Building an engaged community in the classroom can be challenging for teachers, especially in our post-pandemic world. That’s where education professor Brian Girard hopes to make change — with help from games. Using gaming principles in the classroom isn’t new, but Girard’s approach to it is. It’s not about playing games, in the traditional sense, in the…
Author Archives: Emily W. Dodd
TCNJ celebrates Black History Month
The College of New Jersey’s annual celebration of Black History Month will begin on Wednesday, January 29, 2025 at 11 a.m. with the raising of the Pan-African flag outside of Trenton Hall and an opening ceremony featuring representatives from TCNJ’s Black Student Union, TCNJ’s NAACP chapter, and more. The ceremony signifies the start of a…
Communication studies professor Yifeng Hu embarks on projects to document and share our country’s AAPI history
Yifeng Hu, associate professor of communication studies, spent a good part of last summer documenting the stories of Chinese immigrants and their descendants in Arkansas. Now, she hopes that similar storytelling projects will soon capture the voices of Asian communities in New Jersey. The project is part of the ASIANetwork-Mellon Foundation Award for AAPI…
Matthew Lawrence keeps the screams coming with latest film
By day, Assistant Professor of Communication Studies Matthew Lawrence teaches digital filmmaking. By night, he puts his pedagogy to practice, writing and directing horror movies. Here, he talks about his latest film, “Bloody Axe Wound,” which was released in theaters in December, his process, and the filmmakers and movies he admires most — including a…
Matt Gabe ’05 is the driving force behind a cool new Hot Wheels car
Speed over to your closest toy aisle and look for the Kei Swap — a new Hot Wheels car with ties to TCNJ. Designed by Matt Gabe ’05, lead packaging designer at Hot Wheels, the car is a throwback to the ’90s and was created from nearly start to finish by Gabe. A lifelong appreciator…
A banner year for Bonners: Now in its 20th year, the TCNJ Bonner Program has a lot to celebrate.
When TCNJ’s Bonner Community Scholars Program launched in 2004, it started with just 12 Bonner scholars — students who commit to 300 hours of community service annually in exchange for need-based scholarships. Now, with close to 100 participants each year, the TCNJ program is one of the largest and most successful in a nationwide network…
Math prof dives into mapping the movements of sea creatures with new NSF grant
As a kid, Nick Battista wasn’t much of a swimmer. Growing up outside of Buffalo, New York, he loved going to the aquarium and admiring his grandmother’s fish tanks, but on trips to the beach, a fear of sharks kept him from venturing into the water. That changed during the last year of his PhD in mathematics…
Take their word for it: Students in a TCNJ linguistics course have their fingers on the pulse of linguistic innovation.
Students in a 200-level linguistics course have “locked in” on this year’s submissions for the American Dialect Society Word of the Year, with a slang-heavy list of entries that have been amplified and boosted by social media. “Lock in,” meaning to focus, was on the list that was considered when the society chose a winner…
Celebrating a leader among Lions
At over 80,000 alumni strong and a #1 ranking on the U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges 2025 list, TCNJ/TSC alums have a lot to crow about, and the college’s long history of success has undoubtedly resulted from the cumulative efforts of many innovative leaders. However, one in particular has left indelible marks on…
The start of a proud new TCNJ tradition
Members of the campus community started a new tradition in advance of finals week this semester, and it involves getting up close and personal with a lion — our bronze lion, to be exact. On the last day of classes this semester, students gathered around the bronze lion for hot cocoa, lion-shaped cookies, and a…