Our Learners Make Great Strides

Christy Langley started college after high school, but gave up more than once. Now, with the right support, she has earned her degree after more than a decade by taking classes online.

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Husky Proud

From supportive faculty, to the convenience of online classes. Find out why CPS Students are Husky Proud! 

Students Seek Answers to the College Mental Health Crisis

From left to right: Faculty member Kristen Lee with students Kimberly Parkin and Thor Blanco Reynoso at the 2016 Harvard Medical School and McLean Hospital Middle School Through College Mental Health and Education conference.

More than 70 percent of college students will experience at least one mental health crisis, and 65 percent of adults have high levels of anxiety at some point, according to Kristen Lee, EdD, LICSW, lead faculty member for behavioral science at the College of Professional Studies. Lifestyle-related disease and stress take a higher toll on us than infectious disease.

Two Northeastern students, Thor Blanco Reynoso and Kimberly Parkin, joined Lee during the 2016–17 school year, contributing to her research on coping with stress in healthy and constructive ways. As an outgrowth of their work, they were invited to participate in the 2016 Harvard Medical School and McLean Hospital Middle School Through College Mental Health and Education conference, a prestigious event in which Lee spoke on mitigating the college mental health crisis.

The two students helped Lee prepare her conference materials and networked with attendees who might wish to work with her and other behavioral scientists at Northeastern in the future. They also had access to the full conference agenda and attended several sessions led by leaders in behavioral health and education.

For Kim, who will graduate from Northeastern in December 2017, it was a turning point. The psychology major with a concentration in neuroscience had been torn between continuing with that subject and pursuing an MD in neurology. “Perhaps one of the most rewarding moments of the conference was an epiphany of sorts, when I sat on neuropsychologist Dr. Susan Cohen’s session and realized that I wanted to pursue neuropsychology after receiving my bachelor’s degree,” Kim says. “It’s the perfect marriage of the two fields, and now I am trying to determine which route: MD/PhD or clinical neuropsychology PhD.”

Among the highlights for Thor, who graduated with a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Psychology with a minor in organizational communication in 2016 from the College of Professional Studies, was learning first-hand from the leaders in the field, including, among many others, Robert Brooks, who, he says, gave an impressive keynote speech. “I think the main takeaway was having access to knowledge and professional opportunities we never would have had.”

A Faculty-Student Collaboration

Thor and Kim began working with Lee after taking her psychology course “Stress and its Management.” Recognizing their interest in the subject, Lee invited the students to apply through the co-op program for research assistant positions, which would enable them not only to help her with her ongoing work but to conduct campus outreach, alerting students to the mental health resources the school offers. The co-op program enables students to participate in the work of a faculty member, spending 10 hours a week in his or her office and elsewhere on campus while completing corresponding coursework. After completing the first six months of her co-op assignment, Kim extended for another three months, and after his six-month co-op, Thor continued for a year as an intern, and then as a volunteer teaching assistant, with Lee.

Lee, an Associate Teaching Professor, therapist, and author of the book RESET: Make the Most of Your Stress , is an action-oriented researcher, whose work is not just a scholarly pursuit but an effort to cultivate resilience at Northeastern. Concerned about the suicides and overdoses that have taken place on college campuses, she has written for the Huffington Post and appeared on National Public Radio, hoping to shed light on the mental health crisis.

“Students wait until a point of crisis to access care, and historically, mental health services have been stigmatized and not integrated into the lifeblood of academic institutions,” says Lee, who received the College of Professional Studies’ Teaching Excellence Award in 2012 and was a finalist for the university-wide Excellence in Teaching Award in 2014.

Hands-On Learning Hits Home

Her passion has rubbed off on the students. Thor, who is from Mexico, came to Northeastern in part to have a hands-on learning experience. He was particularly interested in studying how stress affected Latino students, as well as the barriers they faced. Assigned to conduct a literature review, he found that the rates of college enrollment for Latino high school graduates have risen dramatically in recent years, but they still lag behind other minority groups in obtaining four-year degrees.

Thor searched for resilience factors that may contribute to better graduation rates and found that the continuous involvement of family is important to counterbalancing the stress, identity struggles, and depression that can occur among Latino college students.

For Thor, it was an “aha” moment: “The literature research was interesting not only for academic purposes but for my personal enrichment,” he says. “I’ve experienced some of that stress.”

Kim was interested in the effect of short-term and chronic stress response on the medial prefrontal cortex, amygdala, and hippocampus. She performed a literature review on how individuals experience traumatic events and the coping practices that can actually change gene expression.

“Some of those are yoga, meditation, and breath work,” Kim says. “Through these practices, you can not only alleviate stress but also increase immune system response, cardiovascular health, and energy metabolism.”

“Mindfulness has become the new kale—but it is not a fad,” Lee adds. “We want to take the best of what we know from brain science and resilience work and make sure it’s integrated into what we’re teaching and doing on campus.”

Putting Research to Immediate Use on Campus

In conducting research with Northeastern students, Lee found that some of the university’s students outside the typical 18- to 22-year age bracket have unique stressors that come from juggling family and work responsibilities in addition to being a student. “Some students, she adds, experience imposter syndrome—a feeling that someone is going to discover they don’t really belong. That disproportionately happens to women, students of color, and other under-represented groups without prior role models.”

“The idea that ‘you are your grades’ can be very unhealthy,” Lee says. She developed a behavioral model of change called RESET, for Realize. Energize. Soothe. End Unproductive Thinking, centered on cultivating meta-cognition, agility, and resilience. “Teaching students to use critical thinking to avoid falling into the performance-based trappings of our culture is vital for their growth and development,” she adds.

The students’ work has been a catalyst for the faculty who are teaching behavioral sciences to think about how teachers throughout the university, from business to engineering to leadership, can incorporate the ideas of resilience in their classrooms. Since his graduation, Thor has continued to mentor students and help them understand the mental health resources available to them.

Lee calls Kim and Thor “dynamic, brilliant, and conscious individuals,” adding that having student assistants is helpful not only for practical purposes but to keep her in touch with their perspectives. “I gained so much from them,” she says. “The opportunity to know students outside the classroom gives you the bird’s eye view on their perspective. We need to know what bolsters student wellbeing, and the co-op program gets more students involved in the conversation.”

The co-op experience opened several doors for Thor: to be a student ambassador speaker to undergraduate students at the College of Professional Studies, to attend a number of conferences, and to consider the possibility of a career in higher education. “If I had to name the one thing that made my education at Northeastern a success, it was this co-op. It was the richest experience I had.”

For Kim, the networking she did at the conference, with representatives from several hospital neuropsychology departments, led to her enrollment in a subsequent co-op experience, at Mass General Hospital and to a full-time research job offer.

Says Kim, “Everything I did with Dr. Lee has influenced me and touched me in a big way.”

2017 CPS Graduation

Words of advice from Lindsay Levin as the College confers nearly 1,500 degrees

“In these times, it is more important than ever that we learn to be wise as well as smart.  To listen to our own intuition – the still small voice inside – and choose how you will respond to whatever life brings up. What we spend our time on, how we behave towards others – the means as well as the ends. This is our agency in the world. The imprint we leave behind.”

This was the message offered to nearly 1,500 graduates at the Northeastern University College of Professional Studies ceremony by Lindsay Levin, entrepreneur, leadership expert, and Founder and Partner, Leaders’ Quest, a social enterprise organization.

Levin, whose work focuses on the transformation of companies and organizations, has created a model for learning and social change through Leaders’ Quest.  She believes that leaders can be found in communities and neighborhoods, in addition to corporate offices, and that tapping into one’s own network can provide extraordinary outcomes and opportunities.

Thousands of family members and friends attended the ceremony on the Boston campus, celebrating a total of 1,491 degrees conferred— 315 Bachelor’s, 1,011 Master’s, 164 Doctoral and 1 Associate’s.

Read more about two graduates:  Ryan Daley, a veteran who is looking ahead to apply his dedication and ambition to a future of politics and Fran Lee Hutton, a lifelong learner who parlayed her love of maps and her degree into a one-of-a-kind job.

Faculty Recognized for Teaching Excellence Award

During graduation, the College presented the Excellence in Teaching Award to two outstanding faculty members: Dean He and Yufeng Qian.

Nominated by students in the Doctor of Education program, Professor Qian is described by one student as “actively engaged in cultivating a dynamic online learning community, and assigns relevant coursework and discussion prompts that challenge student thinking and provide the opportunity for students to critically examine their role in the research process.”  Professor He, faculty member in the Master of Science in Commerce and Economic Development program, was praised for embracing teaching as an opportunity to engage and inspire his students. One student noted: “”Professor He enhanced my confidence on a career choice. He is a teacher I respect and will keep in touch with after graduation.”

Doctoral Candidates Earn Symbol of Academic Achievement

On May 11, the College hosted a Doctoral Hooding Ceremony for candidates in the Doctor of Education, Doctor of Law and Policy, and Doctor of Physical Therapy programs symbolizing their transition from student to scholar-practitioner. Candidates received their doctoral hoods from their thesis advisers at this annual ceremony.

At every doctoral hooding ceremony, one student is selected to receive the Dean’s Medal for Outstanding Doctoral Work, the highest honor awarded by the College to a doctoral graduate. The award was established to acknowledge exemplary academic achievement and to recognize demonstrated creativity and writing quality.

This year, the Dean’s Medal winner was Dr. Ted Johnson, of the Doctor of Law and Policy program, for his thesis, “Beyond the Veil: The Electoral Uniformity and Political Heterogeneity of African American Voters.”  Dr. Johnson, who is a National Security Research Manager at Deloitte’s Center for Government Insights and an Eric and Wendy Schmidt Fellow at New America, noted in his speech that he went into his doctoral studies not believing the literature reviews he conducted.

“So, I did what scholars do – I questioned it. I challenged assumptions and tackled the open questions. And I set out to create myself into the man I wanted to be: A scholar. A professor. An author. And a public intellectual on black American politics,” he said.

“The College of Professional Studies made this possible,” he went on to note. “It showed me that the reason I didn’t believe the literature reviews wasn’t because the findings were wrong – but because they were incomplete. The assembly of knowledge about any given topic – to include who you are and who you aspire to be – is never complete. Adding to the body of knowledge is our charge as doctors and a duty we each owe to ourselves.”

Dr. Chris Unger, Associate Professor in the Graduate School of Education, was the faculty speaker at the ceremony.

“Your work has just begun,” Unger stated to all the graduates before him.  “And hopefully you are graduating not only with the brain of a scarecrow…but the heart of a tinman…and, importantly, the courage of a lion.  I harken back to these three gifts from the movie the Wizard of Oz because I see each of these as important to your future, as both change agents and as ambassadors of Northeastern.”

“I hope we have told you to follow your passion,” Unger said in his closing remarks. “Amidst the hard work and the challenges, don’t forget from time-to-time to reflect on what it is that you care about, what drives you, and your passion. Don’t forget that. And then use your brain, your heart, and your courage to make that difference.”

About Northeastern University College of Professional Studies

The College of Professional Studies is one of nine colleges of Northeastern University, a nationally ranked private research university in Boston, MA. Founded in 1960, the College teaches undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral students on campus and online in more than 65 degree programs and is part of The Professional Advancement Network.

About the Professional Advancement Network

The Northeastern University Professional Advancement Network helps professionals participate in dynamic, experiential learning opportunities, earn degrees and certificates, build connections, and keep pace with the rapidly evolving business world—now and in the years to come. This is achieved through real-world experiences and rigorous curriculums, a supportive learning environment, and comprehensive academic and career coaching—all powered by an extensive network of alumni and employer partners. The Professional Advancement Network is an innovative approach to lifelong learning, offering access to over 200 distinctive, high-quality educational programs, degrees, certificates, and boot camps.

College of Professional Studies 2016 Graduation

“Let Your Imagination Set Your Limit”

Words of Advice from Retired Army General David D. McKiernan as Northeastern University College of Professional Studies Confers More than 1,000 Degrees

“When you walk out that door today, the future is in your hands, and your minds…. there’s no magic key to happiness and success.  That requires competency, commitment, courage and lifelong development. “

That was the guidance offered this morning to more than 1,000 graduates at Matthews Arena on Northeastern’s Boston campus by graduation speaker Retired Army General David D. McKiernan, the former top commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan.

Thousands of family members and friends were in attendance, celebrating a total of 1,016 degrees conferred— 6 Associate, 212 Bachelor’s, 670 Master’s, 7 Certificate of Advanced Graduate Studies, and 121 Doctoral.

McKiernan, who once led U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan and who was in charge of joint forces from NATO and 42 contributing countries, retired from the Army in 2009.  He has served as a special advisor to senior leaders of Northeastern on the expansion of the university’s programs for veterans and active duty military.  McKiernan’s speech comes at a time when the number of degrees conferred to veterans in the first half of 2016 has grown 46% compared to the same time period in 2011.  Today, 38 veterans graduated – 17 undergraduates and 21 at the graduate level.

McKiernan had five pieces of advice for graduates. “Think of it as advice from someone who has been around the global block and experienced the good, the bad and the ugly,” he said.

1. Be a creative thinker.
2. Don’t shy away from getting outside your comfort zone.
3. If you want to be a leader, it is all about interpersonal skills.
4. Demonstrate the notion of empathy.  “As we say in the Army, ‘The view is different depending on what hill you’re standing on,’” he added.
5. Be of service to America or the country you’re a citizen of, through professional, volunteer or charitable venues.  Think about ways you can serve people.

Faculty Presented with Teaching Excellence Award

During graduation, the College presented the Teaching Excellence Award to two outstanding faculty members: Darin Detwiler and Corliss Brown Thompson.

Nominated by students in the Master’s in Regulatory Affairs of Food and Food Industries program, Detwiler’s students called him an “outstanding and engaging” instructor who shares an enormous passion for his discipline, which he instills in others.  While the students nominating Dr. Brown Thompson, faculty member in the Graduate School of Education, point to her excellence as a “scholar, teacher and guide,” and note her ability to help them realize meaningful and impactful community engagement strategies in their work.

Students Receive Degree of the Highest Honor: Their Doctorate 

On May 12, the College hosted a Doctoral Hooding Ceremony for candidates in the Doctor of Education, Doctor of Law and Policy, and Doctor of Physical Therapy programs symbolizing their transition from student to scholar-practitioner.  Candidates received their doctoral hoods from their thesis advisers at this annual ceremony.

At every doctoral hooding ceremony, one student is selected to receive the Dean’s Medal for Outstanding Doctoral Work, the highest honor awarded by the College to a doctoral graduate. The award was established to acknowledge exemplary academic achievement and to recognize demonstrated creativity.

This year, the Dean’s Medal winner was Dr. Hunter Hustus, in the Doctor of Law and Policy program, for his thesis titled “Nuclear Arsenals at Low Numbers: When Less is Different.” Hustus, who completed his Master’s degree 20 years ago and spent 20 years in the Air Force, noted in his speech how the doctoral program allowed him to rethink what he already knew, develop new perspectives and how the diversity and support within his cohort contributed to his education. “It was an ambitious project,” Hustus remarked. “While many of the results were unexpected, the biggest surprise was in how much I enjoyed doing the research.”

Dr. Cordula Robinson, an Associate Professor in the Master’s in Geographic Information Technology program, was the faculty speaker at the ceremony.  Robinson noted in her speech how her PhD marked the beginning of a life-long adventure for her: she lived and worked in three countries, studied Viking data from the planet Mars, worked on the Magellan mission to Venus, had an asteroid named after her and worked with indigenous people in North Africa and the Middle East on the issue of water scarcity, among many other things.  Her advice to the doctoral graduates before her?

“My PhD truly marked the beginning of this life-long adventure and way of living and so it may be for you. It may not always be easy, and will require perseverance and patience, but it can always be interesting. Continue to represent your experience to your best ability while retaining the panoramic view. To put in motion what your PhD inspired, to integrate your wisdom with practice, and to set forth to be the world’s next senior managers and policy makers, advanced clinicians in a dynamic healthcare system, or prepare for executive leadership and curriculum design. To be trailblazers, innovators, and future leaders.”

5 Ways Neuroscience is Impacting the Classroom

By Quannah Parker-McGowan.

Parker-McGowan teaches Learning and the Brain: Translating Research into Practice, a course in Northeastern University’s Master’s in Education program.

With new discoveries in neuroscience and education, it’s time to challenge the way we approach both teaching and learning. 

The prospect of using brain-based research to inform our classroom practices is exciting, since we’re making strides in understanding individual students’ needs and connecting each student with the most effective practices. 

Here are some ways that neuroscience is finding its way into our classrooms: 

1. Rethinking the way we view students.

Research is showing us how to look at students in terms of individual strengths and how we can customize teaching strategies to meet their needs.

For example, when a student is labeled as “learning disabled,” we tend to focus on what they can’t do. But neuroscience’s contribution on how to increase someone’s long-term memory provides us insight that can help teachers form strategies that instead play to a student’s strengths.

2. Emphasizing the importance of emotion in learning.

We know that experience shapes the brain tremendously. Focusing on creating a positive and stimulating learning environment for students can enhance their learning and go a long way in helping students retain new material.

3. Challenging us to expand our methods.

Brain development data is giving teachers insight into how students learn best, so we can create curriculum to reach a variety of students. We know that one teaching approach won’t work for all students, and sometimes we need to broaden our methods to connect with different kinds of learners.

4. Seeing how learning experiences impact the brain.

The concept of neural plasticity has vast educational implications. From learning a new language to making connections between subject matters, the brain responds to and adapts to new experiences. Neuroscience sheds light on when and how to go about creating these experiences and making the most of students’ windows of opportunity.

5. Providing new kinds of feedback.

Applying neuroscience in the classroom can help teachers hone their ability to engage students—a result of using the four insights above. And this results in more meaningful and long-lasting learning. 

Northeastern Graduates: “What World Do You Want to Live In?”

Northeastern University College of Professional Studies Confers More than 1,100 Degrees

“What world do you want to live in?”

That was the question posed this morning to more than 1,000 graduates at Matthews Arena on Northeastern’s Boston campus by graduation speaker Dr. Fred Frelow, education and scholarship senior program officer at the Ford Foundation, one of the largest foundations in the U.S. driving social change.

Thousands of family members and friends were in attendance, celebrating a total of 1,123 degrees conferred—14 Associate, 235 Bachelor’s, 732 Master’s, 10 Certificate of Advanced Graduate Studies, and 132 Doctoral, one of the largest graduating classes of doctoral graduates to date. On Thursday, May 14, the College hosted a Doctoral Hooding Ceremony for candidates in the Doctor of Education, Doctor of Law and Policy, and Doctor of Physical Therapy programs symbolizing their transition from student to scholar-practitioner.

Frelow, who has dedicated his career to the transformation of education, encouraged all graduates, no matter what degree they earned, that “…whatever field you may work in after graduation, you can have an impact on other people and on the world around you that you may not realize or be able to measure until many years later.”

In addition to one of the largest graduating classes of doctoral graduates, this year’s class included other “firsts” and special guests connected to Northeastern around the world:

First Homeland Security Graduating Class

Eleven students in the Master’s in Homeland Security are the first to graduate since the program’s inception in 2013. They studied intelligence gathering and analysis, emergency planning and management, and social psychology, among other skills. Recently, National Guard Bureau Chief General Frank J. Grass, a four-star general, praised the program’s first-of-its-kind partnership with the National Guard. 

First Graduate from Boston Ballet Program

Sarah Wroth is the first dancer to graduate from the unique program between the Boston Ballet and the College, which allows dancers to pursue their degrees while dancing, preparing them for a career outside of ballet once their dancing careers end. Wroth graduated with her Master’s in Nonprofit Management.

Students from Hong Kong and Vietnam Programs Graduate in Boston

Students in Northeastern’s Doctor of Education program in Hong Kong celebrated as the first graduating cohort of the program. Three of the four graduates traveled to Boston to take part in graduation: Ratanaporn Choklap, Ching Wai Rebecca Ong, and Daya Datwani Choy.

Additionally, the first nine graduates of the College’s joint Master’s in Leadership program with International University, in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, marked the first cohort to complete the program, which was established in 2012. The College welcomed one of the students, Quang Pham, to graduation.

Exemplary Teaching and Social Impact

During graduation, the College presented the Teaching Excellence Award to two outstanding faculty members: Dr. Joseph McNabb and Cynthia Lynn Beers. The College also awarded the Dean’s Social Impact Award to William A. Lowell, for his lifetime of commitment to providing opportunities in education. Lowell is a trustee of the Lowell Institute, an educational foundation formed by his family in 1836 and one of the oldest continuing foundations in the country. Most recently, the Lowell Institute  awarded $4 million to re-imagine the Lowell Institute School at the College as a first-in-the-nation undergraduate school focused on students completing degrees in science, technology, and engineering in preparation for participation in the innovation economy.

Students Receive Degree of the Highest Honor: Their Doctorate 

Dean’s Medal Winner, Dr. Lyne Archambault-Ezenwa, is hooded by her thesis advisor.

On May 14, doctoral candidates of the Doctor of Education, Doctor of Law and Policy, and Doctor of Physical Therapy programs received their doctoral hoods from their thesis advisers at the College’s annual hooding ceremony.

At every doctoral hooding ceremony, one student is selected to receive the Dean’s Medal for Outstanding Doctoral Work, the highest honor awarded by the College to a doctoral graduate. The award was established to acknowledge exemplary academic achievement and to recognize demonstrated creativity.

This year, the Dean’s Medal winner was Dr. Lyne Archambault-Ezenwa for her thesis titled “A Comprehensive Physical Therapy Approach to the Evaluation and Treatment of Constipation—A Case Report,” which addresses a diagnosis not usually considered in the realm of physical therapy treatment. Her thesis advisers note in their nomination that “her work provides education to the consumer and medical community, highlighting the importance of comprehensive evaluation to include a whole body approach.” Dr. Archambault-Ezenwa has her own physical therapy practice and is vice president of E’ssential Health and Wellness, Inc., in Houston.

Dr. Susan Lowe, a faculty member in the Doctor of Physical Therapy program, was the faculty speaker. A Northeastern faculty member since 1989, Lowe specializes clinically in geriatric physical therapy and has taught the geriatric content for Northeastern’s physical therapy program for more than 25 years.

Lowe described the diverse range of thesis topics the doctoral graduates had researched: Doctor of Education graduates investigated such topics as students coping with parental loss; graduates in the Doctor of Law and Policy program researched the impact of employment laws on domestic violence, renewable energy, climate change, and agriculture in California; and graduates in the Doctor of Physical Therapy program provided new evidence in areas including the relationship between mild traumatic brain injury and foul tips incurred by Major League baseball catchers.

“The combined effective actions of the graduates in this room has resulted in over 175 new pieces of evidence that will positively impact the fields of education, health care, and public policy,” she said.

About Northeastern University College of Professional Studies

Northeastern University College of Professional Studies is one of nine colleges that form the university. Northeastern University is recognized for academic excellence, ranking in the top 50 universities in the United States in U.S. News & World Report, as well as ranking sixth among U.S. universities sought by international students. Northeastern is renowned for experiential education, and the College of Professional Studies incorporates this strength in career-focused professional education at the bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral levels. Degrees reflect business needs, the reality of the present economy, and areas of professional growth and demand.

Graduates of a University Engaged with the World

Northeastern University College of Professional Studies Confers 1,093 Degrees

Photo by Heratch Ekmekjian

With thousands of family members and friends in attendance, graduates ranging from the associate level through doctorate graduated on Friday, June 6, at Matthews Arena on the Northeastern University campus in Boston, MA.

A total of 1,093 degrees were conferred – 18 Associate, 252 Bachelor’s, 721 Master’s, 6 Certificate of Advanced Graduate Studies, and 96 Doctoral. On Thursday, June 5th, the college hosted a Doctoral Hooding Ceremony for doctoral candidates in the Doctor of Education, Doctor of Law and Policy, and Doctor of Physical Therapy programs symbolizing their transition from student to scholar-practitioner.

Graduates received advice from graduation speaker, Dr. Mark Albion, who offered two “don’ts” and three “do’s”:

• Don’t get really good at what you don’t want to do.
• Don’t defer your life plan.
• Do turn your values into value.
• Do surround yourself with a community of love.
• Do know how to measure success.

Albion is a former Harvard Business School professor and university administrator who has co-founded seven companies, including the global young leadership organization, Net Impact. Albion’s latest venture is More Than Money Careers, which provides a self-leadership, career platform that helps students, young professionals, and alumni “get clear, connected and hired” for well-paying impact jobs that fit their values—using their heads to follow their hearts.

Exemplary Teaching and Social Impact

During graduation, the College presented the Teaching Excellence Award to two outstanding faculty members: Dr. Gail Matthews DeNatale and Dr. Arsenio Paez.

And, the College awarded the Dean’s Social Impact Award to Elizabeth McLellan RN MSN MPH. She is President and Founder of Partners for World Health, a non-governmental organization dedicated to improving health care around the world by improving the medical supply chain and coordinating medical missions in Africa, Asia, and South America to promote capacity building and training.

Students Receive Degree of the Highest Honor: Their Doctorate

The previous day, Thursday, June 5, the doctoral candidates of the Transitional Doctor of Physical Therapy, Doctor of Law and Policy, and Doctor of Education programs were honored at the annual ceremony, receiving their doctoral hoods from their thesis advisers.

At each doctoral hooding ceremony, one student is selected to receive the Dean’s Medal for Outstanding Doctoral Work, the highest honor awarded by the College to a doctoral graduate. The award was established to acknowledge exemplary academic achievement and to recognize demonstrated creativity. This year, the Dean’s Medal winner was Dr. Sean Robert Gallagher for his thesis entitled Major Employers’ Hiring Practices and the Evolving Function of the Professional Master’s Degree. Gallagher is Chief Strategy Officer at Northeastern University.

Graduation culminates the 2013-14 academic year that saw many changes at the College of Professional Studies including: Growth and Change

• Faculty member Tova Olson Sanders was one of two award recipients of Northeastern’s highest teaching honor.
• Enrollment of students in the College’s two newest degree programs: Master of Arts in Homeland Security and Master of Science in Regulatory Affairs of Food and Food Industries.
• Addition of three former ambassadors to the faculty of the Master of Science in Global Studies and International Relations degree program.
• The launch of a graduate program in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam – the Master of Science in Leadership degree in cooperation with International University of Vietnam.
• The arrival of Northeastern’s first cohort of students from Nigeria, studying in a summer bridge program at Northeastern and University of Vermont. Approximately 40 students from Nigeria are expected to matriculate into degree programs at Northeastern in the fall of 2014.
• Stan Phanord, a graduate of Foundation Year, the intensive first-year college program, graduated from Northeastern this year with a Fulbright Fellowship and a Rangel Fellowship, establishing his path to graduate studies and a career in diplomacy.

Northeastern University College of Professional Studies is one of nine colleges that form the university. Northeastern University is recognized for academic excellence, ranking in the top 50 universities in the United States in U.S. News & World Report and is ranked 6th among U.S. universities sought by international students. Northeastern is renowned for experiential education, and the College of Professional Studies incorporates that strength in career-focused professional education at the bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral levels. Degrees reflect business needs, the reality of the present economy, and areas of professional growth and demand.

Most business leaders believe innovation is critical for U.S. colleges to remain globally competitive

Photo by Brooks Canaday

At a time of great debate over the value of a col­lege degree, a new national survey reveals a con­cern among U.S. busi­ness leaders about the pipeline of talent pro­duced by Amer­ican col­leges and uni­ver­si­ties. While most exec­u­tives express sup­port for the Amer­ican system of higher edu­ca­tion, they also believe the U.S. is falling behind global com­peti­tors and inad­e­quately preparing grad­u­ates to suc­ceed in the modern workforce.

The new survey, the third in a series by North­eastern Uni­ver­sity, presents the views of C-​​suite exec­u­tives, with a par­tic­ular focus on global com­pet­i­tive­ness, the employee skills gap, employer work­force invest­ments, and oppor­tu­ni­ties for policy reform.

According to the new survey, more than half of busi­ness exec­u­tives (54 per­cent) believe the U.S. is lag­ging behind devel­oped and emerging coun­tries when it comes to preparing col­lege grad­u­ates for career success.

The report also high­lights a con­cern from the C-​​suite about the notion of an employee “skills gap.” Nation­ally, 73 per­cent of busi­ness leaders say there is a skills gap among today’s work­force, and an even greater number (87 per­cent) believe that today’s col­lege grad­u­ates lack the nec­es­sary skills to succeed.

“These find­ings under­score a crit­ical call to action for all of us in higher edu­ca­tion to inno­vate,” said Joseph E. Aoun, pres­i­dent of North­eastern. “Busi­ness leaders—who are key part­ners for col­leges and universities—want higher edu­ca­tion to be more expe­ri­en­tial and want us to instill entre­pre­neurial qual­i­ties in our graduates.”

Region­ally, busi­ness leaders have some­what varying views. In Boston, where the con­cern is less wide­spread, only 64 per­cent of exec­u­tives see a skills gap. In Char­lotte, N.C., 71 per­cent are con­cerned about a skills gap, while in Seattle the figure is 76 per­cent. The North­eastern survey over­sam­pled busi­ness leaders in Boston, Char­lotte, and Seattle—the three Amer­ican cities where the uni­ver­sity main­tains campuses.

Among the attrib­utes most impor­tant for col­lege grad­u­ates to pos­sess, busi­ness exec­u­tives rank com­mu­ni­ca­tion, inter­per­sonal skills, and adapt­ability at the top of the list. That echoes the sen­ti­ments of the majority of Amer­i­cans from Northeastern’s August 2013 poll, who said so-​​called “softer skills” such as com­mu­ni­ca­tions and problem solving were most impor­tant. According to the new survey, nearly one-​​third (28 per­cent) of busi­ness leaders believe that very few recent col­lege grad­u­ates actu­ally pos­sess those skills.

Busi­ness leaders are divided on the ques­tion of whether col­lege grad­u­ates will be more (27 per­cent), less (32 per­cent), or equally (39 per­cent) pre­pared for the work­force in the next 10–15 years. The find­ings were con­sis­tent across the sam­ples in Boston, Char­lotte, and Seattle.

In addi­tion to the hur­dles pre­sented by the skills gap, recent grad­u­ates face a job market that is in many ways still recov­ering from the Great Reces­sion. Nearly two-​​thirds of exec­u­tives say the reces­sion impacted their busi­nesses, with the most com­monly cited con­se­quence being a reduc­tion in the number of entry-​​level jobs.

Con­sis­tent with find­ings from Northeastern’s pre­vious two sur­veys, C-​​suite exec­u­tives believe that col­leges and uni­ver­si­ties should develop inno­v­a­tive ways to edu­cate and pre­pare stu­dents for the workforce.

An over­whelming majority of respon­dents (97 per­cent) say that expe­ri­en­tial education—the inte­gra­tion of class­room study with pro­fes­sional experience—is crit­ical to an individual’s suc­cess. A large majority of busi­ness leaders (89 per­cent) also believe the nation’s higher edu­ca­tion system should expand oppor­tu­ni­ties for teaching entrepreneurship.

Other note­worthy regional find­ings include:

•    While most U.S. busi­ness leaders (72 per­cent) cite per­sonal drive as the most impor­tant factor for career suc­cess, busi­ness leaders in Boston and Seattle cite the value of men­tors and advisers at a higher rate than respon­dents nation­ally. While just 27 per­cent of busi­ness leaders across the country place great value on men­tors and advisers, the figure is 45 per­cent of Boston busi­ness leaders and 43 per­cent of their Seattle counterparts.

•    Busi­ness leaders in Seattle tend to be more sup­portive of online col­lege degrees. Nearly 6-​​in-​​10 Seattle exec­u­tives say an online degree pro­vides a sim­ilar quality of edu­ca­tion as tra­di­tional degrees, com­pared to 47 per­cent in Char­lotte and 45 per­cent in Boston.

The survey inter­views were con­ducted by tele­phone among a rep­re­sen­ta­tive sample of more than 500 C-​​suite exec­u­tives and busi­ness leaders in the U.S. from Feb. 3–19, 2014. It includes an over­sample of 300 respon­dents in Boston, Char­lotte, and Seattle. The margin of error is +/​-​​ 4.37 for the national sample and +/​-​​ 5.65 for the regional sample.

Take 5: Stress Management Tips for 2014

Among the most common New Year’s res­o­lu­tions is better stress man­age­ment. But that’s easier said than done. We asked Chieh Li , an asso­ciate pro­fessor in the Bouvé Col­lege of Health Sci­ences ’ school psy­chology pro­gram , for a few pointers on how to suc­ceed in stamping out stress. Li has prac­ticed and researched school psy­chology for more than 30 years, but, as she put it, it’s not what she says that makes her an expert on stress management—it’s how she lives her life. She’s been med­i­tating daily for more than two decades and couldn’t care a smidge whether her purse has gone out of style. Why does that matter? Read on to find out.

1. Take five (minutes that is)

One of the sim­plest things you can do to reduce stress in your life, Li said, is to take five min­utes out of your day to do absolutely nothing. For some this might mean sit­ting cross-​​legged in the Sacred Space chanting “om,” while others might find con­tent­ment in sit­ting qui­etly on the couch lis­tening to music. Have a hard time sit­ting still? No problem, any repet­i­tive activity—jogging, for example, or swimming—works, too. Just make sure to let your­self “zone out” for a few min­utes each day. “There’s a nat­ural healing mech­a­nism in the body,” Li said, “but modern life is so busy, we don’t give it a chance to do its healing.”

2. Make a budget…for your time

This is a big one for stu­dents, Li said. Often the most stressful times of the year—midterms and finals, for instance—seem to creep up out of nowhere. But if you take a look at your syl­labi and sched­ules at the begin­ning of the semester rather than the end, you can start to budget your time right from the get-​​go. Pro­fes­sors can help with this, both for their stu­dents’ sake and their own, Li said: Spacing out assign­ments and exams not only gives stu­dents an advan­tage but also helps manage the work­load of those grading all that mate­rial. Doing this can also have a pos­i­tive impact on your health, Li said, since sleep and stress are directly linked to an impaired immune system. Ever wonder why you get the flu as soon as exams roll around? Talk about stress.

3. …and one for the money, too

It’s no secret that finan­cial wor­ries are a major source of stress for the vast majority of humans with a heart­beat. But just as with time man­age­ment, a little plan­ning can go a long way. Sub­tract your expenses from your income and the remainder is the money you have to play with. Haven’t much left over? That’s okay. Having fun doesn’t have to cost a lot. And nei­ther does giving. One of the most mean­ingful gifts Li ever received came from a young stu­dent who didn’t have enough money to buy her a card. Instead he wrapped a col­orful, hand-​​written note saying “thank you” into a tiny package for Li to open and enjoy. Years later she still remem­bers it.

For more tips on money man­age­ment, see our Take 5 on finan­cial fit­ness from ear­lier this week.

4. Be flexible

That hand­made note­card taught Li an impor­tant lesson: We have to be flex­ible in the way we view the world and what we expect from it, our­selves, and those around us. The pur­pose of giving a gift or a card isn’t to spend a lot of money, but rather to express our grat­i­tude, care, and love for another. It’s easy to get trapped in the images that tele­vi­sion and the media tell us are ideal, but there are mul­tiple ways of doing things, Li said. Being flex­ible allows us to see the heart of a matter and find those other oppor­tu­ni­ties. The same goes for many of the stressful rela­tion­ships we encounter on a daily basis. Col­lab­o­rating with a team member who sees things dif­fer­ently from you? Try to see things from his or her per­spec­tive and you’re likely to find the common pur­pose that unites you.

5. Quit comparing

Although often neglected, Li said, this is per­haps the most impor­tant thing you can do to min­i­mize stress: stop com­paring your­self to everyone around you. Between all the new mobile devices, runway-​​worthy fashion trends, and even our own bodies, we are con­stantly com­paring what we have with what we want. The person next to you on the tread­mill is run­ning at a faster pace, your room­mate just landed a co-​​op at a For­tune 500 com­pany, and your best friend somehow received the newest iPhone before it was even released. But keeping up with the Joneses is only stressful if you care about the Joneses. “Often people neglect what they have, they’re so eager to get what they don’t have, and then live in dis­sat­is­fac­tion,” Li explained. Start paying atten­tion to what you do have—a healthy heart, a job at a fun-​​loving startup, and a best friend—and you can start to free your­self from the stress of striving, Li said.