When Carolina alumna Megan Rhodes and NC State grad Zachary Francis graduated from college, neither had immediate plans to lead their own North Carolina classroom. But both say they knew teaching and creating impact in the lives of K-12 students was a profession they would love.

After graduating in 2007 with degrees in public policy and geography, Rhodes spent time teaching English in South Korea and then traversing the globe as a member of the cabin crew for a top global airline. Francis, who graduated in 2015 with a degree in communications and media, was a sports journalist, including 2½ years as a sports anchor and reporter for a CBS affiliate in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Nearly five years ago, Rhodes and Francis each changed career paths and entered classrooms as residency license teachers — formerly known as lateral-entry teachers. As residency license teachers, Rhodes was hired to teach fourth grade at New Hope Elementary in Orange County and Francis to teach English at Lee County High School in Sanford.

Residency license teachers enter classrooms with college degrees, subject expertise and relevant professional experiences. However, they don’t enter with a full teaching license. To continue teaching, Rhodes and Francis each had to earn that license within their first three years in the classroom. They both turned to Pathway to Practice NC — an online educator preparation program offered by their alma maters, NC State and UNC-Chapel Hill, specifically designed to help residency license teachers earn a full teaching license.

Pathway to Practice NC is a unique collaboration between the UNC School of Education and the NC State College of Education that provides a 100% online, self-paced and competency-based program to help North Carolina’s residency licensed teachers, who are working educators, earn full licensure. The program, which is subscription-based, can be paused or resumed at any time and costs about $5,000 if completed in one year.

Since 2017, that model has served more than 530 residency license teachers from 90 of the state’s 115 school districts. Pathway to Practice NC earned accreditation — with no stipulations or areas for improvement — from the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation this month.

Rhodes, who completed Pathway to Practice this past spring, said she enrolled in the program because of the affiliation between Carolina and NC State, and the strength of both universities. She said she appreciated Pathway to Practice’s flexibility and the program’s learning modules which helped enable her to do her job to “the best of her ability.”

A thoughtfully designed program

Ahead of Pathway to Practice’s launch, its creators — UNC School of Education and NC State College of Education faculty members, renowned researchers, and subject matter experts — sought to deliver high-quality, asynchronous modules for residency license teachers like Rhodes and Francis, full-time educators who represent a range of grade levels and subject matter.

“What we wanted to do was leverage the expertise of our faculty and program administrators to provide a program that would go far beyond our own campuses to serve the state of North Carolina,” said Diana Lys, UNC School of Education assistant dean for educator preparation and accreditation, who created and is operational lead for Pathway to Practice.

“Every step has been in partnership and collaboration — from ideas, to brainstorming, all the way through writing the curriculum,” said Alison Winzeler, director of Pathway to Practice NC and director of alternative licensure at the NC State College of Education.

That partnership resulted in a program that enables residency license teachers to complete modules — including ones focused on building supportive classroom environments, lesson planning, assessment, how to modify lessons based on student need, subject-specific content, and more — as their schedule allows. Each module is designed for teachers to embed within their own classrooms and is aligned with local, state and national standards.

“I appreciated the way the program is organized and falls into different modules. There’s some about understanding your classroom community and procedures, then others are more subject-based modules. There’s writing, reading, social studies and more,” said Rhodes.

Being a competency-based program means that residency license teachers master each competency — like developing evidence-based instruction to support fluent reading or identifying student needs and applying that knowledge to enhance instruction — at their own speed and then move on to the next. Some modules may be completed quickly, and some may require more time to complete.

“Not only is it all online, but it’s also asynchronous, so it works well with a busy teacher schedule. They can submit assignments early in the morning before they go to school or later in the evening. That flexibility is one thing that draws people to the program,” said Rachel Lewis, NC State’s alternative licensure specialist.

“Anytime I had a question, I knew I could reach out to anyone, and it wouldn’t take long to get a response, which is something I was thankful for because of how helpful everybody was,” Zachary Francis said. (Submitted photo)

Francis echoed the importance of the program’s flexibility: “The program helped me learn how to balance work and life. At night, I’m sitting down working on schoolwork for myself. Or I could say I need to put Pathway to Practice on the back burner for right now because we’ve got this big unit or I’ve got 90 essays I’m trying to grade in the next week.”

In addition to flexibility, Pathway to Practice also provides one-on-one support for the teachers it serves. During their studies, if students need help mastering modules, they receive support from an assigned facilitator. All Pathway to Practice facilitators are doctoral candidates at either NC State or UNC-Chapel Hill and are former classroom teachers.

“As a former teacher, I am constantly thinking back to what was practically impactful in the classroom when I am giving feedback,” said Mary Kathryn Oyaga, a facilitator and NC State doctoral student. “I think through strategies that supported my students in their learning and then share those strategies with my Pathway to Practice candidates. It is really encouraging when a candidate shares how a strategy that I have shared has moved the needle on student learning in their classroom.”

Francis found the facilitators to be another bright spot of the program.

“Anytime I had a question, I knew I could reach out to anyone, and it wouldn’t take long to get a response, which is something I was thankful for because of how helpful everybody was,” said Francis. “The feedback I got from my mentors was fantastic because it’s stuff I wasn’t going to think about at that point.”

At the end of the program, residency license teachers complete their Education Teacher Performance Assessment, a daunting step in the licensure process. The portfolio-based assessment requires them to gather materials and share a narrative on their lessons along with a video of a class. Once submitted and passed, they are eligible for their full license. To date, 100% of Pathway to Practice NC completers have passed the assessment, 90% on their first attempt.

“These teachers want a program that is going to help them do better at their job,” said Winzeler. “We get lost in the numbers and administrative stuff, but when we read an email from someone that talks about how they enjoyed learning and then applied the information to their classroom, that is impactful.”

As a first-generation college student and former Division III student-athlete, Tait said the full-time nature of academics and athletics was challenging. Later he realized few people asked him the right questions about his interests, challenges and well-being or offered the support he needed then.

Tait ultimately transferred to and graduated from UNC Pembroke, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology with a minor in athletic coaching. While completing that degree, he also joined the North Carolina Army National Guard — drawn by a desire for discipline, service and personal growth.

Now a staff sergeant, Tait has deployed with the North Carolina Army National Guard to Kuwait, Iraq and Qatar. The experiences, he said, strengthened his ability to lead under pressure and continues to influence how he approaches leadership and problem-solving.

“Whether I’m serving soldiers or adult learners, the principles are the same — stay adaptable, stay informed and help people succeed by meeting them where they are,” Tait said.

The sum of his experiences led him to professional roles at East Carolina University, where he served as a Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs success coach and assistant director of youth programs and special populations. Later he was an academic adviser at North Carolina Central University.

Now Tait is a flightpath success coach with Project Kitty Hawk — a University of North Carolina System-affiliated entity. The project helps adult learners earn high-quality, workforce-aligned degrees and credentials from UNC System institutions.

(Submitted photo)

“Both worlds — higher education and the National Guard — require empathy, patience and structure,” he continued. “In both roles, I’m helping people reach their goals, whether it’s earning a degree, completing a mission or just believing they can do it.”

His Project Kitty Hawk work inspired Tait to enroll in the UNC School of Education’s MEITE program, where he focuses on creating innovative, technology-driven tools that help to expand college and career access.

Tait joined the MEITE program’s learning engineer track, one of several focus areas offered by the program. After discussions with Todd Cherner, MEITE program director, Tait said he realized he needed a deeper understanding of design — specifically, how to build and refine the platform for the college and career access initiative he hopes to launch.

Tait aims to build a VR/XR platform that enables high school students to explore various pathways toward their career goals by virtually touring community colleges and four-year universities, completing mini-courses on key topics like financial aid, majors and minors, and study skills, and exploring careers through immersive virtual experiences and day-in-the-life videos.

“This track is helping me build something useful and something immersive that really impacts students,” Tait said. “I want it to be something that feels alive, something students want to use.”

For Tait, understanding technology’s human impact is no different from understanding the people he leads.

“I’m always asking myself, ‘How can we use the technology we already have to improve education as a whole and enhance the learning experience?’” Tait said. “That’s where my focus on college and career access really comes in, finding ways to use innovation to make education more accessible for everyone.”

Remembering his own challenges as an undergraduate, he has a more holistic view of access.

“College access isn’t just about getting students in the door,” Tait said. “It’s about helping them stay, succeed and see themselves in the future they’re working toward.”

Sawyer is a leading creativity and learning researcher and the Morgan Distinguished Professor in Educational Innovations at the UNC School of Education. He saw tabletop games as an ideal way to cultivate what he calls “the maker mindset” — a hands-on, design-driven approach to learning. The assignment immersed students in campus makerspaces, where they could experiment with tools like 3D printers and laser cutters as part of their creative process.

“They would be learning about design principles, maker competencies and creativity skills, while at the same time learning how to use these makerspaces,” Sawyer explained.

Each game had to include a theme, story structure and catchy name and be designed for two to four people to play in under 20 minutes. Students had to 3D print custom pieces, create 2D components using laser and vinyl cutters and design printed boards or cards.

Anna Engelke (M.A. ’17) is the education program manager at BeAM, after being part of the inaugural MEITE cohort. (UNC-Chapel Hill)

“Professor Sawyer was able to give us restrictions but still allow creativity,” said Luke Wilkinson, a student in the class, who found that “some restrictions and navigational boundaries help you find creativity and that perfect reflection of who you are.”

From hand-sculpted clay figurines to sleek laser-cut boards, each game reflected its creator’s personality through a unique blend of storytelling, strategy and visual design.

Inspired by shuffleboard and Skee-Ball, Andrew Bartlett, a business administration and exercise and sport science double major, designed Push and Score. Meagan Leung, a computer science and information science double major, created Recipe Rush, in which players race to collect ingredient cards and complete recipes.

From MEITE student to BeAM mentor

A member of the inaugural cohort of the Master of Arts in educational innovation, technology and entrepreneurship program helped shape the learning environment for creating these games. Anna Engelke ’17 (MA) is the education program manager at BeAM, working closely with faculty from more than 30 academic departments to integrate design and making into their courses.

Engelke credits the interdisciplinary nature of the MEITE program with preparing her to lead cross-campus collaborations like this one.

“The [MEITE] program helped me develop a sense for how different disciplines can work together to be able to create things,” Engelke said. “That’s definitely something I’ve carried through into my current role.”

For this class, Sawyer and Engelke designed a syllabus combining technology workshops on tools like Adobe Illustrator and 3D modeling with foundational education principles. Future assignments will explore robotics and educational research-driven design.

Anna Engelke (M.A. ’17) is the education program manager at BeAM, after being part of the inaugural MEITE cohort. (UNC-Chapel Hill)

Cultivating the maker mindset

Senior Sarah Gonzalez admitted she hadn’t realized campus makerspaces were even available before the course.

“We’ve spent the whole semester so far making these games and learning how to use the BeAM makerspaces,” said Gonzalez. “Seeing it all come together has been really cool.”

The project gave students a hands-on way to turn abstract ideas into tangible experiences. Sawyer hopes the skills they’ve gained — creative problem-solving, iterative design and the ability to work within constraints — will extend far beyond the classroom. Whether they go on to teach in K–12 settings, present ideas in corporate boardrooms or collaborate across disciplines, the experience of making something with their hands will shape how they approach learning in any field.

“I told the students, ‘I’m not teaching you how to be game designers. What I’m teaching you is the ability to think like a maker,’” Sawyer said.

Read more about the maker movement class. 

During her interim tenure and in her first months as dean, Hamm has also continued to build collaborative relationships within the School of Education and with schools and units across the Carolina campus to strengthen community partnerships, advance teaching and research, and increase engagement and development efforts.

Hamm, William C. Friday Distinguished Professor of Education, has served as a faculty member in applied developmental science at Carolina since 1999. Before becoming dean of the School, Hamm was the inaugural associate dean for research and faculty development (2017-24). In that role, she led in the development and implementation of the school’s strategic plan and helped grow the school’s annual research expenditures from $6.2 million in 2016 to $25 million in 2024 — greatly expanding the school’s ability to serve people and communities in North Carolina and beyond.

In the following Q&A, she talks about her Carolina journey and where she sees the school going next.

What brought you to Carolina in 1999? 

Jill Hamm’s original OneCard from 1999. (Submitted)

I came to UNC-Chapel Hill, first and foremost, because of its status as an R1 university. Carolina has a vibrant community of scholars who are collaborative and collegial, and they’re all focused on the greater good — of North Carolina, the nation and the world. As a young scholar starting a career as a developmental and educational psychologist, I was excited to join the School of Education because I knew I would have great colleagues.

Before I accepted the offer, I visited an area classroom with two future colleagues, Carol Malloy, a math educator, and Judith Meece, a fellow educational psychologist. The three of us observed a high school math classroom in Durham and talked about how we interpreted different classroom events, like the teacher’s instruction and students’ engagement with the teacher and each other. I was so excited by that conversation, and after other meetings with faculty, I decided Carolina was for me. In fact, that conversation with Carol and Judith formed the basis of a National Science Foundation grant the three of us received in 2001 to study middle school math classrooms and student achievement from instructional, motivational and social lenses.

What’s kept you here? 

I’ve stayed at Carolina because the school continued to provide great opportunities for research collaborations with faculty colleagues and fantastic students.

As a faculty member, I’ve taught exceptional students in both our teacher education and doctoral programs. As an administrator, I’ve had opportunities to work with colleagues who are equal parts visionary and hardworking.

From leadership to faculty to staff to students, so many people have worked very hard to make this the school that it is today. I want to continue that upward trajectory.

What does your vision for the school look like?

Jill Hamm addresses graduates and families at the UNC School of Education’s graduation ceremony May 10, 2025. (Submitted photo)

For years, we’ve recognized the importance of emergent technologies, and now those include GenAI. Another area in which we have really great potential is in putting research into practice. I want to remove barriers to bring our research findings to help schools across North Carolina and beyond.

Our work at Carolina Community Academy and in Person County is one great example of how a public R1 university can and should serve a community. I want us to continue to learn from our lab school and share those lessons with our university peers and with school districts.

Read more about Dean Jill V. Hamm.

“We want to show that research is attainable for all,” said Jose Cuc-Reyes, LRI student ambassador. “When we asked students what they thought about research, they immediately jumped to lab coats, magnifying glasses and microscopes. Research can be so much more than that.”

The initiative is in its third year. Students learn about research through workshops, mentor relationships and cohort bonding activities. These help students focus on growing personal relationships along with learning communication and collaboration skills.

“We’re building architects for the future to eventually build a ladder for other scholars to follow and prove that research is attainable for everybody,” said Carolina Castro-Perez, another LRI student ambassador.

Students are paired with a faculty member from a field that interests them, then develop an idea for a research poster session. They meet several times throughout the session to work on the presentation, while also working on reflection writing and have conversations with other scholars about the research process.

LRI students represent a range of research, working with mentors from UNC Adams School of Dentistry, UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School, UNC School of Education and UNC School of Social Work.

“My favorite part has been seeing the growth of these scholars,” said Cuc-Reyes. “I’ve loved seeing students succeed who feel like they haven’t been able to make the most of their Carolina research experience prior to this.”

“This program is rooted in community and the feeling of belonging,” said Castro-Perez. “Research can be intimating and challenging for them, but they realize they belong here and their voice matters in their field of research. They learn to make the uncomfortable, comfortable and that’s the beauty of this program.”

UNC Research Stories sat down with Casey Calhoun, a clinical psychologist, researcher and assistant professor in the UNC School of Education, to learn more about his work at the Translational Adolescent Research Lab and why student research experiences matter.

What’s the main goal of your research?

My work focuses on how everyday social experiences during adolescence affect stress and mental health issues like depression, anxiety and suicidality. I aim to turn this research into practical tools that reduce barriers to care and support teens directly. Ultimately, I want to improve prevention and create personalized resources that reflect teens’ unique needs.

What’s one project you are working on now?

One project looks at how social media affects teens’ stress. We’re testing a new EEG-based task that mimics online social comparison, which is when teens compare themselves to others based on the feedback they receive online. We’re studying how this kind of comparison impacts stress responses in the brain and body, and how it might increase risk for mental health issues.

What are the biggest challenges in your research?

Getting funding and building the right partnerships. Projects that use advanced methods and the development of digital tools require a lot of resources, and competition for funding in these areas is high. To strengthen our projects and increase competitiveness for funding, I’m teaming up with experts in psychiatry, genetics, business, public health and computer science.

What’s the most surprising discovery your team has made recently?

The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis is one of the body’s major stress response systems. My research has demonstrated that two teens might show the same HPA stress response, which is measured by cortisol levels, but have very different mental health risks depending on other factors like inflammation or how they feel emotionally.

This has changed how we design studies. Now, we look at multiple systems — the brain, hormones, immune responses and emotions — together to get a clearer, more holistic picture of how stress affects mental health.

As UNC-Chapel Hill celebrates University Research Week, read more about Carolina’s research impact.

If your research could solve one big problem, what would it be?

Helping identify which teens are most at risk for mental health issues and connecting them with the right kind of support. That means understanding who’s most vulnerable, what kind of help works best for them and making sure they can access it.

What’s the coolest tool you use in the lab?

A state-of-the-art EEG system that measures brain activity and physiological responses simultaneously and automatically timestamps and syncs multiple data streams. This helps us see how different systems react to stress in real time and build detailed profiles of risk and resilience.

What can undergraduate students do in your lab?

Undergrads help with everything from recruiting participants to running experiments and collecting data. They also help design surveys, review research and even create content for the smartphone app for teens. Advanced students can take on their own research projects, which can lead to honors theses or conference presentations.

What do students gain from working with you?

They build strong research skills — learning how to read studies, design experiments and think critically about how research can be applied in the real world. Those who take on independent projects also learn how to analyze data and present their findings.

As an example, one student completed a project using data from our lab and was able to talk about that research in her applications to grad school, ultimately gaining admission to the clinical and health psychology Ph.D. program at the City University of New York.

Read more about Casey Calhoun’s research.

The production focuses on nine female teens on a soccer team and the challenges that arise when competition, perfectionism and power dynamics come into play.

These same topics were addressed in a human development summer course that clinical assistant professor Megan Hyland Tajlili ’03 taught in the Master of Education in School Counseling program.

When she found out about “The Wolves” production, Tajlili reached out to assistant teaching professor Aubrey Snowden, the play’s director, offering to connect the cast members with her school counseling students to help the actors better understand their characters.

“We have this fascinating wealth of knowledge about the neuroscience of adolescent brain and why teens are the way they are,” said Tajlili. “What do these bids for attention mean? What do power dynamics mean? As future school counselors who are already seeing this as interns in schools, the students wanted to join the cast as part of their team to consult on this.”

Actors participated in activities, like the game of telephone, to see how language and tone shifted as a rumor traveled throughout the cast. (Brittany D. Cowan/UNC School of Education)

Snowden welcomed this perspective on the issues in the play. “This opportunity to work with the School of Education felt like a natural partnership,” Snowden said. “It’s such a gift for our cast to know these students get it, they understand what we’re trying to do and are invested in it the same way we are.”

The students take education courses and serve as school counselors-in-training at nearby K-12 schools as they prepare for careers to help students succeed academically and socially in school and afterward.

The cohort of about 20 school counseling students met the cast at the play’s first rehearsal. They returned to give the actors a presentation about the adolescent brain, sharing tools counselors use to map relationships and social dynamics within a group. They also had the actors play the telephone game, showing how they sounded harsher and more judgmental whenever they talked about the character who was the subject of the game’s rumor.

“I’m so proud of my students and how they conceptualized this and made it their own. They’re thrilled to see the finished product of the play,” said Tajlili. “What I’ve enjoyed the most is the sense of camaraderie with another academic department. We’ve had a shared vision, and I love creating connections across campus.”

Working with the actors was a good learning experience, said graduate student Taylor Phillips, who first read and watched “The Wolves” in high school.

Taylor Phillips, a school counseling student, also spoke with cast members about their characters to better understand what challenges their characters face during the play. (Brittany D. Cowan/UNC School of Education)

“Thinking about the play and its psychology has been different as an adult and having lived more life,” Phillips said. “I love learning about psychological concepts in class, but I have a different understanding of them now since there was a practical, real-life application in front of my eyes with the play and actors.”

Graduate student Chloe Rhodes enjoyed seeing her future profession from a new lens.

“Sometimes we focus on our work in the context of elementary, middle or high school, so it’s nice to put on a different thinking cap and see how this work applies to concepts beyond a classroom,” she said. “This process has taught me that the work of school counseling is bigger than just college and career readiness. It has a lot to do with mental health.”

Director Snowden hopes the audience also connects with “The Wolves.”

“I hope people take away that moment of identification with these young women and a moment of understanding,” said Snowden. “How this sport and these experiences at this age reverberate throughout your life.”

“The Wolves” runs through Oct. 26 at PlayMakers.

You recently presented in Dublin on your cyberbullying research. How has social media affected the nature of bullying?

My first study on bullying was in 1993, when email and cell phones were on the rise. Our studies didn’t have a technology or social media focus. Even though bullying has changed, there’s some classic predictors. If you can’t regulate your emotions, you’re more likely to be a victim of bullying. If there’s no emotional training or high conflict at home, you’re more likely to be a perpetrator of bullying. Personality, dynamics, context, environment and family still hold true, but now we’re finding kids are weaponizing technology. We’ve started to see overlap between bullying at school and online.

We’ve also looked at kids who intervene when there’s a cyber incident or who do what we call “cyber bystanding.” We found that whatever happens online usually starts offline. If kids are nicer to each other face to face, they’re less likely to engage in cyberbullying. Parents should monitor their kids’ social media, encourage moderation and unplug from phone use.

(Submitted photo)

What are some signs of bullying that adults should be aware of?

Victims become depressed, stop doing what they want to do and isolate more. If you notice they slam the laptop down, that’s a sign. Kids also learn from parents. It’s all about their social learning environment. They learn their behaviors from somewhere, so parents should monitor their own behavior around kids.

How can adults talk to children about bullying?

It has to start early, and it has to be institutionalized within the school system. It’s not what you say, it’s how you act, so I would flip it and ask: “How are adults creating an environment to reduce or minimize bullying?” Bullying is probably at the highest rate we’ve ever seen, depending on age. With preschool or elementary school bullying, kids are more open to adult messages compared to middle and high school.

What are the effects of bullying on children?

If you’re targeted consistently, as an adult you could earn less money … because you’ve been pushed into different careers that earn less. There’s also research showing that bullying affects brain development due to chronic victimization. On the perpetrator side, there’s a criminal trajectory if they’re always getting in trouble. Most of us are bullied, and most people have bullied at some point. If we redirect those leadership skills in a positive way, you end up having a different career path.

You teach a class at Carolina called Sources of Strength. How has that course made a positive impact on students?

It’s based on what we call “upstream prevention.” As opposed to educating on suicide and post-suicide, we educate on prevention science and positive psychology and then put it into application. Experiencing sexual violence, teen dating violence and domestic violence is associated with higher rates of suicide, so I try to transfer what I’ve learned in my research to this class. A large component of the class involves students creating a campaign across campus and taking that back to their friends to teach them what they’ve learned. If you’re sitting around with your roommates watching “The Summer I Turned Pretty,” you can show them what you’ve learned.

Since May 2024, she’s also served as the inaugural generative artificial intelligence faculty fellow at the Center for Faculty Excellence. This work, Riger said, is about translating “the technical into the practical” by helping Carolina faculty and graduate student instructors understand both the ethics of AI use in the classroom and effective strategies for either integrating AI or intentionally resisting it.

Riger was an early adopter of AI and explored how it affected her teaching, redesigning assessments and presenting at various CFE events in the fall of 2022 and early 2023. Her scholarly work focuses on how technology affects relationships and how it’s used in family therapy.

“They eventually invited me to step into this role because I was doing a lot of this work already and being invited to speak on this topic,” said Riger.

Here are five things to know about Riger’s work as GenAI fellow.

1. She wants to provide clarity on AI — not push an agenda.

Faculty should have agency and be confident in AI decision-making, Riger said. She cares about “empowering them to make informed choices,” whether that means integrating AI, avoiding it or choosing a “blending” approach.

2. She feels a responsibility to prepare students for the realities of AI.

“As a university, we’ve established that digital literacy is a learning outcome we want students to be proficient in,” Riger said. “When I think about my responsibility to my students, I think about preparing them to feel confident and competent in whatever professional roles they take on.”

Most faculty she’s talked with agree that students need to be ready to interact with AI in some capacity professionally. “That doesn’t necessarily mean using AI. Sometimes it means knowing what AI is capable of so you can decide not to use it,” Riger said. “Avoidance is also a strategy, but it needs to be an informed one.”

3. She tailors her work to faculty needs.

In her 16 months as GenAI fellow, Riger has led 35 custom workshops and plans to lead 10 more this fall. “They’ve spanned almost every school and college, working with faculty, doctoral instructors and even TAs,” she said. She also assisted and led multiday CFE institutes last fall and two three-day AI assessment institutes this past summer.

“I bring in research on AI use within faculty’s specific fields and share discipline-specific examples of AI output,” Riger said. “Most importantly, when a faculty member requests a custom session, I ask them to send me a specific assignment or assessment where they’re struggling with issues of AI misuse or overuse.”

She’ll then redesign the assessment and use it as a case study on how AI could be integrated or resisted, depending on the desired learning outcome.

4. Faculty want to focus on what only humans can do.

Faculty members want to know how AI might help them make space for aspects of teaching, mentoring and research that are uniquely human.  They ask her, “How can I streamline administrative tasks?” and “How might I conduct research more efficiently using AI?”

They are also interested in ways AI can enhance human teaching and learning. “It can help them design more engaging, creative classroom activities that inspire students,” she said.

5. She emphasizes ethics, adaptability and grace.

Riger acknowledges how quickly AI changes and the impossibility of keeping things “AI resistant.” That’s why having an ethical framework is important.

“Policies and regulations will change, but values like fairness, transparency and student trust must remain constant,” she said. “This is new terrain for all of us. Giving ourselves some grace as we learn together is just as important as keeping pace with technology.”

Now, Patterson is a science teacher at Cedar Ridge High School in Hillsborough, North Carolina, where she teaches on-level, honors and international baccalaureate biology. In 2023, she was honored as the Orange County Teacher of the Year. She is also a 2024 Kenan Fellow and a teacher mentor at the school and district levels.

We caught up with Patterson to learn more about her teaching and time as a Tar Heel.

Did you always know you wanted to be a teacher?

No, I actually came in as a clinical lab science major! My heart wasn’t fully in it, though, and a professor introduced me to UNC’s BEST minor. Once I made that connection, I switched my major to biology, finished my coursework in 2018 and student-taught in spring 2019. I always lovingly say I fell into this career, but if you ask my family, they’d say they knew this would happen.

Who was a favorite UNC professor? What made them special?

Dr. Jennifer Coble, the former coordinator of the UNC BEST minor in biology. She encouraged me to pursue teaching and was such a kind, positive presence at Carolina.

What do you love most about your job?

First, my students. I love that we can grow together, learn and form meaningful relationships over time. Second, the amazing Cedar Ridge school community. Every person works to ensure our students are successful and supported.

What are you most proud of in your career so far?

I am most proud of being a safe adult who students feel comfortable around. It brings me a lot of joy when students trust me with whatever is going on and are comfortable being themselves around me. That is the greatest compliment from a teenager.

If you could time travel back to being a Carolina student for a day, what would you do?

Appreciate all the resources and friends I have within walking distance! If it’s my ideal day, I’d probably go to a science lab (but NOT write a report), spend time with my friends on the quad and finish the day enjoying Linda’s sweet potato tots.

What’s your advice for current Tar Heels?

I’ll share the same advice I give to my students: Change can be hard, but it’s necessary as you continue to learn and grow. You’re doing your best, and your best is enough. (Also, if you’re a former student of mine, hello! Love you! Miss you! You’re doing great!)