With this year’s Spring Scholarship Summit just around the corner, we spoke to the facilitator and two presenters of last year’s event to learn where the Summit began, how it’s impacting faculty who attend currently, and where it’s going in the future.

Scholarship By and For the Community

Last year, the FCTL hosted the inaugural Spring Scholarship Summit event in March. Even though most presentation events experience a slow start in their first year, last year’s Summit was a resounding success, hosting more than 70 faculty member attendees over the course of its one-and-a-half-hour runtime and proudly boasting over 20 presenters. The MSU faculty academic community came out in full force to support, share, and engage in teaching and learning scholarship amongst peers, but the question arises: what is it about the Summit that seems to have resonated so well with faculty? As the Summit enters its second year, we sat down with Dr. Tracy Gross, Coordinator of Faculty Professional Development for the FCTL and coordinator of the Summit, to learn about its origins and how it offers faculty a unique and enriching experience.

When discussing the Summit with Dr. Gross, she highlights that it was created with a few goals in mind – first, to provide a place for faculty across campus to share the innovative and inspiring scholarly projects they’re producing with the peers from all across campus. The event was meant to be a place for the scholarly community to connect with each other and celebrate the work of all faculty members in the realm of teaching and learning. “It gives faculty opportunities to share the work they’re doing at MSU with MSU,” Dr. Gross explained. “It brings people together.” In a world where faculty burnout is common and people are becoming more disconnected than ever before, an academic and social experience like the Summit provided a much welcome path to growth both professionally and personally.

“It gives faculty opportunities to share the work they’re doing at MSU with MSU. It brings people together.” -Dr. Tracy Gross

The second goal, Dr. Gross says, had to do with a sect of self-study promoted by the FCTL known as the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) is a branch of study used by educators and academics to produce self-studies of their own teaching practices and student impact. Many FCTL initiatives are either informed by or involve the completion of SoTL projects and principles. One FCTL initiative in particular awards the FCTL Teaching and Learning grant to faculty members who undertake an SoTL project that focuses on supporting student success through the teaching and learning methods they employ in their classrooms. The Summit, Dr. Gross explains, initially grew out of a desire to give the FCTL Teaching and Learning grant awardees a venue to present their projects, but the idea quickly broadened to include other faculty projects and scholarly initiatives as well. As the Summit began to take shape, it turned into a more general celebration of faculty projects on whatever topic and whatever manner they came in. The result was an event that welcomed and provided opportunities for faculty from any department to share inquiries or experiences on nearly any topic. “It opened it up to other initiatives, which has been great.” Dr. Gross explained. “It’s not as discipline specific. Last year, we had the library there.”

Once the parameters for the first event had been established and announcements went out that proposals were being accepted, MSU faculty rose to answer the call. “We had a really great response last year,” Dr. Gross said. The Summit provided an attractive, relaxed atmosphere for faculty to mingle while they discussed their projects, which promoted a sense of belonging and encouraged participation and attendance beyond what was expected. It was the perfect place to chat while learning, a sorely needed break from the business of faculty individual schedules. “It’s a great opportunity for early career faculty to present, too,” Dr. Gross added. Finding lasting connections at a new university can be tough, and the Summit’s approachable environment makes it the perfect place for new faculty to get involved with the broader campus community. Few events offer the chance to meet with passionate peers from all across campus like the Spring Scholarship Summit (and those that do certainly don’t have the added benefit of tasty hors d’oeuvres). “It’s a lot of fun!” Dr. Gross stated. “It’s a good time to network and socialize with faculty across campus.”

A Fulfilling Experience for Faculty

Tracking the evolution of the Summit into what it is today paints a vivid picture of an academic community rife with scholarly ideas, initiatives, and projects, eager for a place to share them. But what do the presenters themselves have to say about their experience at the Summit? What made the event special compared to other presentation events?

Last year, many presenters at the Summit were led to present by their participation in other FCTL programs. Multiple Teaching and Learning Grant winners presented the research that their grant funds were supporting, and some participants of other FCTL initiatives came to present at the Summit as a result of their community’s encouragement. Dr. Sara Wilson and Dr. Kristen Thompson, Assistant Professors in the School of Mental Health and Behavioral Science, heard about the Summit through one of the Faculty Learning Communities (FLCs) hosted every semester. “We both attend the Wednesday Writing circles, and learned about it there. We were encouraged by the other attendees to share our research at the Summit,” they explained. Dr. Wilson and Dr. Thompson co-presented two posters at the event – Combating Loneliness Through Intergenerational Living Communities, and The Impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences in Higher Education. Their research was still in early stages, but the Summit presented the perfect opportunity to talk through their current work and think further on its future through thoughtful conversations with peers. “The areas of research we presented are in an early stage, and talking it through with attendees was particularly helpful for helping us continue to formulate our ideas,” Dr. Wilson and Dr. Thompson explained. The interactions with fellow scholars allowed the inquiries, ideas, and inspiration about in-progress research that fuel discovery outside the Summit to fly.

Those collaborative interactions didn’t stop when the Summit ended, though – the cross-campus connections formed through the experiences at the Summit brought plenty of opportunities for interdepartmental partnerships later down the road. When asked what about the Summit made it stand out from other research and presentation events, Dr. Thompson and Dr. Wilson explained, “There was a great amount of interdisciplinary mingling happening. We walked away with names of several people to follow up with for collaboration.” The high rates of attendance and participation meant that these collaborative opportunities were increased tenfold, opening a variety of doors for further partnerships. The crowd didn’t go unnoticed by the presenters, either – when asked if anything surprised them about the Summit, Dr. Wilson and Dr. Thompson highlighted the amount of faculty who participated in the Summit. “It was much larger than I expected – it was great to see such a big turnout.” 

“There was a great amount of interdisciplinary mingling happening. We walked away with names of several people to follow up with for collaboration.” – Dr. Sara Wilson & Dr. Kristen Thompson

Into the Future

As the Summit enters its second annual event this spring and continues to grow past the boundaries established by the 2025 event, it continues to evolve and innovate. This year, all faculty are once again invited to submit a proposal on any academic project they have undertaken, regardless of topic or form. As time goes on and the FCTL continues to promote SoTL inquiry though, the projects that are highlighted at the Summit may begin to shift in response to a growing number of self-study SoTL projects. Eventually, Dr. Gross said, the hope is to have enough MSU faculty pursuing SoTL projects for the event to become a de-facto SoTL showcase, where faculty are able to present their personal reflective journeys and inquiries into their own teaching practices.

Although the Summit may shift in its focus towards the direction most eagerly pursued by the faculty members who present at it, the core of it will remain the academic community who fuels the heart and soul of intellectual inquiry at our university. If you’d like to be a part of this exciting event this year, the FCTL invites you to submit a proposal to present your own work – or just drop by during the event to help us celebrate the inspiring and innovative work of faculty members all across campus. The 2026 Spring Scholarship Summit is being held April 15, 2026, from 3:30-5:00 pm in Meyer Library 107. The FCTL is taking poster presentation proposals until March 1, 2026. To learn more about the Summit and get inspired by last year’s presentations, visit the FCTL webpage for more information. If you have any questions about the Summit, the proposal process, or any other FCTL initiatives, contact us via email at fctl@MissouriState.edu.