Celebration of Learning 2022

The annual Celebration of Learning showcases work by students, faculty and staff at Augustana.

This year the celebration, May 4, 2022, includes poster presentations, interactive sessions and panel presentations.

This year's featured presenters include Uppsala University's Centre for Environment and Development Studies; students Anna Bross and Sarah Allen on their study of chemistry students; and Colleen Kilbride ‘09, senior attorney at the National Immigrant Justice Center.

Poster presentations will be held in the Gerber Center Gävle Rooms from 9-10 a.m. and 1-2:15 p.m.

Oral presentations are offered in sessions from from 10 a.m.-3:45 p.m. in the Olin Center, Old Main, Hanson Hall, Wallenberg Hall in the Denkmann Memorial Building and at the Augustana Teaching Museum of Art.

Honors and achievements

Departmental honors and awards

Student honors celebration

Faculty achievements and publications

Featured presentations

All featured presentations will be held in the auditorium of the Olin Center.

Transcending Boundaries — Student-Driven Education in a Changing World

10-11 a.m.

Dr. Sofia Ahlberg and Malin Östman, Uppsala University

The Centre for Environment and Development Studies is a student-initiated, interdisciplinary center at Uppsala University and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences with the explicit ambition to contribute to a more just and sustainable world.

Student-faculty collaboration weaves as a golden thread through the history and organization of all activities at the center. This presentation will trace the origins of the center, the central role students played in its development and how it has evolved and changed over time.

From Stress to Structure: A Case for Developing Supportive Chemistry Learning Experiences

11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.

Students Anna Bross and Sarah Allen; advisor Dr. Ray Harrison, chemistry

This project began as a look into how general chemistry students' affective experiences indicate barriers to success in the course. From survey data, stress and burnout were identified as some of the more prominent barriers and students frequently mentioned that there was a strong sense of feeling lost. This led us to consider how we are best supporting students in the classroom and how our curriculum, class environment, and activities are best supporting our students to be successful.

Our current focus is now on developing methods to better prepare students for their laboratory activities and provide meaningful and authentic learning experiences.

Bross is a senior from Aurora, Ill., majoring in teaching mathematics, middle grade mathematics and religion.

Allen is a senior from East Moline, Ill., majoring in teaching mathematics and middle grade mathematics.

Turning Passion into a Career

2:30-3:30 p.m.

Colleen Kilbride ‘09, senior attorney at the National Immigrant Justice Center

Colleen Kilbride is a senior attorney at National Immigrant Justice Center based in Chicago. In this role, she specializes in representing formerly separated families seeking asylum and newly arrived asylum seekers at the southern U.S. border.

She graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. in Spanish and received a J.D. with pro bono honors from Georgetown University Law Center.

Her experiences include advocating for detained immigrant mothers separated from their children in southern Texas, survivors of domestic violence in Milwaukee, family-based immigration petitions in El Paso, and detained immigrant children in Chicago. While attending law school at night, she worked in the organized labor movement including a summer at the Culinary Workers Local 226 filing unfair labor practice charges against Trump Hotel in Las Vegas.

Kilbride is the recipient of Augustana's Esbjörn Award for Extraordinary Leadership, presented at the discretion of the president of the college.