CALHE

The Annual Conference on Applied Learning in Higher Education (CALHE) will be held March 6-7, 2026 on the campus of Missouri Western State University.

Topic: From Doing to Becoming: Human Skills as the Heart of Applied Learning

Applied learning is often, and rightly, celebrated for giving students valuable “real-world experience,” yet the real world—workplaces, offices, the spaces where we earn our living—tests not only our technical knowledge and professional expertise, but also the noncognitive capacities that make us effective human beings. R.J. Jenkins has spent much of the past decade helping people rethink what we traditionally call “soft skills”—empathy, vulnerability, emotional intelligence, growth mindset, and the ability to navigate impostor feelings—and undertand them instead as the executive functions that make us capable of success in higher education and workforce settings. In this talk, he will offer a framework for understanding why many applied-learning challenges may actually be human challenges in disguise, as well as practical strategies for integrating these essential capacities into program design to strengthen student readiness and performance.

Speaker: RJ Jenkins

R.J. Jenkins is a civilian veteran-serving professional who has dedicated his career to building stronger cultures of support for veterans of the United States Armed Forces. The Director of Education for the Columbia University Center for Veteran Transition and Integration, R.J. helps aspirational colleges, universities, employers, and veteran service organizations across the country build their capacity to support veterans, service members, and their families in the classroom and in their careers. In addition to his work with student veterans, R.J. has deep professional experience teaching, advising, and counseling first-generation college students, nontraditional students, adult learners, and student athletes. R.J.’s primary professional concern is finding better, more compassionate, human-centered ways to think about and talk about the work of higher education.

Abstract Submission Opens 12/10/2025

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