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Since 1926, our school has been a close-knit community of students, faculty, and staff committed to improving lives. See what makes us special.
SESP students, faculty, and alumni spark broad and meaningful change for individuals and systems alike. See how our people are making a difference in SESP and beyond, through their work and service.
At SESP, we partner with the community to maximize the impact of our research findings. These collaborations allow us to test new ideas, develop better practices, and share discoveries to benefit as many people as possible.
The Morton Schapiro Northwestern Academy for Chicago Public Schools enhances access and successful matriculation for academically motivated students. Thanks to the Academy, these talented individuals are on track to attend top-tier colleges and universities. To date, graduates have enrolled in more than 115 institutions, including Northwestern, Harvard, Yale, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
STEAMbassadors trains college-bound 18 to 24-year-olds from under-resourced communities to work with youth in neighborhoods lacking learning opportunities and role models in computer science, engineering, and the arts. They are assigned to local organizations partnering with the Chicago Department of Family Support Services in parks, libraries, and schools to create an out-of-school learning ecosystem across the city.
Northwestern University’s Uri Wilensky shared his vision for making computational thinking more accessible during the Yidan Prize Awards Ceremony in Hong Kong, where he received the 2025 Yidan Prize for Education Research.
Smartphones and social media are making our emotional lives “choppier” by speeding up and intensifying the information we receive, stress researcher Emma Adam said during a recent Northwestern University conference on social and emotional well-being in a digital world.
Juniper Shelley once thought the “cool” research happened in windowless STEM labs, not in the social sciences. But after joining Professor Sally Nuamah’s lab, she realized research can also mean getting out into the world, talking to people, and exploring challenging questions.
The National Network of Research-Practice Partnerships in Education highlighted the impact of a School of Education and Social Policy initiative as part of its annual look at the work of members.
Alumna Carrie Tzou (PhD08), whose career has focused on helping students and educators feel connected to science and place-based learning, has joined Northwestern University’s School of Education and Social Policy as a professor of learning sciences and associate dean.
Undergraduates Keya Soni Chaudhuri and Symone Harris have been named to the 2025-2026 cohort of Block Museum Student Associates at Northwestern University.