Last month, I was honored to receive the 2025 Graduate Faculty Mentorship Award from the Graduate School at The Ohio State University! You can read about the award and some of my thoughts on mentorship here.

Reflecting on my journey as a mentor, I feel incredibly grateful for the chance to work with such talented and dedicated students. Their achievements are a testament to their hard work and perseverance, and I’m proud to have played even a small role in their academic and professional development.

My mentoring philosophy is all about fostering the next generation of scholars. By focusing on detailed planning, continuous improvement, and mutual support, I aim to guide students toward becoming thoughtful, innovative scholars who will shape the future of engineering education and our world. This journey is both challenging and rewarding, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to mentor and be mentored by such incredible individuals.

Looking ahead, I’m excited to continue this journey of growth and discovery. I’m committed to fostering a supportive and enriching environment for students, helping them navigate their academic and professional paths with confidence and resilience. Together, we’ll keep pushing the boundaries of knowledge and making a positive impact in engineering education!

Meg was selected as one of four College of Engineering graduates to be featured in this article: https://engineering.osu.edu/news/2024/12/meet-four-inspiring-2024-grads

We are so proud of you, Meg! Congratulations on this achievement and best wishes as you move on to your next chapter.

Professional development (PD) is a great way to gain new skills. While many forms of PD are available (workshops, conferences, assessments, etc.), I have found that the most impactful PD experiences allow me to explore who I am as a person and then relate that to my work. For me, meaningful PD is not always focused on gaining new technical knowledge or research skills; it is focused on gaining a deeper understanding of who I am. This understanding allows me to work more efficiently, effectively, and most importantly, with more passion and purpose.

One option for this type of PD is career coaching. Working with a career coach allows you to reflect deeply on your work now and into the future. It helps you make decisions and solve problems. While coaches do not really give direct advice, they help you develop the tools you need to guide your own path. The career coach I have worked with help me during a really hard time in my professional career. She helped me regain my passion and feel more fulfilled in my work. She also helped me understand how organizational change impacts an individual even if is it not always obvious because despite change the work continues. If you do not know where to find a coach, ask your colleagues! Many people work with a coach but do not share it broadly. Also check with your university. Sometimes they have curated lists of coaches who can support you a variety of ways based on your career stage and personal needs. Coaches can be costly, but they are worth it!

Another form of PD is more workshop/training based but allows for individual exploration. Most recently, I have engaged in work to uncover my unique strengths and apply those to my job. For me, these types of sessions are best done with a colleague or two (meaning you both experience the same thing but that does not have to mean you do it at the same time together – you can each explore individually and come together after). This type of PD and approach gives common language to the group and allows you to better understand yourself and others. I think these types of PD have truly helped me build deeper connections with my colleagues which ultimately leads to a better work environment. It also allows you to understand yourself in relation to others. This team knowledge has helped me avoid arguments and misunderstandings because I have deeper understanding and appreciation for my colleagues and their approaches to our work. The cost for these types of training varies greatly, but often you can get a discount if you get more people involved.

While there are many forms of PD, I encourage you to invest in PD that focuses on you as a person. What you learn in those sessions is transferrable to many contexts, professional and personal. Knowing who you are is an investment we should all make. It leads to happier and more fulfilling experiences.

In July, I started a new role at OSU as the Assistant Vice President for Talent and Team Development within the Office of Knowledge Enterprise (OKE) while continuing my engineering education work. OKE is part of ERIK which is essentially the research and innovation arm of the institution. In this role, I am charged with helping researchers and teams of researcher prepare for large-scale interdisciplinary research that could lead to federal funding. It has been an exciting new adventure that has allowed me to connect with amazing folks across the entire university. That said, balancing a faculty appointment and an administrative appointment can be challenging. Below are 3 tips if you are interested in starting to pursue something similar.

• Have a typical schedule but be ready for changes. I spend 2 days a week in my OKE office and 2 days a week in my engineering education office. I use Fridays as a split day to catch up on whatever is needed (ideally working from home that day but that has happened less than I would like). While this balanced schedule would be ideal, there are times when adjustments need to be made. With that, when planning things like meetings in advance, I keep everything to their assigned days. This allows unforeseen issues or tasks to be tackled as needed. There are times when I make exceptions, but these are far and few between or else I would be doing both jobs all the time.

• Communicate, communicate, and communicate again. When you have two major roles, you know you do, but others will forget because they are not balancing both day to day. There is no harm in reminding them about your schedule, availability, capacity, and expectations. This is about setting boundaries but also communicating them. I have found that people are typically extremely understanding when I remind them of my dual role and the restrictions it causes.

• Ask all the questions. I have been at OSU as a faculty member for 10 years now. I know how a lot of things work. I have seen the old ways of doing things and the new ones. One major thing I have learned in this new role is that every unit has their own way of doing things even if we are following the same university policies. This means you have to ask questions to learn how things are done across the system. There are certain things people will assume you know, but trust me, ask questions just to be sure you are aligned.

As I continue in this role, I know I will have more to share, but I wanted to post my initial insights having been in this role for about 6 months. Each and every day, I learn something new about the role, the unit, the university, and myself. It has been a great experience in doing something fresh and continuing to learn.

Tomorrow I will be traveling to the KEEN National Conference (KNC)! The KNC is a gathering of individuals interested in developing the entrepreneurial mindset (EM) in engineering students. During my time at OSU, I have been involved with KEEN (the network around EM) in a variety of capacities. I’ve been involved with grants, classroom implementation/curriculum development, and coaching after a summer workshop. While KEEN is very focused on undergraduate education, I have been able to apply what I’ve learned about EM to many aspects of my work including my research and work with graduate students.

My favorite part about working with this group is the people. I’ve met so many amazing faculty at institutions across the United States through KEEN. It has been extremely rewarding to get to know them and learn more about their programs, many of which are very different than our programs at OSU in terms of focus and size. It’s been wonderful to learn so much from them and develop collaborations and connections around and beyond EM. I’m looking forward to seeing so many familiar faces at the KNC and getting to meet new people as well.

One of the things I’m most looking forward to at the KNC is just being in person! I love the energy around an in-person conference and really missed that over the last few years. Hallway conversations can be some of the most important at conferences and those are very difficult to recreate in a virtual world. While being in-person for conferences is really exhausting in the moment, it is also really energizing as you come back to campus and think about all the new things you can try based on what you’ve learned. I’m looking forward to being tired after this event!

Dr. Kajfez recently met with a group of 4th graders at a local elementary school. Check out the story here: https://www.hilliardschools.org/4th-graders-create-toy-to-make-a-difference/

When I started teaching, it was in a first-year engineering context, and I simply feel in love with teaching that level. There is an unmeasurable excitement in the class related to the newness of everything and the start of college careers. I forgot how powerful that feeling is, and it’s been giving me energy since my first class this semester. Each day I come home with a smile and know that teaching first-years is a huge part of that.

The start of this year has also been tricky since this is the first time I’m back in the classroom, in person, since March 2020. Like many of the colleagues, this is challenging, and I felt very rusty. However, it’s also rejuvenating! After a year and a half of only seeing students on my computer, I see them in real life! It’s amazing and surreal to be in a room and relive all those things I didn’t realize I was missing related to student-instructor interaction. Online, we did the best we could, but there are some things that could never be recreated.

Even with all the excitement and energy, there is still uncertainty. I’m hopeful I don’t get sick, my son doesn’t get sick, my students don’t get sick, we continue with in-person instruction, I get to travel for a conference, etc. That said, I’m also realistic and know that my hopes might be dashed. That’s ok though because I feel more resilient than ever to deal with adversity and the unknow. At the start of the pandemic, the unknown was really too much for me, but now, I have the tools to adjust and move forward.

As you move forward this semester, remember that you too have the tools to be successful. We have all learned something about ourselves during this time, and we now need to use what we’ve gained to move forward and do great things. You are not alone in this journey, but remember to also reach within as you reach out and reconnect. Like my first-year students, I’m excited for this academic year and am ready to start a new chapter in my college career.

These days I feel like all I think about is time and change. What will be different tomorrow? How long with this last? Clearly, the last year has been a tough one for many reasons. Personally, I’ve had professional and personal issues all hit and complicate an already complicated year. My moto throughout all of this for RIME has been to give each other and ourselves a little bit of grace.

If the pandemic has taught me anything, it’s that we all have “stuff.” We all have something going on in our lives at various points in time that impact what we do in the classroom or with our research. The “stuff” includes all those unexpected and often unpleasant things we deal with in our lives (e.g., illness within a family, struggling financially, addiction, etc.). Often, we cannot leave our “stuff” at the door. We come to each experience as whole people, and whether or not we realize it, our “stuff” impacts all aspects of our lives.

As an educator, I think it’s important to recognize that every person brings “stuff” to an experience, class, meeting, etc. While we may not know the details of each person’s “stuff,” I hope we can all acknowledge that it exists and work to find acceptance and understanding for one another as we navigate difficult times. If we build a foundation around understanding and respect, I believe we will be successful and get through the most difficult times.

2020 has not be kind, but through it all, I have found support, understanding, forgiveness, and compassion all around. I try to seek out the good in all situations, knowing it will brighten the bad. “Time and change will surely show.” Here’s to 2021 and the hope of a slightly less complicated world!

Congratulations to our very own Abby Clark on the continuation of her NSF funded internship with COSI!

https://engineering.osu.edu/news/2021/01/nsf-internship-prepares-grad-students-diverse-career-paths

The ASEE Connections Newsletter included a brief article about our new Smartness project. Check it out here: https://connections.createsend1.com/t/ViewEmail/y/A4B4812BFB612D54/D130E23EA1DC83A13D3F7F9A22A6E02E More information about the project will be posted on our website soon!