Meet the Dietrich College Assessment Fellows
Each year, the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences Dean鈥檚 Office General Education team selects up to three Ph.D. students to receive fellowships to advance assessment in general education. This year, those fellowship recipients are Peem Lerdputtipongporn, Jimmy Lizama and Hana Yabuki.
During the 2025-26 academic year, these fellows are collaborating with Sharon Carver, Dietrich College鈥檚 associate dean for educational affairs, and Chelsea Leverett-Ptak, core education project coordinator, on projects focusing on analyzing scientific inquiry skills, contextual thinking skills and student trajectories in general learning outcomes over time.
Meet the fellows:
Peem Lerdputtipongporn聽
Peem Lerdputtipongporn is a Ph.D. student in the Statistics and Public Policy program. His primary research focus is causal inference and social network analysis. Lerdputtipoingporn received his undergraduate degrees in mathematics and computer science from Swarthmore College. He鈥檚 originally from Nonthanburi, Thailand.
What are you working on as a part of the fellowship?
I am assessing the impact of a Dietrich鈥檚 General Education (GenEd) program on students鈥� Data Analysis learning outcomes (DA1-DA5). More specifically, I want to know learning gain and learning attainment after the GenEd Data Analysis curriculum, as well as the extent to which variation in help-seeking behaviors explain those outcomes.
What you hope to accomplish in this fellowship? 聽
I hope to identify Data Analysis topics students need extra support for beyond the existing GenEd curriculum and provide actionable recommendations to the Dietrich GenEd committee. For myself, I want to gain firsthand experience with rigorous assessment and use this knowledge for my future research endeavor.
Why is the GenEd program important?
GenEd provides a structured learning experience where students can safely explore different fields and push their boundaries. Such opportunities are crucial for growth.
Jimmy Lizama
Jimmy Lizama is a Ph.D. student in the Department of English with a focus on rhetoric and advocacy and activism in particular. He鈥檚 originally from Silver Spring, Maryland, and received his undergraduate degree from University of Maryland, College Park. Lizama earned his master鈥檚 in rhetoric from 好色先生TV in 2022.
What are you working on as a part of the fellowship?
To improve assessment of student learning objectives in scientific inquiry, and after reviewing scholarship on science instruction, I have created two standardized but customizable assignment templates for faculty to assign students. To ensure that these assignment templates align with faculty needs and expectations across disciplines, I am also conducting interviews and focus groups with faculty to collect feedback on the assignment templates before revising them as appropriate. Spring semester, I will repeat the process for the 鈥渃ontextual thinking鈥� learning area.聽
What do you hope to accomplish in this fellowship?
I hope to use my background as both a qualitative researcher and instructor to design and pitch faculty on the value of the standardized but still customizable assignment templates we are developing.
Why is the GenEd program important?
I鈥檓 a believer in a well-rounded education as preparation for life in addition to college and career preparation. The Dietrich GenEd program is vital because it helps provide knowledge and skills students can use across contexts for the rest of their lives.
Hana Yabuki聽
Hana Yabuki is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Psychology with a focus on visual working memory. She鈥檚 originally from Singapore and Japan and received her undergraduate degree in psychology from Australian National University.
What are you working on as a part of the fellowship?聽
My project centers on tracking longitudinal trajectories in learning outcomes. To accomplish this, I am comparing students鈥� performance in their Grand Challenge Seminars to their honors鈥� thesis. In particular, I鈥檓 interested in examining if students improve on communication, data analysis and argumentation skills from their first year at Dietrich College to their last.
What do you hope to accomplish in this fellowship?
I hope to successfully identify how students improve over time, and if there are additional markers to determining student success with regards to multidisciplinary learning. I am excited to distill my findings into concrete recommendations for Dietrich College, and to gain familiarity with college-level outcomes of learning.聽
Why is the GenEd program important?聽
The GenEd program provides students with opportunities to explore various topics outside of their majors, which creates a strong, well-rounded foundation for learning.聽