Educational Development Fellow Reflection: Nicole Strombom

A Reflection on Program Building – Spring 2025 

Working as a Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) Educational Development Fellow over the last three semesters has helped build my passion for teaching. As I continue my PhD journey, I am thankful for the mentorship, trust, and opportunities that working with the CTL has provided.  

During the 2024-2025 school year, I got to work alongside several CTL Educational Development Fellows to implement IGNITE. IGNITE offers a unique interdisciplinary learning community for the WashU landscape. IGNITE is unique in that it is a peer-led program for later year PhD students and postdocs. Later year PhD students are in a different phase of their PhD marathon than those in their first or second year who are likely still navigating coursework and the early research phase. Later year PhDs may be more likely to work from home, work from a location where they are performing on-site research, or have an extremely tight research schedule. IGNITE offers a space for these students to check-in with their peers who are feeling the heavy weight of balancing teaching opportunities with a large research agenda.  

IGNITE was greatly successful and offered a space for participants to build on their pedagogy experience. Participants gained skills in how to build active learning communities, how to stay on top of their work, and building an accessible classroom. IGNITE participants enjoyed the community and are excited to continue to be engaged with WashU’s CTL next year.   

I am looking forward to one final semester as a CTL Educational Development Fellow as I near the end of my PhD. This last semester, I hope to home in on my teaching skills, gain experience mentoring the next IGNITE leaders, and finish my PhD marathon.