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Experiential Learning Fellowship

Experiential Fellows are outstanding Brandeis student leaders who have engaged with, supported, promoted and facilitated Experiential Learning at Brandeis. Fellows have a demonstrated passion for experiential learning pedagogy and wish to share their transformative experiences and to advocate for the methodology at Brandeis.

The application for 2013-2014 Experiential Learning Fellows is now available. Deadline: Friday, March 22nd 2013 at noon!

Experiential Learning Fellow Application

Contact: Abigail Steinberg,  abigails@brandeis.edu 

Experiential Learning Fellows

Sarah Bierman '14

Sarah Bierman is a junior majoring in Studio Art and minoring in Yiddish and Creative Writing. Born and raised in Manhattan, Sarah is creatively inclined and learns best when she is engaged hands-on (hence the studio art sculpture concentration). Speaking of sculpture, Sarah's best Experiential Learning (EL)  experiences were both her first sculpture class, Blurring the Boundaries, where she made her  first leap into the world of EL and Intermediate Sculpture, where she was encouraged to take creative risks that she feels she could not have been taught in any lecture hall.

Dan Boyle '14

Dan is a rising junior from Boston, Massachusetts. He is a Biochemistry and Neuroscience double major with a Classical Studies minor, but that's subject to change. His favorite Experiential (EL)  course so far is Professor AOKO's Art and Architecture of Ancient Rome, which he took in the Spring of his first year and is the reason he is a classics minor. It was a lecture course, but when she read from Homer and Virgil it was like performance art and even her reviews of Greek architecture kept all 50 students engaged. And of course, all of his laboratory experiences have helped him refine his scientific interests.

Amanda Dryer '13

Amanda Dryer is a senior. She transferred to Brandeis for its commitment to social justice. She is currently majoring in Education Studies and History while minoring in Elementary Education and Near Eastern Judaic Studies. As a sophomore, she was enrolled in Professor Antony Polonsky’s course, The Destruction of European Jewry. As an Experiential Learning (EL) component of the class, students were given the opportunity to interview a Holocaust survivor and Amanda decided to interview her grandmother’s relative and childhood best friend, Ruth. During their time together, Ruth asked Amanda about a white box containing old photos, which had resided in her grandmother's closet for many years. She showed Ruth a photo of a little boy that her grandmother often spoke about because she babysat him for ten cents a day. Ruth identified the little boy in the photos as her cousin Rolf. Amanda’s  grandmother died believing that Rolf perished in the Holocaust. Ruth told Amanda  both she and Rolf were the sole survivors of their immediate families because of the efforts of social agencies, such as the  OSE- the Children’s Agency and the Red Cross that rescued Jewish children from various concentration camps. Ruth went on to tell her that she had not seen Rolf in over 70 years. Through Ruth’s  dedication and passion for social justice, Amanda was able to locate Rolf. In March of 2011, she  had the honor of reuniting Rolf and Ruth. A few months later, she tracked down Hanne Hirsch Liebmann, yet another relative and child Holocaust survivor. During Rolf and Hanne's reunion, Hanne told her, “No one who was there will ever forget these totally selfless social workers or nurses that saved our lives. Both impress you so to make a choice of which you want to follow." At the beginning of her sophomore year, Amanda made a choice to embrace EL: little did she know that it would change her life forever.

Jen Mandelbaum '14

Jen Mandelbaum is  from Londonderry, NH. She is  double majoring in Health: Science, Society, and Policy  and Women’s and Gender Studies. Her  favorite Experiential Learning (EL)  course so far has been the practicum for Professor Conrad’s Health, Community, and Society” class. She  loved working on projects with community partners like Mount Auburn Hospital and Healthy Waltham and learning more about the work that these wonderful organizations do. Her work with in the fall with  Healthy Waltham led her to intern there in the spring. Her most transformative EL experience was leading healthy cooking workshops as part of her internship at Healthy Waltham. She enjoyed teaching kids about cooking and seeing the connections they were making between what they were growing in the gardens and the recipes they were making. Her favorite part of these classes was when she would chat with the kids during the cooking lessons and they would tell her that they tried the recipes they made the previous week at home. She especially liked when they told her how they changed the recipe to incorporate their favorite ingredients. This internship helped her to better understand how kids think about their food environment. The real-world experience she has gained through EL at Brandeis has been wonderful, and she is very excited to share her love for EL as an ExCEL Fellow this year!

Avishek Neupane '14

Avishek Neupane is from Kathmandu, Nepal. He is a Computer Science major with minors in Business and Economics. His favorite Experiential Learning (EL) courses so far are the Justice Brandeis Semester (JBS) in Web Applications and Social Networks with Pito Salas and Tim Hickey, The Art of Public Speaking with Andrew Flagel, and 3d Game Design with Tim Hickey. 

The best of the best EL experience that he has had is in the JBS in Web Development and Social Applications. The class learned web development and created a real world product in just 10 weeks! The class was richly experiential where they applied whatever they learned in their product immediately.  The course also gave him an experience of being in a computer startup- like environment. It also had a reflection and team session every now and then, which helped the teams reorganize and go for another sprint.

Overall, Avishek’s first year and a half at Brandeis has been super experiential. The experiential theory cycle of concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization, and active experimentation is very powerful and he looks forward to spreading the knowledge/benefits/passion of EL @ Brandeis!

Zoe Oppenheimer '14

Zoe Oppenheimer is from Long Island, New York. She is an Education Studies major with minors in Elementary Education, Hebrew Language and Literature, and Near Eastern and Judaic Studies. Her favorite Experiential Learning (EL) course that she has taken so far is Teaching and Learning Reading in Elementary and Preschools with Deb Moriarty.  She loved learning about strategies to teach children how to read through Deb’s interactive lessons and then developing and strengthening her skills through her weekly practicum at Stanley Elementary School.  Zoe’s most transformative EL experience has been participating in the Brandeis-Middlebury School of Hebrew, an intensive summer language immersion program.  She signed the language pledge at the beginning of the summer and committed to only using Hebrew for the entirety of the program.  Speaking Hebrew in class, as well as with her friends during meals and other activities gave her the chance to learn Hebrew, not only from books, but also from real-life conversations and experiences.  She  has learned so much from her EL classes and experiences during her first two years at Brandeis and is thrilled to be an ExCEL Fellow this year!

Emily Bunker Peterson '13

Emily Bunker Peterson is senior from Denver, Colorado. She is double majoring in Anthropology and  International and Global Studies with a minor in Politics. Her favorite EL opportunity at Brandeis so far has been the Environmental and Social Justice Justice Brandeis Semester (JBS) she took in Fall 2011 with Professor Goldin. She feels so lucky that her entire semester curriculum was all EL courses because it gave her the opportunity to explore so many different topics in a hands-on manner. Certainly, the highlight of the semester was the class trip to Kentucky, where the class learned about mountaintop removal first hand by talking with various people who live in a small mining community, going to local mining museums, and exploring Kentucky's beautiful natural mountains as well as mountains which have been devastated by mountaintop removal mining. This experience was the culmination of everything Emily believes EL is: learning new information by interacting with people and environments in a way which will impart knowledge and have a long-lasting impact on the learner. Both her JBS semester and the EL she participated in while studying abroad in Cochabamba, Bolivia have changed the way she learns, shifting her perspective that knowledge is something that comes from a classroom to the idea that knowledge can come from anywhere and everywhere if you are willing to take the time to explore.

Marisa Turesky '13

Marisa is from Cape Elizabeth, Maine and is majoring in Anthropology and Women's and Gender Studies. Her  favorite Experiential Learning (EL) course was one she took her first semester at Brandeis, THA 4a The Vocal-Physical Connection. The course was a way for her to learn in a non-traditional way, giving her a greater awareness of her own body and learning style. Writing weekly papers, with priority placed not on grammar, but on content and writing method, showed her how writing can be an extension of our identities. Such a connection to her writing is particularly important to her as she plans to stay in academia. Additionally, she began to chronicle her dreams in a journal as homework for the class and continues to do so ever since because it has become a tool with which she can analyze her conscious and subconscious thoughts. 

Rachel Usnik '13

Rachel is originally from San Antonio, Texas, but has not been home for more than a week or two at a time since graduating from high school. She is double majoring in Environmental Studies and Anthropology with a Legal Studies minor. One of her favorite Experiential Learning (EL) courses has been Advocacy for Policy Change. In this class she was given a state bill to advocate and lobby for. Through several trips to the Massachusetts state house and guided course assignments she gained insight on the skills required of a lobbyist. One of Rachel’s most transformative experiences was studying abroad on a program with a strong experimental focus. She learned a lot about Denmark (her host country) as well as about herself and was able to meet amazing college students from all across the country.