permanent affordable housing program (via a Community Land Trust) that PCDC is currently planning. My most extensive task was developing a GIS spatial report that identified all the available parking supply in Chinatown. This project was inspired after I reviewed past PCDC surveys where consumers and business owners emphasized the lack of convenient parking. After a conversation with my supervisor, I found out that PCDC had no internal parking study that was up to date, much less one that mapped out parking supply. The Parking Study was the most exciting project for me because I was able to apply my GIS skills to a professional planning setting.

To identify the wider implications of my role at PCDC, Professor Ferman-Leon assigned me readings to explore the broader context of gentrification through histories of urban redevelopment and racial capitalism. Our conversations were enriching and extended my understanding of how neighborhood-level interventions intersect with larger systems of power, finance, and race. His background in community organizing offered great insight into the challenges and opportunities of equitable development.

Overall, this Praxis course was deeply formative for both my academic growth and professional development. I have gained a thorough understanding of the timeline, processes, and partnerships necessary to make a development project come to life. I also learned how long-term planning efforts must respond to the shifting dynamics of a neighborhood over time. This experience offered insight into the role of planning within nonprofit and social justice sectors, and I’m extremely fortunate for the opportunity to learn in a setting closely aligned with my academic and professional goals.

Sally Jamrog, BMC 27′

ARCH B425 Praxis III: Independent Study

Semester: Spring 2025

Faculty Advisor: Wu Xin

Field Site: Philadelphia Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

Field Supervisor: Katherine Blanchard

Praxis Poster: 

PIS_SallyJamrog PraxisPoster

 

Further Context:

This spring semester, I have had the wonderful opportunity to work with my friend and fellow Bryn Mawr student Ellie Toyama (‘26) at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (Penn Museum) in their Near East collection archives under the supervision of the Fowler/Van Santvoord Keeper of Near Eastern Collections, Katy Blanchard.

Over the course of these last four months, Ellie and I traveled into Philadelphia from Bryn Mawr two times a week to work on inventorying and digitizing the material in the Near East collection from the site of Beth Shemesh, Israel. These artifacts were excavated in the 1930s by Haverford College and accessioned into the University of Pennsylvania’s collection in 1961, mainly consisting of pottery sherds, bits of ceramic or larger incomplete vessels, but we occasionally worked on stoneware from the same site. We looked at lamps, spindle whorls, loom weights, juglets, Cyprian milk bowls, and grinding stones among many other types of objects. We would work on this project a shelf at a time, taking down 1-2 boxes of material a session, carefully making sure each item in the box corresponded with its location status through the Penn Museum inventory software EMu, and photographing items via “shot-down” or “shot-on” camera angles. For more two-dimensional objects such as smaller pot sherds without much curvature, we used “shot-down” photography, during which photos are taken from an overhead angle. Vessels for which simply turning them over would not provide as much information as would be helpful for a researcher looking at these images online, we would employ the “shot-on” technique, during which the camera is placed on a tripod or held freehand, allowing for more photographic, dimensional perspective on a given object. Evaluating each of these items for photography required forethought, especially for items which were significantly more incomplete than others which also might require props to allow for correct orientational positioning. After each session of photography, we would then rehouse and relabel the objects we brought out of storage, assisting with the general upkeep and maintenance of the archive. We found several “unaccounted for” objects over the course of our project, allowing previously lost material to be logged correctly into EMu, and ended up fully digitizing the Beth Shemesh collection!

Katy also had us help out around archives with any other projects that came up during our working hours. We frequently helped her pull material for different researchers and classes as well as set up safe viewing locations for objects. Katy additionally took us on a behind-the-scenes tour of the Morgan Library in New York City, on which we got to meet the curators of their exhibition highlighting their cylinder seal collection and a couple curators specializing in rare books and manuscripts. I learned an incredible amount about the processes of curation and what goes into thinking about how material should be displayed in a museum setting as well as what a museum ends up having a final say on. It was also valuable to me to be able to compare the differences between the Morgan Library’s way of keeping materials as opposed to the Penn Museum (a primarily purchased vs. primarily excavated collection).

In addition to the fieldwork I engaged in on-site with Ellie, I developed my skills in art historical and archaeological research and observation through practicing formal analysis on a Khirbet Kerak Ware pot from the Near East collection archives, journaling every week on its formal qualities and materiality as well as practicing various methods of archaeological sketching. Sketching accomplished a similar role in broadening my ability to think critically about these objects as our photography fieldwork assignments in that it encouraged me to consider what features of an object convey its most relevant information. The additional readings and research I also completed on Khirbet Kerak Ware and materiality will culminate in a final paper I will submit at the end of finals week this semester which will also encompass my Penn Museum case study observations.

This whole experience has vastly broadened my knowledge on the behind-the-scenes processes of museum work and has given me an incredible skill set to take into future museum work. I have also learned to more critically and closely observe archaeological artifacts, synthesizing methods of art historical formal analysis with the more scientific, deductive eye often employed in the field of archaeology and plan to continue to develop these skills throughout my time at Bryn Mawr, double majoring in History of Art & Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology.

Anne Nguyen, BMC 26′

Experiential Learning for STEM

Semester: Spring 2025

Faculty Advisor: Leslie Cheng

Field Site: The Paradigm Forum GmbH

Field Supervisor: E. Tabi Haller-Jordan

Praxis Poster: 

PIS_Anne Nguyen_Praxis PosterREVISED.pdf

 

Further Context:

This past semester, I worked with Tabi, my filed supervisor, as a research intern on our ongoing project of humanizing technologists at The Paradigm Forum GmbH. This project was a co-creation of Tabi and the intern team started last summer and this Praxis was a continuation of the project since Tabi and I were both very excited to explore it further.

At the beginning of the semester, I explored the barriers and pathways to experiential learning regarding STEM and the way to engaging STEM talents learners in active learning. This led me to develop a learning & reflective journal for college students, particularly in STEM, that accompanies them through their time in college. The journal is created with a goal of enhancing students’ self-awareness and introspection in their values, identity, skills, learning, growth, visions or the lack thereof and encouraging mindsets and habits for change-making.

Some of the themes in the journal currently are values, connection, courage, and mindfulness. This journal uses reflective prompts, such as “When have you taken a risk even though there was no guarantee of desired outcomes?”, provocative texts from books and speeches, concept introductions of helpful practices like loving kindness, exercises targeting areas such as risk-taking and expanding comfort zone, and goals tracker for intentional habit building. This is still a work in progress and is being reiterated to incorporate feedback from students and staffs. I’d like to share a prototype of this journal with more students and staffs to gain different perspectives on whether and how this journal would be helpful for students.

Because I am a math student, questions emerge about how to connect math and humanizing technologists. Since math is commonly considered a very technical subject, which it is indeed, I explored different ways it could be understood and practiced as a humanized subject. Tabi and I had many discussions about what a moral dimension of mathematics, or Moral Mathematics, could look like. Eventually, I created a framework of moral mathematics, an approach and way of understanding and using math considering that impacts of math on humans and society, including 1) life through the mathematical lens, 2) process skills in mathematics, and 3) ethical implications of mathematics. We believe that this framework can be introduced and applied to various technical subjects to better attract students, engage students, and encourage students to think civically, interdisciplinarily, and innovatively. I would love to work with professors and teachers and find ways to implement this framework into math and technical classrooms, whether that is through incorporating experiential learning into the lesson plans or creating spaces students can collaborate and innovate.

I told Tabi that through this experience, I have become so much more interesting and knowledgeable as a person, not just from doing research and reading, but also from observing how she thinks, leads, and communicates. I became more a more intentional story-teller and approached communicating with others from a place of values and visions. And since this internship was a co-creation and learning partnership, I was pushed to be self-motivated and take initiative to steer the direction and assignments of the project. I am extremely grateful for this opportunity to not just be hands-on, but to have agency and “skin-in-the-game”, and get to let my creativity roams freely and to learn so much from doing the work and from my supervisor.