Marie Forgeard

“Learning can be challenging and often anxiety-provoking; recognizing and addressing our areas of growth is a skill that requires practice. When students struggle with this process, I take the time to reframe our work together by explicitly stating that I expect them to learn by allowing themselves to be imperfect and continuously strive to improve. I then produce two pieces of evidence to illustrate that I truly believe what I am telling them: the first research paper I ever wrote, covered in red ink from a former advisor, and the last research paper I wrote, covered in track changes from a collaborator. As we laugh together looking at these documents, students learn to accept that learning is a lifelong process without an endpoint—only an upward trajectory.”