Faculty Development Fellows

The Faculty Development Fellows Program is designed to provide financial assistance to a faculty member to work on a specific teaching/learning project for one year from April through the following April.  The Fellow will explore the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) around that teaching/learning project and will work with CITAL to share what he or she has learned with other faculty.

The award for the fellowship is $3,000.  This covers a $2,500 stipend and $500 in faculty development funds to work with other faculty, such as books or meals.  In addition, there is another $1,000 available for the Fellow and runners up to attend the annual Midwest Scholarship of Teaching & Learning Conference in South Bend in April.

Potential projects could include:

  • Designing a Scholarship of Teaching & Learning project
  • Developing pre-class assignments to get students ready to learn
  • Creating a Flipped Classroom
  • Using technology/social media to create an active learning environment

The Fellow would be expected to do the following:

  • Develop and run one faculty development workshop and oversee one other FD activity of your choice (round table, book group, teaching square, FLC)
  • Write a blog article on your project
  • Attend and offer to present at the April Midwest SoTL Conference in South Bend for two years (once with next year’s fellow)
  • Hold regular planning meetings with CITAL

Applications for Faculty Development Fellowships shall be submitted to CITAL. All faculty with the rank of lecturer or above are eligible.

Applications will be reviewed by a committee made up of past Faculty Development Fellows. This committee will then select the next Fellow from among the applications received.

These are some comments from past Faculty Development Fellows:

Kristi Bugajski

Biology

“The FDF was an important part of developing a service learning component to one of my courses. The semester that I implemented the new service learning project following my fellowship, I had one group of students raise almost $1,000 to raise awareness for cats with the plague.”

Natalie Krivas

English

“Because of the fellowship, I was able to put my research ideas into practice by engaging students and colleagues in collaborative spaces.  I also attended one conference and presented at two others.”

Lauren & Jesse Sestito (sharing one fellowship)

Mechanical Engineering & Bioengineering

“We did a study investigating how engineering students experience different late work policies. The FDF not only helped us complete our study, but share it broadly with other like-minded faculty on and off campus!”

Alberto Lopez Martin

World Languages & Cultures

“The FDF allowed me to work interdisciplinarily with like-minded colleagues on materials and activities that incorporated environmental and sustainability issues into my classes, ranging from microplastic pollution to regenerative agriculture.”