By Kenya Z. Mejia, HCDE PhD student

Frontiers in Education
Lincoln, Nebraska
October 14-16, 2021

This summary is definitely a few months late, but I in doing this reflection, I was able to appreciate all that I learned. This was my first time flying in over a year and a half due to the pandemic. That itself was weird. The conference itself was hybrid so that created other obstacles. For one, half of the presentations were video recorded. Some conference rooms only had recorded presentations, which I did not go to. On plus side, the conference was a good size, only a couple of hundred people which I think helped ease any anxiety around COVID. Most people were great about wearing masks, even making sure to put their masks back on once they were done eating.

On the academic side, I was able to connect with new PhD students, and even had an informal social gathering. I was also able to re-connect with old collaborators. I even got to meet someone whose papers I always read and reference. It was so cool to know that he had recently come across my work and was excited to put a face to a name. Overall, I am glad I went. I was hesitant of course because of COVID but it worked out really well and I was able to get back into the pace of in-person conferences. I even got to attend a workshop on how different departments/schools handled the events around police brutality and critically discuss how to more authentically address it in the future.