{"id":6007,"date":"2020-05-19T10:46:44","date_gmt":"2020-05-19T14:46:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/hub\/?p=6007"},"modified":"2022-08-02T13:43:46","modified_gmt":"2022-08-02T17:43:46","slug":"resilience-through-real-world-challenges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/hub\/resilience-through-real-world-challenges\/","title":{"rendered":"Resilience through real-world challenges"},"content":{"rendered":"

An XCC classroom isn\u2019t exactly your typical classroom. If you were to take a pick and waltz into any of the classes mapped across the campus, you\u2019d find a mosaic of experiences carefully tied together to foster an environment where you\u2019re asked to say \u201ccreative\u201d before you say hello.<\/p>\n

The pieces of that mosaic appear when the ordinary confines of a classroom spill into the streets of the city. It\u2019s in those moments when students tour Boston\u2019s alleys and passages to acquaint themselves with tales that slip through the nooks and crannies of history. Sometimes, those moments appear in the time before a class starts.<\/p>\n

Music filters in from personalized Spotify lists while students discuss the best way to finance a large scale global music festival that invites hoards of music aficionados close to the stage. Meanwhile, some have students shuffling in the back, making tik tok videos and collating data points as part of a social media campaign for a social equity cannabis business.<\/p>\n

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Going in, XCC student Sebastian Coymat, a senior at Questrom, was interested in learning more about Massachusetts\u2019 recreational cannabis industry. The long-drawn process of getting licensed and financing a business were some of the issues that he was aware of. A guest lecture by Boston Globe\u2019s Dan Adams<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>who has followed the cannabis industry since its inception revealed just how complicated the situation was.<\/p>\n

Coymat partnered with other undergrads forming an interdisciplinary team indicative of XCC. His expertise in finance found grounds to interact with his teammates who had backgrounds in political science, public relations and health sciences. Together, these unlikely partners have built an online game in collaboration with Massachusetts Recreational Consumer Council<\/span><\/a> that would help social equity applicants hoping to set up a cannabis store figure out the right pathways.<\/p>\n

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Click to view students’ presentation<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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The birth of a vision<\/strong><\/p>\n

Coymat\u2019s story is just one of many XCC stories that reflect its goals and was sought when the first few chapters of the program were being conceived. \u201cXCC was birthed when the university envisioned the HUB\u2013\u2013the new general education program,\u201d said Prof Sandra Deacon Carr<\/span><\/a>, Faculty Director at the Cross-College Challenge. \u201cIt was envisioned as the signature experience of the BU HUB in which students after they have had a couple of years of education, would be able to come together and really leverage that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea here was to train students to meet the complex needs of the real world and get them ready for their eventual careers,\u201d she said. The interdisciplinary nature of the program was critical. \u201cWhat we’re hoping to do is bring in different perspectives together to help address complex problems that require more than one perspective,\u201d she said. Designed as a course that offers high-level, project-based classes to juniors and seniors at BU, XCC allows students to broaden their education in ways that they weren’t able to before, she said.<\/p>\n

The intersection of varied ideas comes through in the way the program is structured. Project proposals are gathered from a variety of organizations such as \u00a0<\/span>826 Boston<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>BU Arts Initiative<\/span><\/a>, and the <\/span>Mayor\u2019s Office of New Urban Mechanics<\/span><\/a>.<\/span>\u00a0These community partners collaborate with faculty to apply academic rigor to real-world topics for students.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, upperclassmen from different schools and colleges across BU get sorted into teams where they can learn from each other and bring their own experiences and skills that they have gained at BU into the classroom and the project.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is so that they can together look at addressing, researching, solving issues, coming up with solutions, innovating in ways that you can’t do on your own and in ways that often don’t happen within a discipline,\u201d Deacon Carr said.<\/p>\n

Deacon Carr, who has worked extensively on team building and organizational behavior, said that students often tend to get specialized within their disciplines. XCC allows them the flexibility that they may need going forward into the world and required in jobs that they\u2019re going to have. \u201cThey are prepared to really adapt and work with others who see things quite differently,\u201d she said<\/p>\n

This was true for Sophie Richards, a political science major at CAS, who had teamed up with Coymat to build an online game to help social equity applicants. \u201cI know that I couldn\u2019t have spoken with Questrom students anywhere else,\u201d she said. \u201cAs a political science major my course revolves so much around the economy but I hardly ever get to explore more of that.\u201d Learning the tricks of the trade through this process of collaboration has helped Richards gain more insight in her major.<\/p>\n

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Click to view XCC faculty page (login required)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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XCC also posits a great opportunity for faculty at BU. \u201cFaculty that have been involved in XCC really enjoy the opportunity to collaborate with others from a different school and to really bring two lenses to bear in guiding the students forward,\u201d Deacon Carr said.<\/p>\n

Professor James Grady (CFA<\/span><\/a>) and <\/span>BU Spark Director Ziba Cranmer<\/span><\/a>, who lead the <\/span>XCC Spark Fellowship Program<\/span><\/a>,<\/span>\u00a0have had long careers in design and product innovation.<\/p>\n

Much like their students, they\u2019ve been able to put together their expertise and life experiences to help their students develop software that range from providing aides to the disabled to building time management mechanisms to alleviate stress among students.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always say that the most difficult aspect about work is the people and not the task itself,\u201d Cranmer said. \u201cWe all try to organize people to get to the shared outcomes, steer each other to synchronize.\u201d After matching strengths and tweaking the weaknesses, Cranmer was able to find a conducive balance while collaborating with Grady. \u201cThis is the philosophy we try to model in our classroom,\u201d Cranmer said.<\/p>\n

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Click to view students’ posters<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Agility through adversity<\/strong><\/p>\n

After crossing the BU bridge, a few blocks ahead lies the location of XCC\u2019s \u201cCross-Cultural Exploration of Music\u201d section. Here the students spent the entire semester analyzing performance and art to understand the society.<\/p>\n

Developing an analytical bent of mind is a primary goal of this course because it helps students understand the nitty-gritty of event management and why an event as big as \u00a0<\/span>BU\u2019s Global Music Festival<\/span><\/a> matters. Music often is the string that intertwines the moving pieces in the anatomy of a community.<\/p>\n

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Noor Mchallah, a student at the College of Arts and Sciences, was supposed to help build campaigns to support outreach to high schools and middle schools in and around Boston. \u201cWe made advertisements and posters in different languages because we knew how multilingual schools are and how we often fail to recognize that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

But outreach becomes a tricky process to conduct in times of a sudden pandemic. \u201cWe just weren’t sure how we were going to reach out to these students anymore,\u201d she said. But Mchallah and her team continued to power through and looked at online strategies to make up for real-time connections lost by distance and time.<\/p>\n

\u201cXCC courses were not designed to be remote,\u201d Deacon Carr said. \u201cThe experiential nature of XCC where people get together to work on problems, interact with their faculty as well as reach out to community partners was by design was an intensive in-person experience,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Added to the fact is XCC\u2019s extensive cohort of international students. Evangeline Wang, a student at the College of Arts and Sciences, was quarantined in a hotel room in China when she logged in to perform her final piece. She had no materials at hand. Yet when the clock hit 7 pm eastern time, Wang tuned and created art with bare supplies at her disposal during the 2nd BU Puppet Slam.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have been so proud of the faculty and the students in their ability to take what was designed as an in-person experience and be creative in how they’ve adapted their courses,\u201d Deacon Carr, who was one of the audience members, said.<\/p>\n

Led by Prof. Felice Amato (CFA)<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>Prof. Jessica Bozek (CAS)<\/span><\/a>, Wang and her classmates teamed up with doctoral students to showcase research questions ranging from critical race theory to biochemistry through puppets.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is a course that was completely designed to be physical and physically in person, right?\u201d Deacon Carr said. \u201cTo put on a show, and adapt everything to a virtual performance was absolutely outstanding given all the challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n