Lessons That Can't Be Planned (2024)

Jennifer Brooks has lesson plans. Thousands of them. After all, she’s been teaching math collegiately for the better part of the last twenty years. Her office is lined with binders full of handwritten outlines from earlier in her career; now she preps for classes on her tablet. “I go into every day with a very well-developed plan,” she says.

But some of the most important exchanges that happen with her students—the mentoring moments when they take something to heart—don’t happen during lectures. Sometimes it’s an email or a conversation outside of class, and other times it’s an offhand comment during lab.

And not all those lessons have to do with math.

“I don’t think that I teach classes,” says Brooks, an associate professor at BYU. “I teach students.”

Connecting with and encouraging students is what drives Jeff Macedone, a professor of chemistry who recently received the college mentoring award. “Part of my job at BYU is to lift students,” he says. “When I share things that are going on in my life—with my family, calling, or work—with them, they sometimes ask, ‘How are you juggling all this?’” He continues, “They feel overwhelmed themselves, and when I share strategies that help me, it can be eye-opening for them to see that I’m happy and not crushed by the load I’m carrying.”

In addition to teaching, Macedone supervises a small group of students who prepare demonstrations for chemistry lectures. “There’s a lot of interaction with my crew in this lab,” he says. “They ask many meaningful questions.”

These spontaneous and often spiritual conversations typify the BYU faculty’s commitment to its students. As the university aims to offer a world-class education in a faith- filled community, it relies on mentoring experiences—the lessons that can’t be planned—to prepare students for life and leadership in a uniquely personal way.

CULTIVATING CONFIDENCE

Many people think math is understanding how to solve problems, but for Brooks it’s more about ideas and communication. “I like helping students get a larger view of what math really is,” she says. “I want to be there when they’re feeling insecure and let them know that’s how everyone feels.”

Math is a difficult subject for students, and Brooks enjoys taking students from frightened to confident. She says, “I’m willing to spend a lot of time with them so when they get to the end, they realize, ‘Hey, this wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. I actually enjoyed it.’” And her commitment is recognized across campus. Brooks recently received the College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences Outstanding Teaching Award and the BYU Faculty Women’s Association Excellence in Teaching Award.

However, it’s not just the coursework students struggle with. Macedone recognizes the loneliness many students experience in addition to the typical stresses of college life. He has even found himself walking suicidal students to BYU’s counseling center. “Whenever I give students a little encouragement, a compliment, or validation, they just light up because they don’t have enough of that in their lives,” he says. “Students need to know that someone believes in them.”

A small vote of confidence can go a long way. During Brooks’s first year at BYU, she recruited four students from her complex variables class to create a research group early in fall semester 2019. The following January, a student approached her and asked if she needed a grader for the new semester. “I know I wasn’t your best student,” he told Brooks, “but I really liked the class and would love to help grade.”

Brooks’s response surprised him. “I already have a grader,” she explained, “but why don’t you join my research group?” The student hesitated. “I want you to have this experience,” Brooks added. “I think it would be good for you.”

And it was. “He became more confident and assertive. I saw him open up and blossom,” Brooks says. “It was one

little semester at the end of his BYU career, but it changed how he saw himself and what he was capable of doing.”

Brooks has learned to identify the students who will benefit the most from joining her research group— and it’s not necessarily the most confident students or those with the highest grades. “Students often think that research or grad school are for really smart people,” she says. “I want them to see it’s just as much for them as it is for the straight-A students, maybe even more so.”

LIFELONG EFFECTS

Mentoring experiences have long-lasting effects, and Macedone uses one lecture in his CHEM 106 class to specifically discuss preparation for the professional world. To mimic this environment, his CHEM 227 lab course is structured like a company. Students receive an email from a fictional boss at the beginning of the semester and are given “Trainee” name badges, which are replaced by “Lab Tech” badges once the students complete their training.

“I tell students, ‘You’re going out into the workforce. You need to be professional; if you show up late or turn in something late, I’m going to dock you on the professionalism score,’” Macedone explains.

CHEM 227 also focuses on experiential learning. Several lab periods at the end of the semester are set aside for an independent project in which students plan and exe- cute experiments of their choice and then write reports on the experiments. “That’s the environment where they’re learning about critical thinking. Success in chemistry comes from being able to implement principles,” Macedone says. “We need to solve real-world problems. We’re not useful if we’re not being inventive, innovative, and novel in our work.”

One day, a student—who was generally argumentative—began complaining about a CHEM 227 assignment. Macedone heard him out and then responded, “If this was a company, I would have fired you a long time ago.”

The student was absolutely shocked. Then Macedone continued, “But I am here, right alongside you, because I want you to learn so you don’t make these mistakes in your future job, and you don’t get fired.”

By the end of the conversation, the student could see the underlying care in that exchange. “What I said might have sounded insulting, but he got it, and it was what he needed to hear in the moment. He recently wrote to me and shared that he’s thriving in a really great internship at a prestigious university,” Macedone says. “One of the most significant things about mentoring is that it’s not just about how you do chemistry, but it’s how you treat people with respect.”

MUTUAL MENTORING

Brooks, who joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints in 2014, enjoys sharing her conversion story and other spiritual thoughts with her students. “But the moments that are really special to me are when the students do something that strengthens my testimony,” she says.

At one point, Brooks was struggling to understand an unfulfilled promise that had been given to her in a blessing. “Three years later it hadn’t happened, and I was wondering if this was something the Lord actually intended to fulfill or if it was somehow no longer expedient,” she recalls.

One morning Brooks woke up to an email from a student. The message included a “pretty mundane, course-related thing,” Brooks recalls. But then the student wrote that she wanted to share a scripture she thought explained strong induction—a mathematical principle.

“It was exactly what I needed at the moment: a scripture about God fulfilling His promises. And it was also an example of strong induction,” Brooks says. “One of the things I love about BYU is that when it comes to math, I’m the teacher and the students are the students. But when it isn’t about math, when it’s about the gospel, we’re all students. And I learn a lot from my students.”

Macedone had a similar experience as he observed a student taking care of her best friend whose sister was killed in a skiing accident. “While she was out for two weeks mourning, her best friend attended my office hours every day, asking lots of questions. At the end of the semester, they both got really good grades,” he says. “The one worked extra hard to make sure she understood the

material so she could teach her friend. What she did was so selfless, loving, and Christlike.”

FAITH FIRST

BYU is a special place for Brooks. “At BYU, we don’t think we have to give up our commitment to Jesus Christ to do our scholarly work,” she says. “I came here because I felt the Lord wanted me to serve this group of people. That service includes being able to live the gospel that I want to live and help students who also want to live the gospel.”

At the beginning of each semester, Macedone shares a faith-promoting experience from when he was earn- ing his PhD. A laser wasn’t opening properly, and he had asked for help from advisors, other grad students, and even the company that made the laser. After puzzling over the problem for a week, Macedone had the thought to pray. “I asked for help, and the inspiration came. I was able to see the parts of equipment in my mind and how the laser was passing through, and the answer all came together,” he says. “I share this with students to illustrate that mistakes and challenges are part of the plan and that revelation should be part of the experience, even in analytical chemistry.”

Despite all the preparation and planning she does for each class, Brooks hopes her students ultimately remember that she cared about them as she strove to help them grow personally. “The most important things they could take away from a course would be whatever they learned about themselves in the process,” she says. “I hope they measure their success in terms of personal growth, not in grades.”

Students are at a crossroads in their lives, Macedone notes. “The more support and charity we show them, the more likely they are to make the right choices and go down the right paths,” he says. “I love to be there for the students. I tell them, ‘I’m here to teach you, and I know you can do this.’ They’re on a journey, and I’m trying to meet them where they are.”

STUDENT CENTERED

The commitment to being student-centered is at the core of BYU’s educational philosophy. “We believe in creating an environment where students receive an exceptional total education, including providing career-launching experiential learning and building faith and character,” says Grant Jensen, dean of the College of Computational, Mathematical, & Physical Sciences. “When expanding our faculty, one important consideration is to bring on board professors who are not only experts in their fields but who also exemplify a selfless dedication to the success and complete well-being of our students.” Macedone and Brooks embody the idea that fostering a student-centered approach is not just a priority but a fundamental principle that guides the educational experience at BYU.