Faculty Highlight: Owen Celebrates Learning Through Her Own and Students' Research

For Professor Julie Owen, research, teaching and service take on many mantles, and often interweave. Currently, Owen teaches NCLC 405, Women and Leadership and CTCH 810, Leadership in Higher Education, and these classes mirror much of Owen’s current research topics as well. The connections she creates in her research bring even greater meaning to class discussions and her work. Owen is also helping to organize the April 30, Symposium for Engaged Scholarship which will highlight the undergraduate research in New Century College and Owen’s efforts to raise the profile of this research at Mason.

Owen recently edited the inaugural edition of New Directions for Student Leadership titled “Innovative Learning for Leadership Development.” This volume includes chapters from NCC’s Patty Mathison and Wendy Wagner and also draws on Owen’s current research with the Multi-Institutional Study of Leadership (MSL).

Through the MSL, Owen and other investigators have surveyed more than 300,000 students at 250 colleges and universities to better understand the types of support educational institutions provide to on-campus leadership programs and how those programs then foster socially responsible leadership and leadership development among students.

From the MSL, Owen has gathered many insights into student leadership and how agencies do and do not foster development of young leaders. One particularly interesting element for Owen concerns how students view themselves. She said, “Many student [leaders] see themselves as program planners, not as educators, although that is what they are.”

Owen explained that student leaders typically describe their work for campus organizations in terms of event planning, coordinating seminars and activities. Owen stressed, though, that these students are actually working as educators but underplaying the importance of their roles on campus.

Owen carries this theme into her classroom where she emphasizes that the entire class is teaching and learning together, and her methods have made an impact. Owen received the prestigious campus-wide Award for Teaching Excellence in 2012 and many students return, taking second and third courses with her.

In both of the classes she currently teaches, she requires that each student deliver a five-minute oral presentation about an important moment in their life. In each course, the focus of this speech is different, but the desired outcome is the same: every student reveals something personal, thereby making themselves vulnerable in the classroom. This vulnerability helps to create a safe and welcoming environment in the classroom.

Owen said, “People have to be brave and get up there to share their story. This sets the tone for the rest of the class.”

Just as Owen wants each student to recognize their ability to be educators, she also wants them to understand and value their roles as researchers. To promote undergraduate education, in 2012, Owen and Professor John O’Connor applied for Office of Student Scholarship, Creative Activities and Research (OSCAR) funding for curriculum transformation related to undergraduate research. The goal of this plan was to offer incentives and funding for NCC students to pursue a variety of research projects.

On April 30, 2015, Owen and other NCC faculty will highlight final research projects of this year’s Cornerstone class along with students from NCLC 475-002, Human Trafficking and the International Community, NCLC 475-008, Integrative Studies Capstone and those engaged in a variety of natural science research projects either through a course or their own independent research.

The half-day event will begin at 9 a.m. in the Hub main ballroom, where current first year Cornerstone students will display their final projects, which focus on designs to solve environmental problems. At 10 a.m. adjoining, themed rooms will open and visitors can view projects on human trafficking, natural sciences, honeybees, and a gallery with capstone projects highlighting artwork from a semester partnership with Mason students and female ex-offenders.

Owen said, “I’m very excited about the Symposium. We are glad to feature the great work that is already going on at NCC and we hope it becomes and annual event that demonstrates the real world impact research can have—especially research that is designed for and with the community.”