How can graduate programs apply the principles of formative education?
The Graduate Student Services (GSS) office is pioneering new ways of growing the intellectual, ethical, social, and spiritual capacities of Lynch School master’s and doctoral candidates. A new set of programs developed specifically for graduate students—retreats, meet-and-greets, and panel discussions—are creating the opportunity for self-reflection that leads to an understanding of one’s own purpose and a blueprint for a meaningful life. This programming benefits students throughout their academic journeys, and propels them after graduation to careers and community engagement that contribute to a just and compassionate society.
The promise of a liberal arts education is to prepare students for lifelong learning and exploration. In their coursework and practicum placements, students apply the skills of critical inquiry to their communities, careers, and lives. But an education that focuses exclusively on the classroom misses the full scope of the student experience: jobs, family responsibilities, volunteering, and interactions with the wider community beyond campus, to name a few. So how can the University nurture its students’ full development if much of their growth is happening outside the school’s walls?
This holistic approach to student growth helps students discern their greater purpose in the world and the societal benefits from their explorations.
At Boston College, the answer is formative education. A formative education helps facilitate the intellectual, social, ethical, and spiritual growth of each student, recognizing each dimension as essential to the development of becoming a whole person and a member of a larger community. This holistic approach helps students discern their greater purpose in the world and determine how their explorations can benefit society at large. So while students at the graduate level have significant agency over the shaping of their education, the University also has a responsibility to assist and encourage their self-development.
Steven Viveiros, associate dean of Graduate Student Services at the Lynch School of Education and Human Development, is determined to provide graduate students with a formative education that will support their continued growth and the communities they serve.
“We have a responsibility to develop not just the mind but the soul of the student,” Viveiros says. “And those students pay it forward in our communities, our nation, and our world.”
The challenges of fostering community
When creating new programming for the graduate student population, it’s important to take the diversity of backgrounds and expectations into account. “The graduate student experience isn’t as developmentally delineated as the standard four years of undergraduate education,” says Viveiros. “You have to differentiate between the needs of a master’s student, who might only be here for one year, and a doctoral student, who has a long-term commitment and follows an expected trajectory.”
Master’s and doctoral students also face challenges that extend beyond school, from supporting families and changing careers to acclimating themselves to a new culture. “Our students are fitting in this formative work among a lot of other obligations,” Viveiros says, “so in our programming, we offer many opportunities to give students a choice of when to engage. By providing more broad-based, open, accessible programs, we’re creating space for students who want different levels of engagement and reflection.”
Deepshikha Banerjee, who completed a master’s at the Lynch School and is now pursuing a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction, knows firsthand how hard it is to find community as a graduate student. “We’re loaded with lots of courses, and that doesn’t leave much opportunity to socialize,” she says. In the master’s programs, where students and faculty have a shorter timeline to form connections, students can find it difficult to sustain a sense of community. “I was really saved by the initiatives that Graduate Student Services offered,” Banerjee says.
These events range from meet-and-greets and colloquia to casual lunches and year-end celebrations. “Attending all these events inspired me to apply for a Ph.D.,” says Banerjee. “Meeting and building relationships with other students helped shape my decision.”
One key to the success of these initiatives: accessibility. “It’s not just the fact that something is offered, but how it’s offered,” explains Sarah Sprinkle, a master’s candidate in Higher Education. “Making sure that people feel welcome to attend or to drop in if they can’t stay for the whole time.”
Sometimes making students feel welcome means a pasta dinner where students can come and go as they need; other times it means a celebration that honors the holiday traditions of international students. Students have voiced appreciation for this flexibility in programming, which creates a welcoming and low-pressure environment for them to engage as often as their schedules afford. But in all GSS programs, students are invited to reflect and question where they fit in the world and what the world needs from them.
Creating opportunities for connection and reflection
The self-discovery questions that guide formative education at the undergraduate level grow more specific at the graduate level. “In graduate school, there’s an element of certainty,” Viveiros says. “Students have made the decision to pursue a certain discipline, so their exploration is happening within a window.”
Even as the questions change, the goal remains the same: to help students seek out opportunities for joy, self-knowledge, and generosity toward their communities. “Our grad students aren’t just minds reading books, but minds that we can take care of,” says Sprinkle. “Over the year and a half I’ve been here, I’ve seen those formative undertones emerge.”
One of GSS’s signature events is a two-day retreat in which first-year doctoral students reflect on their experiences and their intentions. Babatunde Alford, a Ph.D. candidate in Curriculum and Instruction who assisted in organizing this retreat, says many students arrive with a feeling of disconnection. “People wonder, Are the feelings I have unique to me?” Alford says. “Absolutely not—so a big takeaway folks had from the retreat is that we’re not alone in our feelings.”
Feedback among students following the first-year retreat was positive, with some coming forward to request similar retreats for second- and third-year doctoral candidates, Viveiros reported. “That feeling of community is something students really appreciate,” Alford says. “A space to reflect and reconnect with your sense of purpose—and also, honestly, just to take a break and catch up.”
The dual recognition at the heart of the Lynch School’s approach is that graduate students must have agency over their education and holistic development, and that the University must help students cultivate both with care and intention.
Another of GSS’s initiatives to foster a more cohesive graduate community is the passport program, which enables students to track their participation and progress. “They give you a passport book,” Sprinkle says, “almost like a journal. Each event has an accompanying sticker and a related question for reflection.” As a result, the passport serves as both an incentive and record, a reminder of progress made so far and a jumping-off point for future possibilities.
“There’s this expectation that grad students need less support than undergrads,” says Alford. “But at the end of the day, we’re still navigating something new—we don’t figure it out automatically just because we’re older. We still need support, understanding, patience, and guidance.”
There is a dual recognition at the heart of the Lynch School’s approach: graduate students must have agency over their education and holistic development, and the University must help students cultivate both with care and intention. Strengthening the institutional culture of formative education is directly outlined in Boston College’s strategic plan (Ever to Excel), which makes explicit the responsibility to provide every student with an experience that is both meaningful and success-oriented.
Formative education in the greater academic context
For formative education to emerge organically through classroom learning, it would take a lot of luck: the right advisors, the right community, and the right opportunities. “Leaving it up to chance might mean an opportunity missed, a question not asked,” says Viveiros. “It might mean that the school is not maximizing the true impact of what a scholar can do, the difference they can make.”
The values that formative education instills—compassion, self-knowledge, citizenship, community engagement, and the pursuit of joy—require careful tending, especially given the pressure students feel to prepare for their professional lives.
Viveiros has high hopes for the future of these values within the Lynch School and beyond. “This is a process we’re sharing with our colleagues across BC, and with primary and secondary schools and other non-profits throughout the Boston area,” he says. “I’m excited to iterate based on what we hear and learn from students.”
Protecting and uplifting the human element in higher education can have a powerful ripple effect, bringing the habit of care and self-reflection to communities far beyond the scope of a single university. “An institution cannot do everything,” says Sprinkle. “But even just a presence is powerful. It makes a difference when leaders keep telling students over the course of many months, ‘We’re there for you.’”
“It makes a difference when leaders keep telling students over the course of many months, ‘We’re there for you.’”
—Sarah Sprinkle, M.A. ’25 (Higher Education)