Emily E. N. Miller

Population, Society, and Policy 

This course was an introduction to all things demography. I led four discussion sections a week. We covered some mathematic material, tackled policy issues from the position of policymakers as well as stakeholders, examined population related news, and did group presentations about health disparities in the United States. Each week I would select a song that would be related to what we were discussing that day. Halfway through the semester, we switched to Zoom and online learning. I set up a Slack where students could respond to weekly prompts, post questions, and share news. Professor: Arun Hendi

Course Metrics

• Course: 4.79 (Department Avg: 4.04)
• Precept: 4.72 (Department Avg: 4.11)

Feedback

“I liked how structured Emily was in her approach to precept. I always knew that I would learn something and leave with something after precept. I appreciated Emily’s hard work in the class after we went online.”

“Emily did an amazing job with the precepts as I walked out of the precept having gotten a better grasp of the materials and how the concepts are linked between lectures, readings, and application.”

“Emily is a wonderful teacher and a caring cheerleader for her students. She’s clearly passionate, well–read, and well–prepared to teach the precept. Extremely talented.”

“Emily put a lot of thought into each precept, especially after we had gone virtual. She even tried out a new portal called Slack on which we can interact through polls and posts. I thought it was really nice of her to pick out songs that matched the theme of the lesson each week as well.”

Education Policy

This course was a survey of education policy and research in the United States. I facilitated discussions and case studies two times a week. Case studies involved whether or not to pass students and deciding on how much emphasis to put on standardized tests. Other days we had discussions about structural challenges and inequalities that occur throughout the levels of education. We also covered how to read and distill research papers and write an augment. I held ample office hours and aided several students with coming up with paper ideas. Outside of the classroom, I assisted with developing assignments and rubrics. Professor: Jen Jennings

Course Metrics

• Course: 4.27 (Department Avg: 3.98)
• Precept: 4.00 (Department Avg: 4.08)

Feedback

“Emily was very kind and receptive to all kinds of questions or comments. I could tell she put effort into designing our precepts (since they were all a little different from each other structurally), building on previous feedback we had given. Outside of precept, Emily was also great in talking through my ideas for papers.”

“Emily made herself very accessible to us, especially around times when assignments were due, and her feedback was always very helpful. She also tried to recreate issues that policymakers would face during our precepts so that we got to experience and understand why education policy is so difficult.”

“I really enjoyed precept and how receptive Emily was to our questions and ideas. She was always willing to help, especially when we had written assignments.”       

Everyday Excel – Lunchtime Lecture Series

I love Excel. There, I admitted it. Say what you want about it, but Excel is everywhere and is accessible. In order to help spread the Excel love, I developed a lunch lecture series for my coworkers. Topics included data validation, sorting and filtering, VLOOKUP, all the classics. Each topic had practice worksheets and data to apply what we learned. Lectures had an attendance of around 20 junior and senior staff.