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Lighting the Way

Lighting the Way

USC President Carol Folt interviews professors who went above and beyond for their students during the pandemic—including USC Marshall School of Business professor Emily Nix.

01.21.21

Emily Nix DIY Light BoardCarol Folt had been in her new role as the President of USC for just eight months when the coronavirus pandemic shut down campus and sent students, staff, and faculty home in the middle of the Spring 2020 semester.

Over the ensuing months, she noted how professors across the university stood up to meet the challenge of remote teaching, and developed creative ways to ensure their students received the best learning experiences possible. She was inspired to tell some of their stories.

On January 14, 2021, just before the spring semester started, as part of her ongoing We Are ‘SC interview series, Dr. Folt hosted a webinar to celebrate two professors—Emily Nix and Jack Feinberg—who’d gone above and beyond in their innovations for their students and had concrete examples of their methods.

Nix is an assistant professor of finance and business economics who’s been at USC Marshall since 2017. As an economist who studies human capital formation, the economics of crime, and the gender income gap, Nix is a popular classroom teacher who made news when she created her own remote teaching hack—a DIY light board.

Jack Feinberg, a longtime professor of physics, astronomy, and electrical engineering, found a way to put lab kits in the hands of 1,000 of his students so they could benefit from the experiential learning necessary in science education.

"When the university pivoted to remote learning, some people wanted to do virtual experiments," Feinberg explained. “But that’s like the difference between watching somebody eating food and actually eating food.” He felt this wasn’t a satisfactory student experience, so he created kits that he could then send to students—1,000 of them.

“Each of these professors found very different ways to innovate in the online environment,” Folt said.

Watch the entire interview here.