Reflections at the end of an academic year

As the academic year draws down, I am sure many of our students are scrambling to complete their course projects, capstone projects, final assignments and, of course, to prepare for the final exams.

By Raghu Santanam, Chair
Department of Information Systems  

As the academic year draws down, I am sure many of our students are scrambling to complete their course projects, capstone projects, final assignments and, of course, to prepare for the final exams. When it is all done, that is the time for all of us — yes, including faculty — to reflect on what we accomplished during this year. John Dewey’s 1910 book “How We Think” lays out the foundations for reflective thinking. Putting the reflective thinking philosophy into practice is, however, very challenging. Reflective thinking enables one to connect experiences with one another. Reflective thinking does not have to be based solely on individual experiences. A shared understanding and reflection of what you learnt in your classes, internships and professional life is as important as reflection on your own individual experiences.

As you reach the end of the semester, take time to reflect on your experiences this year. How are you progressing on your goals? Did your goals change? How did you adapt to unstructured and complex situations you encountered in your projects? How did you cope with difficulties in managing your time between courses, work and personal life? What worked and what did not work? What did you learn from your friends, colleagues, bosses and faculty? My experiences and interactions in exit interviews and capstone project presentations have been fantastic. I am amazed at how well our students are able to reflect upon their learning experiences and how it relates to their future life and careers. Their feedback on our programs and classes have been invaluable in our continuous improvement efforts.

All I can say is that we have a long list of reflective thinking questions for ourselves as faculty and we will be going over them during the summer! In this issue of the newsletter we highlight our outstanding graduating senior, Manoj Panikkar. A triple major (computer information systems, business data analytics and accountancy) with a 4.0 average, Manoj is a great ambassador of our programs. His accomplishments go far beyond the classroom. His community and volunteer service have been truly inspirational. Be sure to read the feature story on him. To those who are graduating in May, we hope to see you at the commencement and graduation events. We wish you the very best and hope to see you back on campus to learn about your experiences and successes!