Led by Associate Professor Carol Rinke, the project was conceived as a way to help alumni.

April 21, 2020—Amy Woods ‘97, Executive Director of Alumni Relations, knew she wanted to create meaningful content for alumni dealing with working and having children accessing school at home. A parent herself, Woods understood the juggling act parents were facing.

“Since we can’t connect with alumni through in-person events right now, I wanted to put together some truly useful programming. With so many parents struggling to both work from home and manage school from home, I thought we could offer some help to ease that,” she explained. Woods naturally looked to Marist education faculty for help.

Carol Rinke, Associate Professor of Education and Assistant Dean in the School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, jumped right in. Rinke worked with fellow SBS faculty to create a series of videos designed for parents trying to manage the de facto homeschooling situation they find themselves in now. The nine videos cover a wide variety of topics but they have a common goal. “These short videos are focused on keeping kids enriched during a highly unusual time,” said Rinke.

Most of the videos are under four minutes in length. The topics include a primer on engineering activities using common household items—such as a stapler—and delving into how soap works. The videos are also timely; one examines “Talking to Kids About COVID,” and another explores resources for parents of children with special needs. All the videos offer practical tips that are grounded in research.

Rinke and the SBS faculty were eager to work on this endeavor. “This was a great use of our faculty’s expertise at a key time,” she said. “We’re all living new realities and it was nice to be able to support our alumni in this way.”

The videos can be viewed here: http://maristconnect.marist.edu/parentresources.