“I help students settle in, not settle down, but settle in,” Senyo Ofori-Parku, SOJC assistant professor, said. “So they feel like they have control over where they want to go.”

In the SOJC’s Esports and Games Research Lab, students explore the psychology, culture, and industry surrounding gaming—including its effectiveness as a learning tool and its integration into everyday life.

Our 2022 Yearbook spotlights our many successes this year, from students’ hands-on learning projects, to groundbreaking faculty research and staff service awards, to inspiring tales of alumni adventures.

Can virtual reality help solve environmental issues? Can an online chat make it easier to quit smoking? With the help of grants secured through the Center for Science Communication Research, SOJC PhD students tackle these questions and more.

Waseq Rahman researches how gameplay generates thought-provoking experiences leading to greater insights about purpose and personal growth.

PhD students collaborated across disciplines to study how the COVID-19 pandemic affected high school students studying science.

For their dissertation, a PhD student who studies rural transgender media activism documented LGBTQ+ pride celebrations in small-town America.

Gender, feminism and identity scholar Kumi Silva studied social movements in her native Sri Lanka and in India. Now, as an associate professor at a major university, she gets “paid to learn.”