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Michigan State University
Michigan State University

Undergraduate Education

May 28, 2025

MiLEAP-sponsored MSU Learning Goals Initiative

By Amy Martin, assistant dean, Student Success Strategy, Office of Undergraduate Education

Studio portrait of Amy Martin wearing a dark blazer over a green top. She has short blond hair. Michigan State University, like many large institutions, faces challenges integrating thoughtfully created university learning goals across campus to support students holistically. Student feedback consistently reveals their difficulty navigating our complex institutional structure across colleges, student affairs, and living environments. This confusion is exacerbated by learning goals and outcomes that are not aligned with university wide learning goals. For over 15 years, academic and student affairs units have pursued student learning improvement. With enhanced resources, MSU now aims to integrate these efforts into a sustainable strategy aligned with our student success framework, the Spartan Undergraduate Experience Strategy Guide.

Over a year ago, a group of 30 academic and student affairs leaders (listed below) engaged in conversations about the need to reinvigorate student learning goals and convened to discuss how we could work collaboratively on this project and what the potential barriers to achieving our vision might be. Around the same time, the MiLEAP (Michigan Department of Lifelong Education, Advancement, and Potential) grants—which are designed to increase the number of Michiganders with a degree or credential from 51.8% to 60% by 2030—became available, and our group agreed we should apply for the operational support to move our learning goals project forward, specifically through the College Success Grants. 

Initiative leadership and goals

With support from President Guskiewicz; Interim Provost Thomas Jeitschko; Executive Vice President of Administration Vennie Gore; Vice Provost and Dean of Undergraduate Education Mark Largent; Assistant Provost for Undergraduate Student Success Renata Opoczynski; Assistant Director in the Office of Accreditation, Assessment, Curriculum, and Compliance Kari Stone-Sewalish; Division Assessment Officer in Residential Housing Services Paul Goldblatt; and myself, assistant dean of Student Success Strategy, took up the charge to organize the grant writing for this project. The outcome was $200,000 in funds from the state over two years to help accelerate the work through project management support, buy out the time of leaders to lead the work, and provide a project management tool and conference or expert consultations.

The specific goals of the initiative are to

  • align learning goals to connect curricular, cocurricular, and extra-curricular programs, creating a more cohesive student experience that will accelerate our strategic goal of becoming both a more accessible and equitable institution, and 
  • engage all campus stakeholders around student learning, influencing the scale and quality of high impact practices; amplifying teaching, learning, and curriculum policy reform; and creating clearer student pathways through the institution.

Wasek Sazzad will serve as the project manager and started in this new role on May 16, 2025. Emily Conroy-Krutz will serve as the strategic curricular lead, Renee Miller Zientek as the strategic cocurricular lead, Helena Gardner as the operational cocurricular lead, and Stephen Thomas as the operational curricular lead. See their complete bios in the tabs below.  

Next steps

In April 2025, MSU’s Faculty Steering Committee was consulted about the initiative, and from June 2 to 5, the newly formed leadership team will be attending AAC&U’s iCUE, Institute on Connecting the Undergraduate Experience, to begin designing a small working council and strategies for wide stakeholder engagement across curricular and cocurricular efforts and units on campus. The project will fully launch in fall 2026, recommend revisions to the university learning goals by fall 2027, and make recommendations for ongoing governance and infusion of university-aligned learning outcomes across the campus.

While the Modernization of General Education at MSU is a distinct project, and the working groups differ between the two projects, Stephen Thomas will serve on the General Education Council, and there will be intentional time designated to share communications between the two projects. 

President Guskiewicz has described a vision for “one MSU” with greater alignment of courses and degrees with Michigan’s future needs. With resources provided by the MiLEAP Sixty by 30 College Success Amplify Grant and widespread engagement with stakeholders, we can help MSU meet the needs of students over the next decade. We believe that aligning and connecting curricular, cocurricular and extra-curricular programs will create a more cohesive and equitable student experience, accelerating MSU toward its strategic goal of becoming both a more accessible and equitable institution.

Collaborations

  • Amy Martin, Assistant Dean, Student Success Strategy, currently Principal Investigator (PI) 
  • Kari Stone-Sewalish, Assistant Director of Assessment, Office of Accreditation, Assessment, Curriculum and Compliance,
  • Paul Goldblatt, Division Assessment Officer, Residential Housing Services
  • Jason Almerigi, Director of Assessment, College of Social Sciences
  • Kyle Carter, Assistant Assessment Officer, Student Life and Engagement
  • Rebecca Dean, Director of Assessment, Undergraduate Education
  • Brandy Ellison, Assistant Professor, Integrative Studies in Social Science
  • Jun Fu, Data Analyst, Student Life and Engagement
  • Emily Jaszewski, CGA Liaison Coordinator, Office of Undergraduate Education
  • Ellie Louson, Learning Designer and Academic Specialist at MSU's Center for Teaching and Learning Innovation
  • Jim Lucas, former Senior Associate Dean, Global Education & Curriculum, Office of Undergraduate Education
  • Karen-Elizabeth Moroski-Rigney, Director of Strategic Planning, Assessment, and Accessibility, College of Arts & Letters
  • Renata Opoczynski, Assistant Provost for Undergraduate Student Success
  • Gabe Ording, Associate Professor Department of Entomology
  • ASMSU
  • Council of Undergraduate Deans (CUED)
  • Ariel Arnold, Senior Neighborhood Director for Student Success
  • Denice Blair, Director of Education, University Libraries
  • Danielle DeVoss, Interim Chairperson; William J. Beal Distinguished Professor; Graduate Faculty, Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and Cultures
  • Helena Gardner, Director, Residence Education and Housing Services
  • Kirby Gibson, Associate Director, Resident Education and Housing Services
  • Rob Glew, Associate Dean for Academic Programs, Office of the Dean of International Studies
  • Emily Jaszewski, CGA Liaison Coordinator, Office of Undergraduate Education
  • ShirDonna Lawrence, Director, Fraternity & Sorority Life
  • Michael Lockett, Associate Director, Integrated Arts and Humanities
  • Coree Newman Coronado, Director, Associate Director for Residence Education & Housing Service
  • Ellen Moll, Assistant Dean for Undergraduate Studies, College of Arts & Letters
  • Jeno Rivera, Associate Professor, Residential College in the Arts and Humanities
  • Neil Romanosky, Dean, Michigan State University Libraries
  • Sarah Schultz, Director, Spartan Experience Record, Office of Undergraduate Education
  • Heather Shea, Director, Pathway Programs, Office of Undergraduate Education
  • Stephen Thomas, Assistant Dean, Undergrad Ed and Digital Curriculum Coordinator, College of Natural Science
  • Korine Wawrzynski, Assistant Dean for Academic Initiatives, Office of Undergraduate Education
  • Karen Moroski-Rigney, Director of Strategic Planning, Assessment, and Accessibility in the College of Arts & Letters
  • Jeremy Van Hof, Teaching Center Director, Center for Teaching and Learning Innovation (CTLI)
  • Pat Walton, Associate Dean for Academic Programs, Engineering Dean's Office, College of Engineering

Bios of Learning Goals Leadership

Wasek Sazzad is leading project management for the university-wide implementation of Michigan State University’s MiLEAP sponsored Undergraduate Learning Goals initiative supporting strategic and operational leads of the effort. In addition, he is collaborating with the Vice Provost and Dean of Undergraduate Education, Assistant Vice Provost for Undergraduate Student Success, Assistant Dean for the Undergraduate Student Success Strategy, University Innovation Alliance Fellow and Student Success Strategic Initiatives Manager, and other campus leaders to advance strategic priorities in student success through project management support of key student success initiatives.  

 
With over eight years of experience in strategic planning and project management, Wasek has designed and delivered 56 impactful projects across education, innovation, and global development - including initiatives with NASA Space Apps Challenge and the United Nations. He holds a STEM-designated Full-Time MBA in Data Analytics from MSU’s Broad College of Business, graduating Summa Cum Laude in 2025. 

Previously, Wasek served as a Graduate Assistant with the SUES Unit, where he worked alongside 85+ university leaders through the Campus Student Success Group (CSSG) to improve student policies and institutional practices. He has also contributed to student mentorship and career development as a Career Peer Advisor and Global Student Ambassador at MSU.
Emily Conroy-Krutz is serving as the strategic curricular lead currently serves as a Professor of History at Michigan State University and the author of Missionary Diplomacy: Religion and American Foreign Relations in the Nineteenth Century (Cornell University Press, 2024), Christian Imperialism: Converting the World in the Early American Republic (Cornell University Press, 2015), and a co-editor of The Early Imperial Republic: From the American Revolution to the US-Mexico War (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2022). Her writings on foreign relations, religion, reform, empire, and gender can be found in the Journal of the Early Republic, Early American Studies, Diplomatic History, H-Diplo, the Journal of American History, The Washington Post, and several edited volumes.
She serves on the editorial board the US and the World series at Cornell University Press and is an associate review editor at the American Historical Review. She is the recipient of SHAFR’s 2021 Stuart L. Bernath Lecture Prize, the 2019 Jane Dempsey Douglass Prize from ASCH, and a 2018 China Residency from the OAH. Her research has been supported by fellowships from the Yale Divinity School Library, the Presbyterian Historical Society, the Schlesinger Library, the Charles Warren Center at Harvard, and the Humanities and Arts Research Program at Michigan State University. She is currently writing Around the World with the Browns, a micro-history of religion and foreign relations at the turn of the twentieth century focusing on the 1901-1902 world tour of Jennie Arthur Judson Brown.

Renee Miller Zientek is serving as strategic co-curricular lead and currently serves as the Executive Director of the Michigan State University Center for Community Engaged Learning (CCEL), where she leads initiatives that advance MSU’s outreach and community engagement mission. Under her decade of leadership, CCEL has helped MSU achieve the No. 1 national ranking in Service-Learning by U.S. News & World Report in both 2024 and 2025. Student participation in community-engaged learning has reached record levels, making it a defining element of the Spartan experience.

Renee also serves as co-director of the MSUvote Campus and Community Initiative, which has been instrumental in driving some of the highest student voter turnout rates in the country. She has championed numerous programs focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion, including the Community-Engaged Scholars Program and the Spartan Volunteer Service Awards.

Prior to her current role, Renee served as Executive Director of Michigan Campus Compact, supporting 45 college and university presidents in advancing the public purpose of higher education. She also held leadership positions with the Michigan Nonprofit Association and served as Assistant Vice Chancellor for University Outreach at the University of Michigan-Flint, overseeing departments such as Outreach and Engagement, Alumni Relations, and Corporate and Foundation Relations.

She currently serves on the leadership board of the Research Universities Civic Engagement Network (TRUCEN), is book editor for the Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, and is a board member of the United Way of Southeast Michigan. Renee holds both a B.A. and M.A. from the University of Michigan.  She is deeply committed to creating lasting societal impact through education, collaboration, and meaningful community engagement.

Helena Gardner is serving as the operational co-curricular lead and currently serves as the Director of Residence Education and Housing Services (REHS) at Michigan State University (MSU), where she provides visionary leadership and strategic oversight for the day-to-day operations of the on-campus residential experience. With nearly 25 years of professional experience in student housing, Helena has built a career dedicated to supporting and educating diverse student and residential populations—including first-year students, returning residents, families, faculty/staff, and visiting scholars.

Throughout her career, Helena has managed a broad and dynamic housing portfolio that includes residence halls, apartments, single-family homes, and sorority communities and has been a part of several residence hall renovations and construction projects. She has cultivated and led successful collaborations with both public and private partners, sorority advisors, and a wide range of campus stakeholders. Her work has consistently emphasized the integration of academic partnerships, particularly in support of residential colleges, living-learning communities, and residential curriculum.

A recognized leader in co-curricular development, Helena has contributed extensively to the field through her work on learning outcomes and curricular design. She served for multiple years as a faculty member for the American College Personnel Association’s (ACPA) Institute on the Curricular Approach, provides continued support to the Residential Learning Experience withing REHS to include Spartan Compass and Spartan Navigator.

In addition to her administrative leadership, Helena is a co-host of Here’s the Story, a segment of the Student Affairs Now podcast, where she engages in thought-provoking conversations that highlight the experiences and voices of student affairs professionals. Additionally, she has formally mentored emerging professionals through the ACUHO-I Leadership Academy and informally supports and mentors professionals at institutions across the country. She currently serves as a co-facilitator for the MSU Student Life and Engagement Leadership Development program with a focus on collaboration.  Helena considers collaboration, service, learning and listening to be critical compliments to student (and staff) success. 

With career opportunities across the country, her small family has lived in many places, yet Helena proudly calls Detroit, Michigan, her hometown. She is a devoted Spartan parent and describes raising “the kindest human” as her greatest joy. Helena is passionate about encouraging others to live their most full and most authentic lives and she lives by the guiding philosophy: Be Great.

Stephen Thomas is serving as the operational curricular lead and currently serves as an Academic Specialist in curriculum development, Interim Associate Dean for Curriculum in Undergraduate Education, and Associate Director of the Center for Integrative Studies in General Science at Michigan State University. 

Trained as a biologist with a background in ecology and science education, he has taught a wide range of courses in biology, environmental science, and science pedagogy, both in person and online. His work focuses on designing and evaluating curriculum across modalities, leading faculty development initiatives, and supporting institutional efforts toward accessible, equitable, and interdisciplinary learning. 

He has led or co-led curriculum reform projects across multiple colleges, facilitated cross-campus communities of practice, and developed educational products ranging from a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) to a video series on Drawing to Learn. His approach to curriculum development is grounded in collaborative and reflective processes that surface local needs and connect them to evidence-based practices and national conversations—resulting in learning experiences that are both institutionally aligned and meaningful to students.