At Western, there are many professors who intentionally design their courses to welcome all students. With the Showcase Profiles, we share a variety of ways WWU professors are meeting this challenge--motivating participation, demonstrating their knowledge, creating connections, and developing a sense of community and belonging. We are grateful for everyone who has taken on the challenge to warmly welcome students while balancing high expectations and a rigorous learning environment. 

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Creating a welcoming space for diverse backgrounds and perspectives

Drs. Rebecca Bunn (ESCI) and Marion Brodhagen (BIOL) taught two separate but collaborative courses in Spring 2025. To create a welcoming environment that fosters collaboration and integration of diverse knowledge and perspectives, the courses relied on highly structured cross-class activities and a shared investment in successful project outcomes. Each course is a 5-credit, lecture/lab course with twice-weekly three-hour lab sessions and twice-weekly one-hour lectures. The labs involve quarter-long projects to study the impacts of a disease of Douglas firs in the Sehome Arboretum adjacent to WWU’s Bellingham campus.

• Complementary collaboration - The Environmental Science students are using ecological methods to study soil quality while the Biology students are using microbiological and molecular methods to study tree root microbiomes. The studies are complementary; students collaborate to share knowledge and results, and to create a final report for the Arboretum Board.
• Group activities and connections - Across-class group activities started in the first week create connections and nurture a diverse learning community that crosses traditional disciplinary boundaries and fosters respect for, and reliance upon, one another’s expertise.
• Investment in team success increases belonging and good research outcomes. Students build community, find connections, and foster respect for one another as cross-disciplinary scientific colleagues.

Exercises are designed to break down interdisciplinary walls and promote consideration of new perspectives when considering management of the urban ecosystem of the Arboretum. For additional details, see slides from their recent presentation.

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Hacherl Research & Writing Studio

According to Gabe Gossett, Head of Hacherl Research & Writing Studio, and Dayna Patterson, Assistant Head of Hacherl Research & Writing Studio, the Hacherl Research & Writing Studio (Studio), located in Western Libraries, is where students can get support for research, reading, and writing across all subjects. While the Studio is not a course, it is a learning resource with intentional design and pedagogical practices that are very much focused on providing welcoming spaces for students. While there are aspects of the work that cannot translate into course-based teaching practice, there are also many practices that can be adapted. Some of the key strategies we employ that make the Studio a welcoming space include:

• Peer-to-peer learning - Student staff work directly with student clients in the Studio or via digital platforms, such as via “Connect Online” via chat option or the “Send Us a Draft” feature.
• Highly individualized learning - Students can walk in or request appointments with a Research & Writing Assistant. Undergraduate students and graduate students can request a Studio Partner and meet with them regularly to work on the skills and strategies needed for current coursework.
• Student agency - Our focus is to help students manage their own learning. They are welcome to work in the Studio space by themselves or with a group and seek assistance when needed.

The Studio has been in operation since 2015, and has helped inspire similar research and writing support services at other institutions.

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Professor Mata designed the course, SPAN 404: Spanish Linguistics, for both heritage/native speakers and new learners of Spanish. It supports learning Spanish as a foreign language that fosters an inclusive and engaging environment where all students can thrive. Strategies implemented include:

• Differentiated teaching strategies offer 4-5 short video-lectures weekly that allow students to engage with foundational concepts at their own pace.
• Strategies to reduce anxiety and promote equity via structured assessments, with exams split into an open-notes online section and an in-person individual component.
• Universal Design for Learning principles are central to the course.
  • Students can choose to complete activities in writing or orally.
  • Course content includes both regional Spanish accents and second-language acquisition processes.
  • Course includes a predictable course schedule, transparent expectations, a well-structured Canvas page, and a supportive classroom dynamic.
  • All students benefit from the opportunity to retake exams or revise work, if needed.
  • The course accounts for different language-learning experiences by delivering instructions consistently in written and audio formats, and by dedicating the last 10-15 minutes of class to supporting students in revising work or participating more fully.
This creates a welcoming and empowering space where all students can engage deeply with Spanish linguistics and develop confidence in their abilities.

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Assistant Professor Maura O’Leary knows that college students are often dealing with newly heightened amounts of pressure and isolation, especially if they are first-generation college students or if they come from other non-traditional backgrounds. Many students do not feel that they know their classmates or their professors well, and many do not know the parameters around how to ask for help. If you were the first in your family to attend college, who is going to tell you when it is appropriate to attend office hours? And how will you know that it is OK to ask what may feel like very basic questions? It would help if you felt like you belonged at office hours and if you felt like you knew your professor well enough to approach them with any questions you may have.

Welcoming Office Hours

In Professor Maura O’Leary’s courses, these problems are solved by requiring a structured visit to one office hour within the first three weeks of the quarter. This helps the students feel welcome in office hours and when talking with her. First, requiring them to physically enter the office hour space at least once helps to break down the barrier of entering that space for the first time, which can make students feel much more comfortable in returning. If they feel comfortable just being present in office hours, then they have opportunities to ask questions and receive help that they otherwise may not ask. During this first meeting, they bring a “Get To Know You” sheet, which asks for information like the pronunciation of their name, their pronouns, and where this course may fit in with their post-college plans. It also offers optional space to say anything else they want Maura to know, especially about outside factors that might affect their performance in the course. When students bring in their sheets, Maura goes through their answers and asks follow-up questions, taking every possible opportunity to show interest, make connections, and build rapport. Maura has found that giving the students a chance to have a low-stakes but high-friendliness conversation early in the term makes them feel much more welcome to hang out in office hours and to ask questions, both in class and in office hours.

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Welcoming Environment as Core Teaching Philosophy

Throughout their teaching, Assistant Professor, Dr. Zoë Plakias uses active learning techniques and regularly requests Western’s active learning classrooms. Giving students agency in their work and contributions is a common theme.

First Day Welcome Activities

• Sharing Knowledge: On the first day of class, Zoë first asks students to share something they know a lot about. They discuss how everyone can learn from each other because of the unique experiences and expertise brought into the classroom.
• Authenticity & Support: Also on the first day, Zoë shares their own mental health challenges with students and encourages students to prioritize their own mental health. This has made students feel comfortable to come to Zoë when they are struggling with their mental health, allowing connection with appropriate professional support.
• Consensus about Generative AI Practices: A third element of Zoë’s first day practice involves a conversation about generative AI where they work together to come up with an AI policy unique to that class and quarter. This practice provides students with agency in their learning process.

Students also have agency to express themselves via their coursework via creative options:

• choosing readings of interest and paper topics of interest in upper-level classes;
• incorporating class concepts through creating a board game; and
• using anything but slides to creatively present their natural resource management policy (e.g., infographics, paintings, poems, zines, videos using live action, videos using Minecraft environments, radio plays, and more).

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One way Emily Spracklin, Teaching & Learning Librarian, creates a welcoming space for students is by reading a poem at the start of class. This helps students transition into the space and practice listening. It's also fun (and cathartic!) for the instructor and students. Emily enjoys choosing and reading the poems aloud, and many students reported enjoying the poems, too. When selecting poems, Emily read poets of diverse identities that spoke to the moment, for example: course themes, current events, their mood, weather/nature, etc. Oftentimes, the selection is contextualized, even if it's just saying something like, "This poem really resonated with me today, so I wanted to share it with you." Students could also request poems or volunteer to read a poem to the class. To locate poems, consider starting with Western Libraries or the ‘find a poem’ tool made available by the Academy of American Poets.

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Norda Stephenson exposes all her students to issues beyond science content, inviting them to explore critical aspects of the nature of science including its legacy of exclusion. Norda believes that welcoming classroom spaces support strong student identity development, foster disciplinary belonging, and are crucial to academic success. As such, she is intentional in her efforts to weave a thread of inclusion through all her activities and explores ways to increase participation of members of marginalized groups in science. Norda employs a number of techniques, strategies, and actions to help students feel welcome and included.

• Send a warm, welcoming message to all students enrolled in the course on the first day of the quarter conveying that students belong in the course, that their instructor has confidence in their ability to succeed, and is excited about meeting them. Send follow-up messages/reminders at the end of each class or week conveying the “I care about you” message.
• Learn students’ preferred names, pronunciations, and pronouns and use these when communicating with students. (This works especially well with smaller classes.)
• Involve students in course decision-making and consensus-building (e.g., policies around attendance and assignment submissions, classroom interaction agreements, etc.).
• Regularly ask for student feedback using anonymous feedback forms. Share and discuss the feedback with the class and invite students to discuss issues raised.
• Facilitate class discussions that feature student voices and the process of learning.
• Model authenticity and connections, sharing aspects of life outside the classroom (such as their own nature photography with story in opening slides, announcing relevant extracurricular events, etc.
• Incorporate active learning strategies (e.g. think-pair-share, using student response systems, such as ABCD cards, formatively).
• Highlight the life and work of scientists from marginalized groups.
• Strive for transparency and clarity of course expectations in the syllabus and course materials.
• Make space during the class session for students to ask questions, normalizing this as an important aspect of learning.
• Incorporate learning assistants into the general chemistry classroom to facilitate more active and equitable learning in large classes.

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Language learning is inherently interactive, requiring both spoken and written communication. To help students take risks using the target language in 200-level Chinese courses, Professor Wenling Su focuses on creating a safe, inclusive, and supportive environment. When students feel secure, they are more likely to participate spontaneously—an essential step toward real-world communication.

In response to the changing educational landscape after the pandemic, Professor Su incorporated digital tools that complement in-person learning. One example is a self-introduction video project. Students begin by briefly introducing themselves in class, then post a short video in the target language on the Canvas learning management system. They follow up by responding to peers’ questions—either in writing or speech. This format allows students to express themselves at their own pace, giving both introverted and extroverted learners a way to connect meaningfully.

Though this activity was developed for language instruction, this approach can be adapted across disciplines. Whether students are presenting research topics, creative work, or academic goals, structured self-introduction activities foster student agency, collaboration, and belonging. Encouraging students to articulate ideas using key concepts from their field also helps establish a tone of high expectations and intellectual engagement from the outset.

Interactive Self-introduction Video Project

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When Morgan Widden, Professional and Career Readiness Director in the College of Business and Economics, thinks of a “Welcoming Space” for students, she thinks about a class community that allows each student to show up as their true self for every class. Teaching almost 200 students per term, this is certainly a challenge. Every week looks different for a college student, meaning class structure should allow for scaffolded engagement that meets students where they are at. This scaffolding should also build students up, helping them achieve the learning objectives of the day in multiple ways. Ultimately, this leads to a better sense of community in the classroom and a more comfortable space for students to come in and be vulnerable while learning. Morgan hopes these efforts will encourage students to engage with the learning objectives and remove some of the emotional and cultural barriers that can come in a higher education setting.

First Day Four Corners Activity

Purpose: The purpose of the Four-Corners Discussion Groups is to create multiple heterogenous groups in a class setting. Used as a community builder in the first week of class, students learn about each other and also practice the structures used to engage in the curriculum throughout the quarter. This includes community structures such as finding a new partner and practicing introducing oneself, as well as curriculum structures like the practice of sharing answers to open-ended questions where students get to pick the level of depth they will explore. This builds up skills with no assumption of prior-experience; students guide the degree of instructor explanation and speed of the activity so that all students can keep up and feel confident before they do 100% partner-led work.

Instructions: Given a prompt, students move to a location in the room that has been identified with a particular answer to the prompt. This activity gets students out of their seats. Note: This subtly changes if students in class are unable to physically participate. Once students are in their location, a question is asked, and students discuss in their groups. Students spend the first few rounds meeting each other and practicing the community structures described above with questions like “What is your major” and “What brought you to WWU?”. By the third question, the instructor transitions to curriculum-based questions. This means students are still engaging with new folk around the room and meeting new people, but they are also having academic discussion with many people in the class from diverse backgrounds and experiences.

Ripple Effect: When the class transitions to curriculum-based topics, students can rest back on the safety of community structures that they are now confident on. Students continue to work in small groups throughout the quarter, having different groups every class. By building community through initial experiences, like Four-Corners, students can more comfortably talk to new people in the room, make mistakes, and ask for help with decreased anxiety and increased focus for their own academic engagement. Additionally, students can continue to build community outside of class with the folk they meet during group discussions.

Creating Community

Other quick community-building examples that promote emotional safety and honor various learning needs include the following:

• Do warm-ups at the start of every class with a community builder that grows into a curriculum topic.
• Set up Pair-Shares: Have students answer questions with partners, then in small groups, and lastly shared out with the class
• Create brain maps on the board collaboratively.
• Make poster boards with small group reflections (without full class sharing).
• Write reflections that start in one class and circle back in another session.

For the various activities, partners can be assigned through a variety of approaches:

1. Groups are student chosen.
2. Groups are random for quick activities.
3. Groups are teacher assigned heterogeneous or homogenous based on major, year in school, or comfort level with a topic.