By Stacey Kratz
Belonging doesn’t occur in isolation: it happens in the midst of others, in the midst of experiences, in the midst of life. It makes sense, then, to cultivate belonging in those settings. That’s the idea behind an effort by the McKay School of Education to support “belonging field trips” led by faculty members. The first four of these trips took students across the world in research and leadership settings, united by a common purpose and by a belonging curriculum designed by McKay School associate dean Sarah Clark.
“The goal was that they would not just be learning about belonging in isolation but within the context of what they were doing,” said Clark, and the curriculum is rich with scriptures, talks, and other materials. “There’s way too much material for them to use it all,” Clark said, adding that she structured the curriculum like Come, Follow Me lessons. “We want students to find the meaning that best fits the experience they’re having.” Clark said she and Dean Kendra Hall-Kenyon also hope students find long-term benefits in the curriculum: sparking the desire to build belonging in each student in the McKay School, whose graduates are uniquely positioned to create belonging in their work, homes, and communities.
“We’re learning, but we’re also building relationships,” Clark said. “These are two parts of belonging: one is learning about the concepts, studying them, discussing them; and the other is actually doing them, applying them.” Belonging comes not as we wait for it, but as we reach out to help one another.
SEEKING INCLUSION IN EUROPE
For Ryan Kellems, a professor in the BYU Department of Counseling Psychology and
Special Education, the belonging field trips fit well into work that he was already doing: studying special education in Germany, Hungary, Norway, and beyond. To give students deeper insights into special education abroad, Kellems said, “We connected with the public school system in Vienna, and we spent three days in the same schools.”
Kellems is an old hand at European travel, he has connections in every place his group traveled, but particularly in Hungary, where he lived as a young teenager and, more recently, as a Fulbright Scholar. The trip had a deep impact on students, Kellems said, compounded by the focus on belonging: “The trips provide students experiences they wouldn’t have had otherwise, opportunities for deeper meanings and deeper connections,” he said.
One student on the trip reported that she “absolutely loved” seeing how special education is taught in Austria and Hungary and learning from professors there. “They had such great ideas and new perspectives. I instantly felt a connection to the university students in Europe because we had a passion for the same thing. The more I talked to them, the more I felt so much love for them and so much joy that there are people all over the world advocating and learning from God’s children who have disabilities.” Those connections deepened the student’s understanding of Christ’s love. She added, “I am always in awe of how meeting new people and experiencing new cultures connects me to my Savior. It makes sense to me now that He has such a deep love for each and every one of God’s children.”
DEEPENING TRUST IN CZECHIA
McKay School professor Pam Hallam did not find it stressful to carry out a research trip across Germany, Italy, and Czechia. She didn’t even find it stressful to integrate belonging curriculum and bring along McKay School dean Kendra Hall-Kenyon and her son, Max. On the contrary, Hallam said, those additions elevated the trip from productive to unforgettable. “We intentionally focused on ‘spiritually strengthening’ rather than on just the idea that we’re going to go on this trip, we’re going to learn, and we’re going to have a good time,” said Hallam, a professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Foundations. “We set the culture of the trip before we left. And it felt very different!” Her trip started with mentored research, Hallam said, with doctoral student Moises Aguirre, BYU’s Multicultural Student Services director, studying the role of trust in belonging. The group traveled to Cumorah Academy, a gospel-aligned institution in the Czech countryside.
Hallam’s group met several times before the trip. As in the other belonging groups, each traveler received a journal with a letter from Hall-Kenyon. “We hope you will consecrate, or make holy, the time you spend while on this field trip,” Hall-Kenyon wrote. “Our hope is that these field trips will provide great learning opportunities for each of you individually and for us as a college as we seek ways to build and instill greater feelings of belonging and stronger relationships with our Savior, Jesus Christ, for all.”
Due to the enthusiasm of Cumorah students, Hallam’s group did almost twice as many interviews as they had planned. Hallam’s undergraduates stepped up to conduct interviews alone, learning about the positive and negative belonging experiences of Cumorah students. “I cried through half the interviews I did,” Hallam said. “Some of the students did too!” The results of the interviews are still developing. But the results of the trip and the impact on the students is clear, with one student recording that her experiences showed her, among other things, that the Savior is the source of true belonging: “When we feel we are [connected] to Christ, then nothing else may matter because we know that we belong to Him. . . . I hadn’t considered that connection as much as I do now.”
GROWING LEADERS IN WASHINGTON, DC
Rebecca Hunter’s trip to Washington, DC, had a unique focus: not on research, but on developing leaders. Hunter, an assistant teaching professor in the Department of Teacher Education, advises the McKay School Leadership Fellows, a group of undergraduate students from multiple majors in the McKay School of Education. “One of our goals was to explore how centering belonging in the gospel of Jesus Christ can help us deepen our ability to reach out to others,” Hunter said. “There was the hope that we would come back and work together to
support belonging and unity in the McKay School.” Rather than having just a research focus, Hunter’s group, joined by Clark, had the goal of understanding the connection between leadership and belonging. The group met with then, Senator Mitt Romney, visited the National Archives, and toured the Capitol, art museums, the Smithsonian, and the Supreme Court. “Starting at the Supreme Court, they learned more about the Constitution, this amazing document inspired by God and created to establish belonging, but also that belonging needed to be expanded over time, like establishing women’s right to vote,” Hunter said. “It was understanding the role of leaders to create belonging and to create policies, documents, and governments that better show what belonging looks like. It set the stage for the entire trip.”
The students learned about oppression and persistence at the National Museum of African American History and about true leadership at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Hunter said. They wrestled with complex histories of oppression, hate, and loss, alongside stories of courage, resilience, compassion, and kindness—all leading to gospel-centered discussions about the people, leaders, and followers alike, whose actions increased and decreased belonging. These visits, combined with the belonging curriculum and a trip to the Washington DC Temple, created what Hunter calls “a deeper understanding of belonging.” Or, as one student put it, “Belonging emulates Christ’s light. . . . When we strive to create belonging, we’re striving to help others recognize who they are and that they have a place with Christ and a place with us within that context.”
FORGING PATHWAYS IN PERU
Richard West’s recipe for a belonging field trip includes a meaningful project in a beautiful place, an integrated belonging curriculum, and hard work that challenges the team—and bonds them together. “I’m always trying to give students opportunities to work with real clients on real-world projects,” said West, a professor in the BYU Department of Instructional Psychology and Technology. West has spent significant time on projects in the Andean region. He was planning similar work in Peru, this time for BYU–Pathway, when the dean’s office suggested making the project a belonging field trip. West was purposeful in integrating belonging in ways that felt natural to the trip’s purpose and to the individual needs of his team of graduate and undergraduate students. “I like to make belonging part of the work: let it happen when you’re working together on authentic, real-world projects,” West said. His trip included eight students of four nationalities, plus a professor, an area manager for Pathway, the manager’s wife, and West’s wife, Stephanie, a McKay School doctoral student. “Most of them didn’t know each other beforehand, and by the end of two weeks, they were fast friends,” he said. “They still hang out together.”
West’s students set goals before the trip and worked hard in Peru, interviewing more than 200 people, surveying 50 more, performing analysis, and creating a 45-page report. “It was important to understand everyone’s unique skill set,” West explained. “We had graduate students who were good at analysis; they led on analyzing the data. Other undergraduates were good at Spanish and led in interviews. Everyone had a role.” The team’s work is already making a difference. West said that Pathway has made adaptations based on their report. “It’s the kind of life-changing experience that (1) helps you feel you didn’t just go to class at BYU but experienced BYU; and (2) that you have the capability to do great things,” West said. “When I told them what kind of work they were going to do, they didn’t believe they could do it, and now they know they can do it.” West said that students built true belonging through their work together. “The most powerful learning experiences are experiences,” he said. “It’s not about the content and it’s not about the lectures; it’s about the things that people do and experience together—having experiences that change people forever.”