Sandy Marshall, associate professor of geology and Center for Research on Global Education (CRGE) intercultural learning scholar, attended the conference and shared research co-authored with Maureen Vandermaas-Peeler, professor of psychology and CRGE director, and Waseem Kasim, assistant professor of history. Their research was featured alongside the work of other international educators focused on Ubuntu philosophy, equitable North���South partnerships, and student empowerment through virtual collaboration.

Scholars and practitioners from Africa, Europe, the Middle East and North America gathered at Universit辿 Internationale de Rabat, Morocco, for the conference. Hosted by Stellenbosch University, Universit辿 Internationale de Rabat, and Al Akhawayn University, the conference focused on advancing intercultural competence and inclusive global partnerships through education, dialogue, and virtual exchange.

The faculty research poster, “Supporting Intercultural Learning through a Mentoring Constellation Model,” explored how relational mentoring within a constellation model can foster intercultural learning and cultural humility. Marshall, Vandermaas-Peeler, and Kasim defined mentoring as a developmental, learner-centered relationship that supports academic, identity and cultural growth.

The research drew connections between mentoring constellations and Ubuntu philosophy, emphasizing mutual respect, reciprocity, and interdependence. The presentation highlighted the importance of cultural humility and critical self-reflection for both mentors and mentees, suggesting that incorporating near-peer mentoring and global experiences can deepen intercultural competence.

The second presentation, “Beyond Competence: COIL as a Tool for Critical Consciousness and Student Empowerment,” featured Marshall in collaboration with Abdalkarim Zawawi and Alia Gilbrecht from An-Najah University in Palestine. The research examined a six-week COIL���Collaborative Online International Learning exchange between students at Elon and An-Najah University.

The study found that Palestinian students gained confidence, communication skills and empowerment to advocate for themselves globally, while U.S. students developed empathy, cultural awareness and a deeper sense of responsibility toward global justice. The project demonstrated COIL’s potential as a critical pedagogy, drawing from Paulo Freire’s concept of conscientization, rather than just a professional development tool. The research emphasized that trust, preparation, motivation and curiosity serve as essential components of successful intercultural exchanges.

Elon’s participation underscores the university’s leadership in intercultural learning and global education research. The presentations connect to Elon’s mission of preparing students for global citizenship through mentorship, dialogue, and experiential learning, while aligning with global educational priorities around equitable partnerships and decolonizing international education.

The conference also featured related sessions on virtual exchange as resistance, Africa���HBCU partnerships, and Ubuntu-informed pedagogy, contextualizing Elon’s contributions within a global movement toward transformative intercultural learning. Through research and practice, Elon continues to advance understanding of how educational institutions can foster meaningful cross-cultural dialogue and prepare students to engage thoughtfully with diverse global communities.

As part of Elon’s monthly Dialogue Dinner Series, the Global Neighborhood hosted the Global Gratitude Dinner to deepen understanding across cultures and to offer a sense of belonging and community for both Elon students and local refugee families resettling in the Burlington area. The dinner provided an opportunity for students, faculty, and local refugee families to share food, stories, and perspectives in a space dedicated to intercultural learning.

“Such gatherings align with Elon’s mission of fostering Global Citizenship,” shared Sandy Marshall, Global Neighborhood faculty director and intercultural learning scholar for the Center for Research on Global Engagement. “This event served as a living example of intercultural learning.”

The evening featured personal and cultural reflections by Ashraaf Saad, an employment specialist at Church World Service who came to the U.S. from Afghanistan in 2023. Saad shared stories about migration, resilience and belonging that highlighted the experiences of refugees adapting to life in a new country. The remarks emphasized community collaboration and the importance of shared spaces that foster understanding between refugees and local residents.

Guests also heard from community leaders, including Anal Khdour, representing the Al-Aqsa Clinic, and Munib Sayyid and Imam Shaher Sayid from the Burlington Masjid. Million Mekonnen, executive director of the North Carolina African Services Coalition, attended along with board members, staff and refugee youth from Greensboro. Refugee families from the Burlington area also participated in the evening, contributing to the rich tapestry of voices and experiences shared throughout the gathering.

The event promoted student engagement through interactive “Dialogue Across Difference” activities, where participants shared experiences about home, belonging, and gratitude. Guests answered thoughtful prompts such as “Where do you call home and why?”, “Describe a time you felt welcomed somewhere new” and “What is one thing you are grateful for?” These conversations created meaningful connections across cultural and geographic backgrounds, allowing participants to find common ground while honoring their unique stories.

The evening also featured an interactive trivia session that sparked laughter and learning, with questions about Afghan history, African geography and facts about Muslim-majority countries. The activity brought together global and cultural knowledge in a welcoming, educational format that engaged guests of all ages.

The Global Gratitude Dinner is organized through partnerships with Church World Service, the North Carolina African Services Coalition, Burlington Masjid and other local refugee support organizations. These partnerships reflect Elon’s commitment to intercultural learning and global citizenship through dialogue and meaningful community engagement.

The Global Neighborhood works to engage students in developing a global perspective while emphasizing core values of respect, reflection and engagement with local and global communities. The dinner reinforced the Global Neighborhood pledge to “work for the common good” and “develop a global perspective” in connection with personal growth. Through events like the monthly Dialogue Dinner Series, Elon creates opportunities for students to practice intercultural understanding while building relationships with community members whose experiences expand perspectives and deepen appreciation for the interconnected nature of our world.

The presentation, entitled ���Se un bambino americano, uno scandinavio e uno italiano ������ included an Italian moderator, Dr. Maria Francesca Freda, a clinical psychologist at the Universita’ Degli Studi di Napoli.

Vandermaas-Peeler’s research, a continuation of her spring 2024 sabbatical project, represents an international collaboration with colleagues in Denmark and the Netherlands to study young children’s perspectives on a good childhood through drawing, photography, and stories.

The presentation, entitled “Crafting a successful education abroad research experience: Professional development for mentoring 消消犯 research in global contexts (MUR-GC),” features an on-going collaboration between Whitehead and Vandermaas-Peeler, a senior fellow at AAC&U, to study MUR-GC.

The DIS collaborators have written a chapter on their MUR-GC model for a forthcoming CEL open access book on MUR-GC edited by Vandermaas-Peeler and Whitehead.

Hollingsworth is spending the summer working at the Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning (CATL), and continuing the project through an independent study. During the spring 2025 semester, Hollingsworth began a 4999 research credit with Jill McSweeney, assistant director of the CATL and assistant professor of wellness, on a project centered around creating a board game that assists first-year students with their transition into university.

First-year 消消犯 students experience social (e.g. making friends), academic (e.g. harder subject material), and/or emotional (e.g. loneliness) challenges transitioning to university, which can impact student mental health and lead to a reduction in student success and retention. The project uses game-based learning, which offers a dynamic, interactive and self-directed way to engage first-year students while equipping them with essential skills for navigating social, academic and emotional transitional challenges.

This project was developed in collaboration with faculty members at the , a large public research university.

“Their perspective of the first-year experience is slightly different from Elon���s, which allows us to test our research in a broader environment,” said Hollingsworth. “For example, the University of Iceland is not a residential university and therefore scenarios regarding living on campus or having a roommate are not applicable. Similarly, a lot of students are not entering their first year right from high school, many having full-time jobs, families, or previous degrees when they come in.”

The game is inspired by games such as “The Game of Life,” where students move around a board representing their first year at university, encountering scenarios depicting common dilemmas or events that they might encounter at real life university.

For example, players may experience an event around completing a roommate agreement, just like students do at Elon; or have to choose between studying or going to a campus event with friends the night before a midterm. By completing dilemmas and events, students are presented with decisions that they will have to make throughout their first year, often around things that they may not have thought about.

These decisions have consequences, sometimes it might be negative and they might increase their stress (a natural response they will have to learn to balance through their first year, and in our game something that students will want to manage through engaging with pathways like taking a yoga class with Elon’s 消消犯 Recreation and Health Promotion), and/or develop a skill (either academic, social, or emotional) allowing them to decide how they might like to personally develop over their first year.

“The game encourages students to reflect on the importance of their first year being much more than just their academic experience,” said Hollingsworth. “Engaging in activities and being accountable for their decisions allows them to grow and complete the goals that they have chosen for themselves, and of course, completing goals allows them to get victory points to win the game. Through the exposure to issues that students might face by playing this game, we hope that they will become more prepared for their transition into university.”

This summer, Hollingswoth has continued the project, spending time refining mechanics and creating a physical version for playtesting. Playtesting is important in game design because it allows the designer to receive important feedback to improve the game. Hollingsworth and her collaborators did an initial playtest with three Elon faculty and staff 消消犯 Elon 1010 in the fall, and from their feedback, they continued to adjust and refine the game in order to have a full prototype to test with our international collaborators from Iceland.

With the help of funding from the Center for Research on Global Engagement (CRGE), Hollingsworth was also able to travel to Iceland to work with her collaborators from the University of Iceland, where they did three rounds of playtesting. First, they playtested with two students, and others from the university then with two groups of four, combining faculty and staff from the university.

“The trip to Iceland was a wonderful experience to improve our research and model international research collaboration, but also to explore Iceland,” said Hollingsworth.

Hollingsworth will continue to edit the game based on feedback and will collect data from having Elon 1010 classes play this game next fall. Similarly, collaborators in Iceland intend to collect data during one of their introductory university courses in the fall.

The event features a poster session and a catered reception, providing an opportunity for faculty to share their SoTL projects and reflect on their research journeys. It is co-sponsored by the Center for Engaged Learning (CEL), the Center for Research on Global Engagement (CRGE), the Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning (CATL) and the Center for Writing Excellence (CWE).
Faculty members who have participated in programming from these centers will present their research on innovative 消消犯 practices. This year���s presenters include:

From the (CEL):

• Aaron Trocki, associate professor of mathematics, presenting his 2023-2025 CEL Scholar work.
• Olivia Choplin, associate professor of French, presenting her multi-institutional team���s project from the 2023-2025 research seminar on Mentoring Meaningful Learning Experiences.

From the Center for Writing Excellence (CWE) and the Writing Across the University (WAU) program:

• Travis Maynard, assistant professor of English/professional writing & rhetoric, presenting on his WAU-supported work.
• Cheng Chen, assistant professor of communication design, and Qian Xu, professor of Strategic Communications, presenting on their WAU-supported work.

From the Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning (CATL):

• Elizabeth von Briesen, assistant professor of computer science.
• Courtney Liu, assistant professor of music theatre.

From the Center for Research on Global Engagement (CRGE):

• Sandy Marshall, associate professor of geography and CRGE Intercultural Learning Scholar, presenting his work on Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL).
• Bill Burress, director of assessment and accreditation; Heidi Hollingsworth, associate professor of education and director of Master of Education; Mark Enfield, associate professor of education and chair of the Department of Education and Wellness; and Jeffrey Carpenter, William S. Long Professor and professor of Education, presenting their research on the benefits of international field experiences for pre-service teachers.

In this two-part session, the co-facilitators introduced the UNESCO Story Circles methodology, developed by Darla K. Deardorff, as a means for fostering cross-cultural empathy, respect and understanding through personal narratives.

Also presenting at the confernece were Danielle Lake, director of the Center for Design Thinking and Marshall, along with student Rony Dahdal and Hector Perez, on the Power & Place Collaborative. Their presentation was titled, “Localizing Global Engagement Across Intercultural and Intergenerational Divides: Stories and Strategies.” In their session they shared strategies for cultivating meaningful intercultural and intergenerational learning that have emerged from a place-based storytelling project led by The Power+Place Collaborative, a community-university partnership located in Alamance County.

Stephen Braye, professor of English, led a pre-conference workshop on “The Missing Piece: Enhancing Student Learning through Effective Re-Entry Programs.”

This week marks International Education Week (IEW), hosted by the Isabella Cannon Global Education Center (GEC) including a series of seventeen events and programming from Sept. 15 to 20. The 2024 theme, ���The Many Faces of Elon: On 消消犯 & Beyond,��� reflects the university���s commitment to broadening students’ perspectives and enhancing global awareness through local, national and international lenses.

IEW, a collaborative initiative of the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Department of Education, aims to highlight the importance of international education. 消消犯���s celebration is designed to emphasize the richness of diversity on campus, in the surrounding Alamance County community and beyond. It also fits into the comprehensive internationalization approach undertaken in the University���s new global strategic plan.

���IEW highlights how global Elon already is, by lifting up the good work that is already happening within our community,” said Nick Gozik, dean of global education. “This year���s theme reminds us that global learning is not something that happens overnight. It���s a lifelong pursuit that helps us be better prepared to engage with people who are different from us. It also recognizes that such learning can happen both close to home and further afield such as through Study USA, study abroad, or studying at Elon as an international student.���

Highlights of the week include an International Soccer Tournament, the Faces of Alamance County Storywalk and a screening of the documentary Cooked: Survival by Zip Code. Attendees can also enjoy a communal dinner and book reading with refugee families, participate in spaghetti ice cream making with the German Club, and experience traditional Italian tarantella dancing. This week’s International Coffee Hour will be held at Numen Lumen Pavilion, co-hosted by the Truitt Center for Religious and Spiritual Life and the GEC, and the week will culminate with the Mid-Autumn Festival. Additionally, the GEC will host a Study Away Fair for students interested in learning more about study abroad and Study USA.

A full list of activities can be found on the IEW website.

���We have so many departments and programs on campus who have helped with IEW and help our campus community engage globally on a daily basis,” said Cass North, a master’s of higher education student and GEC graduate apprentice, who also praised the students who volunteered on the IEW committee.

Participating units include the Center for Race, Ethnicity, and Diversity Education��(CREDE), World Languages and Cultures, the Global Neighborhood, the Center for Research on Global Engagement (CRGE) and International and Global Studies (IGS).

Developing AI assignment policies & AI-enhanced writing assignments
Monday, Sept. 9 & Tuesday, Sept. 17, 12:30 p.m. to 1:40 p.m.
113 Belk Library & 205 Belk Library

Both workshops (the same workshop held twice) will discuss what is commonly included in AI syllabi and assignment policies, share some examples, and review ways to integrate AI into writing assignments. Time will be reserved for participants to begin writing or revising their own AI policies and writing assignments, with the opportunity to share in small groups. Bring a laptop, as this will be a working session. Lunch will be served, so please

AI prompt engineering as a writing strategy
Monday, Oct. 21, 12:30 p.m. to 1:40 p.m.
205 Belk Library
Led by Tim Peeples and Paula Rosinski

Prompt engineering is a new kind of writing strategy emerging in this age of generative AI. Before this session, participants will be asked to complete a LinkedIn Learning video tutorial and a set of simple step-by-step prompt engineering activities. All faculty and staff have access to LinkedIn Learning, and detailed directions will be provided. The session will focus on experiences with these tutorials, along with activities that explore how prompt engineering could be integrated into professional lives and writing pedagogies. Lunch will be served, so please��

Doing 消消犯-related scholarship? We have grants for that!
Tuesday, Nov. 5, 12:15 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Belk Pavilion 208

Did you know there are lots of funding opportunities on campus to support your scholarly 消消犯 and scholarship of 消消犯 and learning?��Join us to hear from colleagues who have utilized funding from WAU, the Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning (CATL) and the Center for Research on Global Engagement (CRGE) to explore 消消犯-related scholarship. Faculty panelists will share their work and how their 消消犯 curiosities formed into projects. Participants will then have time to reflect on potential grant ideas based on their 消消犯. Panelists include Aaron Trocki (math), Elizabeth von Briesen (computer science), Dan Burns (English), Kai Swanson (cinema and television arts), and Nermin Vehabovic (education). The directors of WAU, CATL and CRGE will explain their respective grants, expectations and deadlines. Lunch will be served, so please��.

AI & writing book club #1:��Monday, Oct. 7, 4:20 p.m. to 5:20 p.m.
AI & writing book club #2:��Wednesday, Nov. 6, 4:20 p.m. to 5:20 p.m.
AI & writing book club #3: Monday, Nov. 18, 4:30 p.m. to 5:20 p.m.
113 Belk Library

These three book club events will discuss Sidney Dobrin���s , an accessible introduction to what generative AI is, how it may be used in academic, professional, civic and personal writing and the ethical and social implications of using AI to write.

Book Club #1 will focus on ���Part 1: Understanding Generative AI’; Book Club #2 will focus on ���Part 2: Opportunities & Applications,�����and in Book Club #3, participants will discuss ways they might use AI in their writing, when 消消犯 writing and for engaged learning. Participants are encouraged to attend all three��sessions, although this is not required. Colleagues from Eastern Michigan University will join online for the Book Club #3 discussion. After registering, participants will be notified when they can pick up the book in the Center for Writing Excellence. Snacks will be served, so please��

Informal & reflective writing-to-learn
Monday, Nov. 12, 12:30 p.m. to 1:40 p.m.
113 Belk Library

This session will explore ways to use informal and reflective writing in any discipline or context to help students learn content and engage in metacognitive thinking. Not only do these examples of writing-to-learn deepen student thinking, but they also highlight the importance of engaging in metacognitive talk about writing, something which has always been important to developing strong writers but may be of special interest to 消消犯 in the age of generative AI.��Lunch will be served, so please .

Changing the narrative

SURE is about more than just researching a topic ��� the students are exploring personal questions and interests that can spark wide-ranging, impactful conversations.

���I want to change the narrative,��� said Fiona Hodge ���26, whose research focuses on the intersectionality of queer college student identity.

Hodge, a psychology major and vice president of the Undergraduate Research Student Association (URSA) identifies as a member of the LBGTQ community and noticed a gap in the research around queer people.

���The previous research focused on discrimination and talking about queer people, but not focusing on their own perspectives,��� said Hodge. ���So, I want to provide research that���s by queer researchers for queer people.���

SURE provides an opportunity for students to work with faculty and gain meaningful research experience over the summer, without the pressure of other courses during a typical semester. 消消犯 apply for the opportunity, which usually takes place during the summer before the junior or senior year.

���Undergraduate research has been shown to have a lot of great benefits for students and faculty, thinking about developing critical thinking and communication skills, which is evident at the SURE presentations,��� said Eric Hall, director of 消消犯 research and interim assistant provost for scholarship and creative activity. ���Presenting at conferences is the way we show our research findings, and this shows students what it would be like if they go to a regional or national conference.���

Hodge first started doing research this year and says the experience has gone well, especially with the help of her mentor Adam Kim, assistant professor of psychology.

���This is my first-time presenting research. I���m excited. It feels really cool to see your research come to life,��� Hodge said. ���My mentor pushes me to work harder and be more creative, to think outside of the box and not just come up with an okay question but with an interesting question.���

Queerness in the classroom

The child of two educators, a future teacher and a queer-identifying student, Lindsey Hefty ���25 also turned to her LGBTQ+ identity for research.

���I wanted to combine my major of elementary education with my minor in women���s, gender and sexualities studies with all the discourse surrounding queerness in schools. There���s been a lot of negativity,��� said Hefty, who is also an Elon Teaching Fellow. ���There is a lot of legislation that���s making it impossible for queer identifies to exist in educational spaces.���

The debate over LGBTQ+ issues in public schools has been a hot-button political issue in the last several years. In 2023, North Carolina passed the�� ���Parents Bill of Rights,��� which requires teachers to notify parents if a student questions their gender or uses different pronouns.

In collaboration with her mentor, Associate Professor of English and Chair of the Department of English Kevin Bourque, Hefty interviewed LGBTQ+ educators and fielded survey responses from across North Carolina.

���We are looking for less obvious ways that queerness is happening in the classroom, less safe space posters and more covert incorporations of identity, and that���s a lot of what we���ve found,��� said Hefty. ���It���s also been really inspiring to talk to other queer educators about their experiences and stories.���

Hefty said she and Bourque fit together well ��� both being queer-identifying and interested in further exploring queer studies.

���Lindsey has been a pleasure to work with: thoughtful, perceptive, creative, good-natured, smart and funny. I love how her research ties not only to her professional goals, but also her outlook on the world,��� Bourque said.

Using research to help

Research was one of the main reasons Natalie Peeples ���26 and Archie Tan ���25 chose to attend Elon with 消消犯 research being one of the Five Elon Experiences. Two of those experiences are needed for the Experiential Learning Requirement (ELR) to graduate. 消消犯 earn two ELRs for their participation in SURE.

Both Peeples and Tan are Lumen Scholars ��with their SURE research being an extension of that work as well. Tan, the president of URSA, is a computer science major researching using artificial intelligence to detect pancreatic cancer.

���Right now, technology is growing super-fast, even for the people in the field, it���s really hard to catch up,��� said Tan, who is also a first-generation college student. ���I want to help people utilize advanced technology in their daily life. I want to use the technology to help people.���

Peeples��� topic is helping people in a different way ��� looking at what she describes as an understudied area in childhood well-being. The psychology major is interviewing parents of four-to five-year-old children in the US and asking them about what they think is important for early childhood, later she will talk with parents in Denmark, comparing the two countries.

���Denmark and the U.S. focus on very different things when it comes to childhood,��� said Peeples, who is also an Honors Fellow. ���In Denmark, they are focused more on play and outdoor time, while in the US, the focus is more on academics.���

A good childhood

Finding the parents to interview has been easy for Peeples through the dance classes she teaches at Elon DanceWorks. Her mother is also a pre-school teacher. Her mentor Maureen Vandermaas-Peeler, professor of psychology and director of the Center for Research on Global Engagement, is helping to find parents in Denmark, which they will talk with over the next few months. Peeples plans to go to Denmark next summer to complete her Lumen and Honors thesis research.

���My mentor has taught me about resilience and organization, while making sure that you take time for yourself, your own mental health and well-being because it can be draining trying to do all these things at once,��� said Peeples.

The two began working together in fall 2023 and Vandermaas-Peeler says Peeples has enthusiastically embraced the project.

���She���s grown tremendously throughout these intensive weeks and SURE has been exceptional preparation for the next two years as Natalie explores these concepts in the U.S. and in Denmark,��� Vandermaas-Peeler said. ���I feel very fortunate to be in a mentoring relationship with Natalie and support her intellectual journey.���

What does it mean to believe?

Growing up Catholic, Kiara Cronin ���25 is tapping into her perceptions of religion ��� looking at how others in her generation (Generation Z) view faith and spirituality, compared to Generation X.

���Spirituality can mean different things for different people,��� said Cronin, who is majoring in human service studies. ���I see people on social media saying they are spiritual but not religious or they believe in a higher power, but not necessarily God. I thought it was interesting how my generation is open about not subscribing to a certain religion and how that differs from someone in my mom���s generation.���

The project grew out of Cronin���s work as a Multifaith Scholar through the Center for the Study of Religion, Culture and Society, in collaboration with her mentor Senior Lecturer in Human Service Studies Sandra Reid. Cronin is also an Isabella Cannon Leadership Fellow and connected with Reid through the Disarming Injustice course which all the fellows are required to take, along with a Civil Rights Leadership Tour.

Cronin interviewed people about their thoughts on religion and spirituality and held focus groups on the topic. The culmination of the research will be a podcast miniseries about her findings.

���A surprising response from people is that they don���t want to get rid of the traditional ritual acts or traditional values, because that is what makes the church what it is,��� she said. ���But they do think, to some degree, there has to be some change in how the church interacts with young people.���

Just the start

Before this project, Cronin had never done an extensive research project, so she found the process intimidating at first, something Garrett Schmiederer ���25 can relate to.

���It���s been time consuming, and difficult at times, but I���m enjoying it so far,��� said Schmiederer, an exercise science major who hopes to become an athletic trainer. ���I���ve always wanted to do research and it���s been a learning experience.���

Schmiederer���s topic looks at concussions in student athletes and their effect on headaches and sleep. His research is still developing, and he plans to have more data by the end of the fall semester and present at the Spring Undergraduate Research Forum in 2025.

���It���s just the start so far,��� said Schmiderer. ���I���m giving them an ImPACT test, which is a concussion baseline test and then after that I���m giving them a survey that is about quality of sleep, if they have headaches or migraines and how it���s affecting their quality of life.���

Schmiederer is mentored by Caroline Ketcham, associate dean of Elon College, the College of Arts and Sciences and professor of exercise science, and Hall, who is also his academic adviser.

���I���ve had a lot of success as a scholar myself, but I enjoy talking to students and working with them to develop something and see their success,��� said Hall. ���It���s amazing to see the topics and say ���Wow that���s impressive,��� but then when you talk to the students at the presentations and they are able to translate what they���ve done to me, who���s not in their field, is really impressive.���