Arizona State University: ASU Celebrates 2 Cohorts Of Leadership Institute Participants

Press release from Arizona State University:

July 14, 2021

Each year, the Arizona State University Alumni Association accepts a cohort of up-and-coming and current leaders into the ASU Leadership Institute. In fall 2019, the Alumni Association welcomed Class 2, made up of 24 members, to Old Main to begin the personal and professional leadership development program.

The ASU Leadership Institute supports individuals in growing professionally in their network, personally in their leadership and connects them back to their alma mater. The monthly Innovation Days provide an in-depth look inside the university and its institutional objectives to demonstrate excellence, access and impact. Additionally, participants take part in other engagement opportunities at ASU including reviewing scholarships, volunteering at ASU Cares and attending presentations.

ASU Leadership Institute Class 3 graduation.
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In spring 2020, the immersive program was brought to a halt as the world figured out how to navigate COVID-19. But a pandemic could not stop this group of Sun Devils from crossing the finish line of this program together and in-person. On June 8, 2021, the Alumni Association was able to reconvene the members of Class 2 to celebrate their graduation from the ASU Leadership Institute and honor the group of rising leaders.

“Every year, I watch the participants from the ASU Leadership Institute create a bond as a cohort,” said Alissa Serignese, vice president of the ASU Alumni Association. “But Class 2 continued to stay connected during the pandemic, checked in on each other and really became a close-knit group. We were so glad we could properly celebrate them with an in-person celebration, even if it took longer than any of us could have imagined.”

In spite of the pandemic, the Alumni Association moved forward with the leadership program. The process of interviewing potential members took place virtually, and the association was able to welcome 20 new members as part of Class 3 for a hybrid experience beginning in fall 2020.

“We had to rethink how to continue offering an immersive program during a unique period of time,” Serignese said. “By August, we were able to invite Class 3 to join us safely on campus following ASU’s Community of Care protocols or provide them the ability to participate via Zoom. By doing this, we were able to include participants from other states and continue to connect this group together as one unit.”

On June 4, 2021, the members of Class 3 celebrated their graduation from the ASU Leadership Institute in-person and via Zoom. Even in a hybrid atmosphere, their experience as a cohort and in the program was nothing less than immersive, engaging and innovative as the program adapted to the times.  

This fall, the ASU Child Study Lab is opening its doors to children once again for in-person instruction and is expanding its virtual classroom. Established by Arizona State University's Department of Psychology in 1972, the Child Study Lab is a preschool where children and families explore, create, learn and grow using a curriculum built on the latest research in child development.

The curriculum at the lab focuses on cognitive, social-emotional, physical and language development for children age 15 months to pre-kindergarten. Children are encouraged to play and self-initiate learning to discover areas of improvement and interest.

This fall, the ASU Child Study Lab is opening its doors to children once again for in-person instruction and is expanding its virtual classroom.
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After piloting a synchronous learning environment with limited-size in-person classes and online participants, the program is expanding capacity to a larger audience with hopes of being back to pre-COVID registration and classroom sizes. 

“We were totally blown away by the suddenness of shutting down our program from COVID,” said Anne Kupfer, director of the Child Study Lab. “We took this unusual and unpleasant time from the pandemic and used it as a chance to innovate. We thought: Can we do this synchronous learning experience at the (Child Study Lab)?”

Children traditionally have been thought to be unable to maintain attention on a screen, but in this pilot run of the synchronous program, the teachers kept the children moving and learning, not just staring at a screen. 

“We had them stand up if they agreed or disagreed,” said Kupfer. “Children learn through play — their bodies remember through the act of embodied cognition. We actually improved some children’s attention spans!”

A key area of development that the Child Study Lab focuses on is emotion regulation, or the ability to manage and respond to an emotional experience. Research has shown that a child’s ability to self-regulate emotion correlates with lifelong success academically and socially. 

“It is so important that children between the ages of 2 and 5 experience a good curriculum of emotion regulation. It really shapes how they handle conflict and stress for the rest of their lives,” said Kupfer. “The (Child Study Lab) truly is a wonderful, magical place, where all the latest research in child development is implemented in the curriculum. We’ve always had a wonderful faculty in child development in the department.”

Another component that makes the lab different from most preschool environments is the inclusion of undergraduate research assistants as part of their child development lab requirements. This allows children to interact with the undergraduates and participate in research projects. 

“The assessments and research projects are a wonderful way for the parents to get to know their children more. The parents are able to see the studies that the children participate in, and it allows the students to experience an important hands-on research component in an active setting,” said Kupfer. 

Over the summer, the Child Study Lab had students participating from multiple different states and even different countries.

“We actually brought the in-person children into small academic groups and had the remote children appear on iPads with the group of children. The online children could participate just as if they were physically present in the classroom,” said Kupfer. "While we are so happy and excited to have more children back in the classroom, we are also equally excited about the possibilities of reaching children that we never thought we could reach before.”

To enroll your child in a virtual or in-person session, visit the Child Study Lab website. 

Video courtesy of Robert Ewing

This press release was produced by Arizona State University. The views expressed here are the author’s own.