Welcome Back Symposium

Virtual Welcome Back Symposium 2025: Practical Strategies to Enhance Student Learning

Held virtually on Friday, August 22, 2025, from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

This symposium, hosted by CETL, provides attendees the opportunity to learn about strategies, tools, and resources current Virginia Tech faculty find meaningful in supporting student learning. Faculty presenters represent a diverse group of disciplinary backgrounds and a wide range of teaching experience. Sessions will offer practical ideas and suggestions that can be integrated into a variety of course contexts. In addition, the event’s keynote speaker, Kevin Gannon, author of Radical Hope: A Teaching Manifesto, will speak about strategies for connecting and reconnecting with students while encouraging them to take steps toward learning challenges instead of pulling away.

The goal of the symposium is for teaching faculty members at Virginia Tech to gain information, inspiration, and ideas for strategies that they can implement in their teaching to increase student engagement. We hope you can join us.

Keynote Speaker

Kevin Gannon is Director of the Center for the Advancement of Faculty Excellence (CAFÉ) and Professor of History at Queens University of Charlotte, in North Carolina. He is the author of Radical Hope: A Teaching Manifesto (West Virginia University Press, 2020), and the co-editor of the forthcoming collection The Campus Crisis Toolkit: Strategies and Solidarity for the Rest of Us (SUNY Press). His writing has appeared in outlets such as Vox, CNN, and The Washington Post, and he is a regular contributor to The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Agenda