Message from Dean Sive

Dear Northeastern families, alumni and friends, Mrs. Rubin, a substitute Biology teacher during high school, opened my eyes to hands-in education. We had been learning Ecology by rote-memorization, a large number of animal groups, eating one other, up the food chain. One morning, Mrs. Rubin gave each of us four stakes, a ball of twine, a ruler and some containers, instructing us to mark off a 2-foot square plot anywhere we chose on the school grounds. We were to conduct an inventory on our plot to understand how the food chain animals were distributed. We obeyed with glee. I put my plot in the library garden, thrilled to rout around, collecting small beetles, worms, snails, tiny jumping springtails, a spider, and a praying mantis. I have no recollection of what we did with the inventory. Perhaps we realized that most of the animals were herbivores near the bottom of the food chain, and only the lone spider and mantid were carnivores. But the transcendent power of moving from textbook to the real thing has stayed with me across decades, and the immeasurable valuable of learning hands-in.

We do hands-in at Northeastern really well. (It’s usually called hands-on, but my term better reflects the immersive participation involved.) We call it Experiential Education, that leads every student to understand why their academics are so useful. Experiential is in Northeastern’s deepest history, starting with work as a way to pay for college, morphing into work (Co-op) as a way to understand what college is for. This semester, our College of Science Co-op unit hosted a Spring Mixer in Curry Ballroom, with hundreds of undergraduates and graduate students and many employer-partners. The employer-partners told me over and over how pleased they were to connect with our outstanding students. Hands-in Experiential Learning at Northeastern also extends into important research, entrepreneurship, service, and global experiences.

College of Science undergraduates have been enormously successful this year, due to hands-in experiences. As you will read in this issue of Catalyst, COS students are recipients of the prestigious Goldwater Scholarship, Mitchell Scholarship, Fulbright Award and Senior Leadership Award. Our outstanding faculty have taught, mentored, and provided valuable research experiences. I am immensely proud of this effort and achievement.

Every day, College of Science students have opportunities way beyond a two-foot square plot, but the idea is the same. Learn by routing about, hands-in, each student exploring where to put their talent and time.

Thank you, our wonderful alumni, families, and friends for contributing to this experiential landscape. I am deeply grateful for your interest and support, and for your connection with the Northeastern College of Science.

Best regards,