Associate Professor of English Kelley Kreitz, PhD, is ready to tackle a new challenge. In addition to her teaching and research, Kreitz began work as the director of experiential learning and the Pace Path, a reimagined position in the Provost’s Office, in January. Kreitz has exciting plans for building on Pace’s strong foundation of learning by doing, while continuing to move forward in student success.

We chatted with Kreitz to learn more.

What does this role encompass and what interested you in taking it on?

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My charge in the role centers on working within the University and externally to make progress on our strategic plan goal of being the leader in our region in experiential education. I was excited to have the opportunity to take on this role because I was involved in the strategic plan work itself as a faculty representative for the New York Faculty Council. We identified experiential learning as the source of many of our greatest successes—one that, with additional focus and support, can also help us to differentiate ourselves and appeal to students even more.

Our strengths in experiential learning run throughout our schools and our liberal arts core curriculum, which includes opportunities to participate in classroom-based research and civic engagement projects.

These strengths include:

• How in Dyson, an emphasis on learning through making and doing runs through our programs in the sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities, including our Pace University Art Gallery, which serves as a learning lab for our students and our Animal Advocacy Clinic, which is run as an experiential course.
• How Lubin takes advantage of our locations in New York City and the Hudson Valley to provide students with opportunities to work with real companies—in the classroom and in co-curricular initiatives, such as the student-led businesses run through our Center for Student Enterprise.
• How Seidenberg has a project-based approach, as modeled by the Design Factory and the Blue CoLab.
• How School of Education students develop their own hands-on pedagogy for their future students, as in our Science Methods course.
• How the College of Health Professions students’ practicum and field work requirements provide opportunities to learn in and with our communities, as do their classroom experiences, such as a recent Occupational Therapy and Analysis course in which students created their own podcasts about the course content.
• How experiential learning defined and regulated in Haub Law School through the American Bar Association takes the form of initiatives meeting local needs, such as the Environmental Litigation Clinic and the Immigration Justice Clinic.
• And how our new Sands College of Performing Arts will provide students hands-on experience in producing, directing, acting, and dancing in their own shows.

How do you hope Pace can make its work in experiential learning clearer to both internal and external communities and continue to build on an already strong foundation?

For the first phase of the work, which started in January and will continue through August, I have focused on two main goals: the first is clarifying internally how we define experiential learning. I have met with faculty members and administrative leaders to better understand experiential learning from different perspectives and throughout our schools. The second goal centers on increasing understanding Pace’s approach to experiential learning in comparison to what other institutions of higher learning are doing.

Your job title includes both experiential learning and the Pace Path. In your own words, what is the Pace Path? What is its relationship to experiential learning?

The Pace Path is a mechanism for ensuring that all students have consistent, high-quality experiential opportunities throughout their undergraduate education at Pace. This is why I started with clarifying and building community around our experiential pedagogy. That clarity will enable us to strengthen our delivery of the Pace Path, which provides our students with a competitive advantage.

Our students start with opportunities in the first year to explore academically and to engage in research, community-engagement, and other projects. Those projects help students build their resumes and identify possible career interests, which they can explore further through the Career Communities, launched this past fall by Career Services. The Career Communities help students to determine how to communicate their academic and co-curricular experiences on a resume, while also guiding them in identifying internships that are best connected to their interests and skill sets. Students might try several different career possibilities through internships (for some, the Pace Path may include some loops and dead ends), giving them a chance to achieve clarity about their personal and professional goals, in addition to developing relevant academic knowledge and professional skills by the time they graduate.

I would also like to add that the Pace Path is about the undergraduate experience, but experiential education is not limited to undergraduate education. Many graduate programs are highly experiential, and they also contribute to our reputation as a leader in experiential education.

In your experience, why is experiential learning such an effective pedagogical technique?

At its best, experiential learning empowers students to take charge of their own learning. At its most ambitious, experiential learning also represents a sea change in pedagogy. Classrooms at all kinds of educational institutions, including institutions of higher learning, have historically provided a one-way flow of information from the professor-as-expert to the student-as-learner. Experiential pedagogy moves toward more of a partnership model. Students become partners in learning and, at times, in producing knowledge. This happens in different forms across all of our schools.

For example, when I teach introductory Latinx literature courses, we start with the 19th century, and we talk about the Spanish-language publishing that was happening right around this neighborhood as a beginning of Latinx writing in the United States. In one assignment, students create a digital map for which they each research a site of the Spanish-language press in the 19th century. Their combined sites on the map reveal that there was a vast, thriving Spanish-language publishing community in the neighborhood where Pace’s Lower Manhattan campus now resides. We build on that assignment with an additional archival research assignment, through which the students contribute their own analyses of understudied materials.

When we are engaging students in experiential learning, we are giving them the chance to do their own research and learning. And in turn, those projects become demonstrations of students’ independence, creativity, ability to collaborate, and more. In other words, experiential learning is about making students competitive for great internships and jobs—and it is also about so much more. Experiential pedagogy is also a means of increasing student participation in the production of knowledge. It is about empowering students to become makers of the world in which they want to live, through whichever of the many career paths and roles in their communities that our comprehensive university prepares them to choose.

In addition, student participation—especially when combined with community collaboration—in creating understanding of the past and present can help universities to define new roles in knowledge production, such as stewardship of and partnership in conversations and collaborations that extend beyond university walls.

Experiential pedagogy is a means of increasing student participation in the production of knowledge. It is about empowering students to become makers of the world in which they want to live...

Both you and Associate Professor of English Sarah Blackwood, PhD, have recently published pieces (in The New Yorker and New York Review of Books) about the importance of studying the humanities, particularly English. Subsequently, the Pace English major has also been featured in Chronicle of Higher Education and Inside Higher Ed. Why do you think experiential learning is especially important in the humanities? And how can Pace as a community embrace experiential learning in the disciplines that don’t inherently have a “hands-on” component?

The role of experiential pedagogy in the humanities is grounded in a transformation that has been underway for some time. This transformation in the humanities is in part about recognizing that the archival record has been built in such a way that it has excluded and suppressed certain voices, especially BIPOC voices, and that the humanities provide sites where we can recognize those omissions and address them.

In the English Department, many of our courses build on traditional methods of close reading and contextual analysis with projects that engage students in interrogating literary history and its making, exploring the archival record and its absences, and collaborating with community partners to co-create digital and public humanities projects.

I believe there is an enormous opportunity to continue to position Pace as a leading model of experiential education throughout our humanities departments—which will benefit not only majors in those departments, but also our students across all schools who engage with those departments through our liberal arts core. Pace has a unique track record that positions us to contribute to the national conversation about the future of the humanities—and about the future of higher education more broadly.

What else is on the horizon for you in this role and what are your goals for this position?

This summer, I am writing a report based on the work conducted this spring, a survey recently sent out to faculty and staff, and on research comparing our approach to experiential learning to other schedules, which EAB (Educational Advisory Board) is conducting for us. Next year will be focused on actions that will ensure that the differentiating components of our experiential pedagogy are delivered consistently across all years and all schools. I will also be looking at clusters of classes that can help us look in a more granular way at the outcomes of our experiential pedagogy.

My overarching goal is to achieve a sense of identity, community, and pride in our approach that will be a key factor in the retention of students, faculty, and staff. I believe we are already part way there, but I want to realize our full potential to be a nationally recognized model of an experiential future of higher education.

What do you hope that faculty and staff will kind of take away from this work as it continues?

I hope that faculty and staff will feel more recognized for the work they do to provide students with excellent experiential opportunities. As I have noted, internships and other co-curricular opportunities, such as student leadership roles, are essential to our students’ success, but so is the learning—experiential and otherwise—that students are doing in the classroom. I am increasingly convinced that bringing the magic of our classrooms to light will continue to attract the kind of attention received by our English major this spring. I think we can continue to build a repository of examples and a sense of community that builds from those examples-as we commit to reinvesting in experiential learning as the core of our identity and engine of our growth.

Sarah Drayer

Class of 2024

Currently Studying: BBA in Advertising and Integrated Marketing Communications

Studying Abroad At: American Business School of Paris in Paris, France

Pronouns: She/Her

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For Sarah Drayer, studying abroad not only means exploring new cultures and destinations, but also making connections with fellow students from all around the world to build out a successful business network. As she works towards her BBA in Advertising and Integrated Marketing Communications while studying abroad in Paris, Sarah says she's looking forward to seeking out even more international business experience in the future.

What motivated you to study abroad?

I wanted to study abroad to give myself the chance to be exposed to different cultures and to immerse myself in a new place. Living in Europe has always interested me and having the opportunity to study abroad here allows me to get a feel for the European culture and travel to numerous countries during the summer.

How has the Lubin School of Business helped you prepare for your courses abroad?

Within the Lubin School of Business, my academic advisor has been helpful in the planning process of this journey, as well as the classes I have taken so far, which have given me the knowledge that I need to thrive in my classes abroad.

What has been the highlight or most enjoyable aspect of your time abroad so far?

I have really enjoyed being surrounded by people from all around the world. My classes consist of students from the United States, France, Morocco, Lebanon, and so many more countries. I find it fascinating to learn about the differences between our home nations and compare lifestyles.

How has this experience shaped or impacted your career goals?

Being abroad and learning about how business is conducted in different regions has been super interesting and is something that I would enjoy learning more about and working on in the future. Having the opportunity to live abroad has been eye-opening and is something that I would be open to doing later in my career, as I have learned a lot about myself in the process.

How will getting international business school experience impact your next semester at Lubin?

I think I will gain a new appreciation for the many international students within Lubin. Going abroad will hopefully help me to relate to them as they are also experiencing a new culture and city. Being abroad will help me understand different perspectives and how the business world varies based on location.

One piece of knowledge that I have gained here in Paris is how to work and communicate with people from all around the world.... Bringing this knowledge back to Lubin will hopefully make me a better student and see things from multiple perspectives.

What is one skill or piece of knowledge that you learned abroad that you will bring back to Lubin with you?

One piece of knowledge that I have gained here in Paris is how to work and communicate with people from all around the world. From navigating cultural differences to languages, my time abroad has allowed me to improve my understanding of how vastly different areas of the world can be. Bringing this knowledge back to Lubin will hopefully make me a better student and see things from multiple perspectives.

Do you have any advice for other Lubin students that are considering studying abroad?

Definitely go for it! It's an amazing experience, even if you are only abroad for a few weeks. You will meet plenty of people from around the world and learn so much—not only in your classes, but from the places you visit. Push yourself outside of your comfort zone and do something you wouldn't normally do back home. Studying abroad can lead you to so many valuable experiences and can be great for your future.

Connect with Sarah:

• Connect with Sarah Drayer on LinkedIn
• Follow Sarah Drayer on Instagram

In partnership with the Jefferson Awards Foundation, Pace engages in meaningful public service and celebrates those who improve the quality of life in their communities with Jefferson Awards for Public Service and Multiplying Good. In the 2022-2023 academic year, half of the Bronze Medal Award winners at Pace were from the Dyson College of Arts and Sciences. And this year’s Jefferson Award Finalist, selected by Multiplying Good's board of directors to represent Pace at their national ceremony in October, is Tresmaine R. Grimes, PhD, Dean of the Dyson College of Arts and Science and School of Education. Congratulations to her and all our winners!

We sat down with Dean Grimes to learn more about her volunteer work.

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How is this recognition meaningful to you?

This is a tremendous honor. I lived most of my life with the idea that you are supposed to serve others or do something to give back. And you don't do those things thinking that someone is going to recognize you. That's sort of the whole point; giving back to others in a way that you're not doing it for yourself, but to basically bless someone else's life. So, this means the world to me that someone would think that the things that I do are worth recognizing.

What aspect of your community and public service are you most proud of and why?

Helping young people or children has always been part of my early life. Before I could even work legally, I was helping to take care of younger kids. By the time I got to college, I tutored as part of my work-study, and that felt good to me. About a decade ago, I established a nonprofit that helps the faith community understand and get to the truth of domestic violence. I’m proud of that work and the fact that we have raised money to help people coming out of those situations and have even been recognized for this by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. On the academic side, I’ve enjoyed being a faculty advisor and mentor to my students since my first teaching days. When my students, who are now professionals with their own lives, still keep in touch, that’s a nice reminder that what I did was worth it. My sorority, Delta Sigma Theta, is dedicated to serving the public and community. Whether it is feeding the hungry or raising money for scholarships, those things continue to mean the world to me now and in my own personal life.

As dean of Dyson College and the School of Education, what have your observations been of our community and Pace at large regarding the importance of public service?

One of the nicest things about being at Pace is seeing what people are doing outside of the classroom, and both Dyson and the School of Education (SOE) have tremendous faculty and student involvement in community service. We’re working very hard to make sure that our students have that civic engagement experience outside of the classroom. I see faculty involved in a lot of community work, as well: artists and writers taking their classes into the community, for example, and making an impact there. So, we have a lot of really exciting people in both Dyson and SOE, and I will also say, the Sands College of Performing Arts, because our faculty there are also involved in the larger community. And so, everybody has their niche, and their way to connect. It’s also exciting to see us writing grants to try and connect with our folks in New York City, in our neighborhoods, and in Chinatown. Just a whole lot of exciting things. I’m impressed.

What are the things that you see are missing in the world? Sometimes, we are looking for other people to fill gaps, but maybe you're the only one that sees that.

Who inspired you to volunteer?

I think because I grew up in a faith community, there was always the assumption that you don’t just sit around, that you give. Certainly, my mom and grandmother were always giving. My grandmother was a wonderful cook; my grandparents were immigrants from the Caribbean, and my grandmother would make traditional foods and give them to people at Christmas instead of buying gifts. My mom was a musician and would play in church and for people at their weddings, and my mother's brother was a social worker, helping people make positive changes in their lives. They weren’t looking for anything in return. So, I grew up around that.

You also never know who you are an inspiration to. When I was planning my wedding more than 39 years ago, I asked the mother of a little girl in my faith community if she could be a flower girl. The mother said ‘yes, of course,’ that ‘she looks up to you’ and ‘wants to be like you.’ That was the first time someone had said that to me. If you look at statistics, I wasn't supposed to be anything: where I was raised, divorced parents, my mom was a single mom and not wealthy. But that's not the way it turned out.

Do you have any advice on first steps, for those interested in making a positive impact and improving the life of others?

Follow your heart. What are the things that interest you; what is your passion? Also, what are the things that you see are missing in the world? Sometimes, we are looking for other people to fill gaps, but maybe you're the only one that sees that, right? So, start small with the things that you notice are missing, and you don't have to do this by yourself. Partner with others; they will be happy to have you, and you can learn from them, too. I attended workshops about domestic violence and human trafficking through Not on My Watch, a training program for faith leaders. It was something I was grateful to be a part of, because I learned a lot about human trafficking, areas where girls were at risk, and how to spot this in our own communities. So, begin to think about how you can be a positive impact. There are so many ways you can make a difference.

What are you most excited about in the future?

I think, in general, I’m excited about a lot of things. I'm excited about continuing to make meaningful connections with other community organizations that are focused upon the things that Pace has already had success with. I’m also excited about the Jefferson Awards Ceremony in October and making connections with other people who are doing amazing things in their communities. You know, I want to live long enough to see what happens next and to determine how I can continue to be of help to others.

Pace University’s Occupational Therapy, MS program (MSOT) and Rehabologym are happy to announce a partnership for community-based learning and service. Rehabologym is a unique Neuro-Robotic Outpatient Rehabilitation Center for pediatrics and adults in Tarrytown, NY that utilizes state of the art technologies and comprehensive methodologies for neurological occupational therapy (OT), physical therapy (PT), speech therapy (SLP), and certified personal training (CPT) to restore and maximize health and overall well-being.

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In 2020, Pace University purchased the STISIM Drive state-of-the-art driving simulator to support the learning of the occupational therapy students. Students from the MSOT 2022 graduating class analyzed the usage of the equipment in various coursework. They established a team of students who worked tirelessly on researching a community-based site that complimented the Pace University MSOT mission and vision and quickly realized how beneficial this piece of rehabilitation assistive technology could be to the Pace, Pleasantville, and surrounding communities. Through their research, they identified Rehabologym as a potential partner.

Students and faculty met with leaders from Rehabologym and developed an off-the-road driving evaluation that incorporates the STISIM Drive simulator, establishing U Drive Pace OT! They also developed protocols for a driver rehabilitation program to assess and address limitations identified on clinical and driving simulator evaluations. Their efforts help provide many individuals who suffer from neurological impairments the opportunity to regain independence behind the wheel. People from across the United States and other countries travel to the Rehabologym clinic to utilize this state-of-the-art technology, providing the MSOT students with exposure to various neurological diagnoses from all over the world.

The Rehabologym team consists of seasoned and skilled occupational therapists, physical therapists, speech therapists and neurologically trained certified personal trainers who have decades of experience with all diagnostic populations.

Avrielle Peltz, MA, OTR/L, chief operating officer and clinical director of Rehabologym said, “We are thrilled to partner with Pace University. It will be an honor to work collaboratively with the MSOT program to mentor the next generation of competent clinicians and potentially create innovative programs to be able to give back to the community and to individuals in need.”

This partnership creates next-level experiential learning with many benefits, including enhancing the student experience by working with actual patients using state-of-the-art neurorehabilitative technology; providing access to expert community educators who share their expertise with the Pace University MSOT students; and creating opportunities for collaborative research.

“Rehabologym gave us a unique opportunity to connect with our community and provided invaluable, hands-on experience at a neuro-robotic rehabilitation center," said MSOT graduate, Natalie Calianese ’22.

“Our MSOT students will have the privilege of participating in clinical experiences under the supervision of experts in neuro-robotic and driving rehabilitation while at the same time addressing the needs of the local community,” Supawadee Cindy Lee, PhD, MS, MA, OTR/L, SIPT, founding program director, department of Occupational Therapy, Pace University. “We are excited about the future of our Occupational Therapy program.”