Learning Reimagined: A Year with the OCE Education Team
Many of these efforts were not one-time programs. We focused on building relationships, creating reusable resources, and establishing structures that can continue to grow over time.”
Maj Kargbo
Director of Education
Over the past year, the Office of Community Enrichment's Education team has been making a meaningful impact across the Northwestern community. Guided by their annual theme, Re/Collecting Futures: Archives, Memory, and Imagination, the team — consisting of Maj Kargbo, Director of Education; Jamiece Adams, Program Manager and Facilitator; and Oslo Brewster, Facilitator — developed a series of programs and initiatives designed to foster connection, inspire curiosity, and provide valuable resources to students, faculty, and staff.
The theme itself grew out of a set of intentional questions. "We were interested in the relationship between memory and possibility," said Maj Kargbo. "Universities spend a great deal of time preserving knowledge, but we wanted to ask a different set of questions: Who gets remembered? What stories get carried forward? And how might our understanding of the past shape the futures we are able to imagine?" At its core, Re/Collecting Futures was about helping people see themselves as contributors to an ongoing story. It invited participants to reflect on what they've inherited, what they want to preserve, and what they hope to create together.
A major milestone this year was the launch of CoLAB, a new initiative designed to help faculty, staff, and community partners develop educational projects through collaboration rather than in isolation. "The projects that emerged were incredibly diverse and reflected the breadth of interests across Northwestern," Kargbo noted, pointing to efforts focused on Indigenous research methodologies, community-engaged pedagogy, public art, student internship pathways, and community storytelling. CoLAB will return next year with two application cycles, with the next call for proposals expected in September.
Among the team's other accomplishments was the launch of NU Ideas, a podcast dedicated to exploring themes of belonging, imagination, and transformation. The idea had been on Jamiece Adams' mind since their first year at Northwestern. "I wanted to know more about what was happening on campus and thought this would be a great way to learn more and share those conversations with others," Adams said. Developed alongside co-host and colleague Oslo Brewster, the podcast this year highlighted the innovative ways people are doing work at Northwestern, bringing together a range of professionals such as educators, civic leaders, and researchers to share their stories and insights.
The team also developed programming specifically designed to encourage members of the Northwestern community to engage in personal archiving through prompts, exercises, and zine-making initiatives aimed at inspiring participants to document the textures, rituals, and notable moments of their lives. One program, titled "Queering the Archive," was offered in February and March of 2026, and a zine-making program ran several times throughout the year.
Beyond those initiatives, the Education team also prioritized hands-on learning through workshops offered across Northwestern. One of the team's strengths this year, Adams noted, was the range of departments they were able to support. "Each year, our visibility as a resource on campus grows, and we get to provide different educational resources that build community and strengthen connections." One partnership included a collaboration with Associate Professor Vera Brunner-Sung of the School of Communication's Radio/Television/Film program. Brunner-Sung brought the team into her RTF 190: Media Construction introductory filmmaking course to lead a conflict-resolution and leadership workshop. While filmmaking is collaborative by nature, the workshop gave students tools to practice those skills both on film sets and beyond.
"By providing language and a framework for addressing both conflict and shared values, the workshop helped equip students with tools for navigating and managing interpersonal dynamics that can be especially challenging under the heightened circumstances of a film set," Brunner-Sung said. The workshop encouraged students to solve problems proactively rather than reactively — skills Brunner-Sung believes will help build healthy working relationships as students and eventually as industry professionals.
"These programs provide people with a space to connect and to learn," said Adams. "That is what being on a college campus is about. Not just for our students but for our faculty and staff as well."
Kargbo expanded on that idea. "A university is one of the few places where people with very different expertise, experiences, and perspectives come together every day. Spaces like CoLAB and the podcast create opportunities for those connections to become intentional."
Through initiatives like NU Ideas, CoLAB, and campus workshops, the Education team continues to advance its goals of strengthening community ties and ensuring that learning extends beyond the classroom. What makes this year's work especially notable, Kargbo emphasized, is that much of it was built to last. "Many of these efforts were not one-time programs. We focused on building relationships, creating reusable resources, and establishing structures that can continue to grow over time." Re/Collecting Futures, then, is not a conclusion — it's a foundation for the ongoing work of building spaces where the Northwestern community can share ideas, strengthen relationships, and imagine new possibilities together.