You did both your undergraduate and graduate work at ̽̽. First a B.S. in Plant and Soil Science then a Master of Education. Would you mind telling us a bit about your history with Vermont and ̽̽?
Christina Fabrey: I initially came to Vermont for the sustainability-focused community, the outdoors, and vibrant arts. It was a community similar in nature to my hometown of Asheville, North Carolina but with more snow (I love winter outdoor sports!). What I found through my experience at ̽̽ though was much deeper. The strong advising relationships and close connections with faculty inspired me to learn more and engage in immersive learning experiences. By my third year of my undergraduate experience, I was managing the student-run farm, engaging in numerous clubs, and serving as a teaching assistant in a couple of classes. Dr. Wendy Sue Harper, Plant and Soil Science faculty member, kept encouraging me to further explore my interest in education. From teaching at the prison in St. Albans to teaching students that were waiting to be engaged in Middlebury, and various experiences in between all confirmed my interest in making a difference in the lives of others through education.
When I asked you if you'd agree to be featured in this newsletter, you said that ̽̽'s Graduate College played an important role in your life because ̽̽ is where you found your love of learning and developed your passion as an educator. That was wonderful to hear. Would you elaborate a bit on how ̽̽ influenced your path for becoming an educator?
Christina Fabrey: I knew that ̽̽’s graduate program would support me in my journey to further develop my experience in the field while aligning with my own values. Specifically, the importance of viewing learners from a holistic perspective since good teaching happens when students' intellectual, emotional, physical, and social needs are considered. I knew that ̽̽’s program contained the necessary elements for helping others to reach their full potential. The program focused on the science of learning, experiential learning, culturally responsive teaching, and strengths-based pedagogy, which are all critical components to equitable and inclusive learning environments.
This past fall you accepted a position as Executive Director of the Student Success Center at Virginia Tech. You have experience in different facets of advising and student support in higher education. What aspects of your new position are you most excited about and what areas do you feel you will have the most impact?
Christina Fabrey: My passion is student success and retention. From one VT (Vermont) to another VT (Virginia Tech), I am most excited about leading a team of amazing professionals that blend the science of learning with best practices in student support. Our role in the Student Success Center is to support our diverse student body by creating a space where individuals are validated as important members of the community and encouraged to learn in a manner that is active, interactive, reflective, and mindful. The Center is a central support at the University and focuses on academic belonging while providing a whole-student experience. Considering that today’s students face new life and societal changes, our Center has an important role in expanding students' knowledge while also helping them become adaptable, resourceful, and self-aware. From leadership programming to academic excellence support, all students can find a place to engage within our Center as a best practice in learning. Our signature programs include academic excellence support (tutoring, coaching, and success seminars), our Black Male Leadership Network (BMEN), scholarship support, and readmissions programming.
You and Heather Keith from Radford University were recently guests on . It is an interesting episode that provides many insights into your book, Resilient and Flexible Teaching (RAFT). Would you briefly define RAFT and provide some key takeaways?
Christina Fabrey: When COVID-19 first appeared in the US (in early 2020), institutions of higher education struggled to adapt, and students were deeply impacted. Heather Keith and I were previously colleagues at Green Mountain College in Poultney, VT, where we had the pleasure of leading a Career, Advising, and Teaching Center—a place that broke down siloes between departments and holistically served both student and faculty needs. We began thinking about the essential practices that needed to be embedded in teaching during these unique times to help both students and faculty to thrive. Resilient and Flexible Teaching (RAFT) is a holistic student-centered pedagogy that engages best practices in remote teaching while also better supporting students as they navigate turbulent times. While this information is useful as we continue to respond to COVID-19, it also is useful in dealing with chaos resulting from things like the impacts of climate change and national unrest.
You referenced John Dewey's idea that education is a social endeavor. I think many people think that it is difficult to make remote teaching/learning social. What are some of the ways that recommend for creating a social space within remote course?
Christina Fabrey: Great question! Engagement shapes a student’s feeling about the institution and their place in it. Remote learning doesn’t have to equate to loss of social connection. By considering classroom rituals involving social engagement or making space for peer collaboration, we can maintain our sense of belonging as we navigate the distance between us. This is especially important because research tells us that students who feel a sense of belonging have stronger academic outcomes. To do this, faculty can embed classroom rituals, which include time to connect with each other. This can include fun activities like ice breakers or can be more content-related where students work on group projects or meet outside of class for office hours. I can also be as simple as providing students with opportunities in class to talk about the content of the course in less structured small groups. Finally, mixing up student groups is important. As we strive towards more equitable campuses, students need to connect with voices that are different from their own. Faculty have a role in facilitating diverse social groups that expand our student’s worldview.
What do you think is most misunderstood about the whole-student approach to education?
Christina Fabrey: One of the most misunderstood pieces of a whole-student approach is that it takes away from teaching content. At the post-secondary level, students are required to juggle academics, social time, internships, family responsibilities, full or part-time work and their health and well-being. This takes time and practice—especially as our lives become more complex. Higher education professionals can help students to become better able to manage their lives so that the student can set priorities, manage time, and better focus on academics. A teaching and learning environment that promotes a resilient, flexible, humane, and empathetic community is good for student learning, for faculty wellbeing, and for a world that needs, now more than ever, educated citizens who are prepared to use their knowledge for good.
I believe you have an interest in embedding holistic student care into faculty development. Would you explain some ways this can happen and include some ideas for embedding resources into larger systems to help facilitate this for faculty?
Christina Fabrey: In our recent , we provide a checklist to help faculty engage in the holistic care of their students, including some simple ideas for making their courses more resilient and flexible. Some of these items include the inclusion of holistic wellness resources on the LMS; providing accessible and affordable class materials; and scaffolded, transparent assessments with clear but flexible deadlines and paths to completion.
If I could wave a magic wand and instantly implement 3 major changes in all American institutes of higher education, what should they be (cost, time, and other such resources aside)?
Christina Fabrey: 1) Holistic education. Education should be viewed as more than depositing content knowledge. Creating a community of care, both in and out of the classroom, increases the learning process and prepares students to negotiate uncertain futures with kindness. Holistic education centers around the relationships that people create with each other/their environment and offers opportunities for more equitable access to learning. 2) Affordable education. Everyone should have a pathway to higher education. At Virginia Tech, the Student Success Center provides a number of scholarship support programs where underserved students receive wrap around support services and work-based experience while covering unmet need. This model combines affordable education with student success and workforce development, opening doors to more equitable education and workplace success. 3) Increased funding in higher education. Financial pressures have caused excellent higher education institutions to cut essential programs and/or close their doors. Vermont, in particular, has been hit hard with three closures between 2019-2020, and several other institutions continue to struggle. Higher education is essential to bringing vibrant energy and new workplace skills to the local communities.
In addition to stress of a deadly pandemic, many students have been experiencing other negative stressors as well, including racial injustices, food insecurity, financial hardship, deaths and illness from COVID-19, loss of jobs, the stress of virtual learning, lack of childcare, etc. During the pandemic, the term "languishing" has been revived—notably in The New York Times article, "There's a Name for the Blah You're Feeling: It's called Languishing" (April 2021). I believe this was the most-read or most-shared articles of the year, and you forwarded it to your co-author. How do you think multiple layers of trauma that students (and others) have been experiencing is captured in the term "languishing," and what are some things that institutions and instructors can do to encourage thriving rather than languishing?
Christina Fabrey: Yes, languishing is a thing for all of us as we continue to persist in the global pandemic. It is important to keep in mind that this is an unprecedented experience, and we are all living with a variety of elevated stressors and maxed-out supports; it's been a long time since we were all grounded in "normal." Everyone has been impacted differently by COVID-19, and we are all doing the best we can. The good news is that we can create teaching and learning environments that support students where they are and as they experience temporary or long-term disruption. Embracing innovative practices, while also being kind to each other, is one of the positive outcomes of our recent stressors. For example, just simply knowing your students name can go a long way in building connection and commitment in the classroom. We can welcome our students more intentionally by fostering a welcoming and flexible classroom environment and by letting them know that we are there to help support them in learning and in challenge. We can be more empathetic in our responses to student needs as they are impacted by on-going stressors. This can be done by instituting positive psychology and trauma-informed pedagogy. Finally, we can help students recognize the resilience they have shown over the recent past and help them bring that resilience to current and future challenges.
The COVID-19 pandemic has certainly been a challenging time in higher education—especially in your areas of work/research. How do you think higher education will be permanently changed by this experience? Are some of these changes for the better?
Christina Fabrey: The pandemic has given us an opportunity to reexamine what we previously thought wasn't possible. It has allowed us to move away from our rigid thinking in terms of student needs and embrace more learner-centered instruction and flexible practices. Practices like universal design in learning are well-researched and have proven to enhance the experiences of all students. The pandemic has provided higher education with opportunities to try on these innovative practices and refine them. Hybrid and blended learning models—with embedded best practices towards student success—will remain a part of higher education moving forward. As a higher education administrator, it is encouraging to think about what is actually possible when we remove the barriers in our own thinking about how things “must” to be. The best ideas come when people are forced to think beyond boundaries. We can be proactive in supporting students through innovation and through listening deeply as they exoress their needs.
The Chronical of Higher Education had an article in a recent issue titled "Why the Science of Teaching is often Ignored." The article makes some interesting points about structure, emphasis, and rewards within institutions. Does this track with some of the work that you have done?
Christina Fabrey: Yes, it does! Student success is everyone’s job—not just one person or one department. Yet, within institutions of higher education, faculty development and support can sometimes be ignored as an important component to student success. Student success is often delegated to student affairs and/or advising and retention staff without any linkage between these departments and faculty. This can create a disconnect and deprive faculty of the opportunity to embrace best practices in student-centered development and programming. The more that we collaborate across campus and the more unified the vision around student success, the more students are likely to make the link between resources and support—both in and out of the classroom.
To end on something fun… What is the most amazing thing that you've discovered so far in your new location (Virginia)?
Christina Fabrey: I love doing the same types of things here that I did in Vermont. Like Vermont, Virginia lends itself to outdoor activities. I love running around campus and also further out into the mountainous trails. One of my most memorable runs was when I bumped into the iconic located outside the Virginia Tech vet school. In researching the piece, I discovered that it was sculpted by a Vermont artist… in a studio that I had run by dozens of times while in Vermont.