TCNJ

8 The College of New Jersey Magazine Computer science major Forum Modi '22 (above) found a comfort zone working with criminology students like Maya Hendl '23 (right). decide whether to accept donations of real estate that could require huge, hidden expenses for environmental cleanups and assisting the Trenton Public Library to make a large cache of oral histories more accessible. The project is powered by the idea that when students are immersed in complex, real-world problems, and working with people of differing perspectives, "they're more engaged in their own learning, and we get better solutions, and they learn something from the other people in the group as well," Pulimood says. It's working, says John DeGood, a software en- gineer with 40 years of private-sector experience who immediately embraced the interdisciplinary approach when he began teaching computer science at TCNJ four years ago. His students have learned from working with others who had a much better perspective on human factors and audience engagement, areas his students were not as strong in. "I think that will assist them when they go beyond college and out into the working world," he says. Criminology professor Maggie Leigey, whose class worked on the Campaign to End the New Jim Crow website, says her students, including Hendl, "certainly benefited" from the approach. Combining disciplines not only gives them "a way to see the work that other students across campus do," she says, but it's also "harness- ing both fields' areas of expertise to produce something I know my students could not have produced on their own." After the bumpy start, Hendl's participation in the collaboration left her wanting more. She found that it exposed her to new points of view, pressed her to be clearer in articulating her ideas, and "made me, for lack of a better word, more of a grownup," she says. — John T. Ward

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