Hannah Joy Root How About We Pick Up the Phone and Call

“How about we pick up the

phone and by Kelly Schmutte & Megan Stariha just call everyone?”

This spring, Teaching and Learning found ourselves struggling to know how best to support students. We mobilized a “Student Community & Support Task Force” and brainstormed ways we could continue to offer community-building events and ways of connecting online. At first, we asked a few students what events would be interesting to them, but we realized quickly that student bandwidth for making new connections was really low. They didn’t have room for more gatherings. It seemed much more valuable to reach out to students and just talk to see how they were doing.

We’d already talked to a few students, so why not call them all? A core team of Megan Stariha,

Kelly Schmutte, Hannah Joy Root, Milan Drake, and Amanda Tiet reached out individually to nearly 200 students over the second half of

spring quarter. Students were surprised and incredibly appreciative of the outreach. Many were so grateful for their d.school classes and instructors that they also participated in a special surprise thank-you video for our spring teaching teams.