How a First-Year Seminar Shaped Alumni Career Paths

Grand Challenge Seminars give students a deep dive into real-world issues, sparking academic interests and lasting mentorship

At Carnegie Mellon University’s Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences, all first-year students take a Grand Challenge Seminar — a unique course co-taught by professors from different disciplines that explore pressing global issues.

For Sheldon Yawson (DC 2023) and Ziyan Wang (DC 2024), enrolling in their respective courses was more than just a requirement — it was a defining moment in their respective academic journeys.

The courses gave them the tools to learn basic methods and approaches to problem solving with an emphasis on application in real world scenarios; have the opportunity to practice and develop written and verbal communication skills; and learn how to use collaborative practices through small group work either in person or with technological tools.

“Grand Challenge Seminars engage first-year students in interdisciplinary exploration of society’s challenges with faculty mentors modeling collaboration across disciplines,” said Sharon Carver, Dietrich College’s associate dean for educational affairs.

Kody Manke-Miller and Mark Kamlet sit with the "Inequality" seminar students

Sheldon Yawson: Unearthing a Path through Perspective

When Yawson enrolled in the Grand Challenge Seminar “Inequality,” during their first year at CMU, they weren’t sure what to expect — either from the class or their future. An undecided student, Yawson had vague leanings toward law, but no clear sense of direction.

 “When I first got to CMU, I was a little lost,” Yawson said.

Something about the seminar drew them in: the boldness of the topic and the promise of an interdisciplinary lens through which to view a complex and pervasive issue.

“I thought the concept was interesting, and I wanted to see how CMU would tackle it,” Yawson said. “It’s a big, world-famous institution, and I was curious about the kind of angle they’d take.”

Taking this course was an instinctual decision that would have far-reaching effects on their academic and personal journey.

Interdisciplinary Discovery

Yawson remembers the course for its blend of disciplines: history, economics, psychology and English, taught by professors at the top of their fields.

This course was taught by Paul K. Eiss, associate professor of history; Mark Kamlet, University Professor of Economics and Public Policy; Kody Manke-Miller, associate teaching professor of psychology; and Kathy M. Newman, associate professor of English.

“It gave me a taste of a lot of different departments very early on,” Yawson said.

Through the course, Yawson built a connection with Manke-Miller that extended beyond the classroom.

“I ended up meeting my mentor through that class. He really steered the trajectory of my CMU path,” Yawson said.

Yawson later worked as a teaching assistant for Manke-Miller and still considers him a major influence in their life.

“I still go to Kody when I have questions at work. He’s maybe one of the most important people I’ve met in my entire college experience,” Yawson said.

“I know that I (and many other faculty) absolutely love when students chat with us outside of class about their interests and goals,” Manke-Miller said. “I've formed really meaningful, lasting mentorship relationships with non-psych students (and even non-Dietrich students) who have taken classes with me and then just reached out to chat about their life. It's a truly rewarding and enjoyable part of being a professor, and I think students often think that it would be a burden or a pain to ask for time to chat with their professors — but, truly, this is one of the things many of us really enjoy and value and would love to spend more of our time on.”

Broadening Perspective Through Lived Experience

The course also helped Yawson confront and process their own lived experiences through a broader lens. A first-generation college student from a low-income background, Yawson arrived at CMU with their own understanding of inequality, shaped by the realities of their upbringing. But the course stretched that understanding.

“I kind of only really had my lived experiences to go off of,” Yawson said. “Getting to hear different disciplines explain how inequality impacts our world was really grounding.”

They also spoke about how, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the seminar became a kind of lifeline.

“I was working at an Amazon warehouse and doing remote classes. Everything was extremely difficult,” Yawson said.

But in that chaos, the course — and particularly the psychology portion — offered a rare kind of motivation.

“Kody made me feel like learning isn’t pointless when the world is falling apart,” they said. “I hadn’t really thought seriously about psychology until that moment.”

That revelation was the seed for Yawson’s eventual major. They began exploring psychology more seriously, even considering cognitive science and interdisciplinary tracks.

“Even though Kody was a social psychologist, and that’s not quite what I want to do, I was like, ‘This is interesting. This could be it.’”

Their commitment to the field crystallized by sophomore year, but the spark was lit in that seminar.

Shaping a Career Rooted in Justice

Beyond influencing their major, the course also helped shape Yawson’s career goals. Now a paralegal in New York and planning to apply to law school, Yawson’s focus is criminal defense.

“I want to work in a space that deals with systemic inequality,” Yawson said. “This course didn’t just help me academically — it helped me start thinking critically about the systems we live in.”

When asked why the Grand Challenge seminars are important, Yawson’s answer was both passionate and grounded in experience.

“I think it’s extremely important to take courses outside your lane,” Yawson said. “CMU can be so specialized, and it’s easy to stay in your bubble. But getting people in a room from different backgrounds, making them engage with big questions from multiple perspectives — that’s where the growth happens.”

For Yawson, the course was more than a class: it was a space to develop their voice and a catalyst for real academic and personal transformation.

“Even if someone doesn’t end up loving the topic,” Yawson said, “They’ll still walk away with skills and insights that matter — in school, in work and in life.”

Ziyan Wang: From Exploration to Expertise

When Wang arrived at CMU in the fall of 2020, she wasn’t sure what her path would be. Like many first-year students, she was exploring different interests, undecided on a major and open to possibility. Four years later, she’s a first-year master’s student in statistical science at Duke University, well on her way to a career in data science. And at the heart of this journey was an unexpectedly impactful seminar: “Thinking With Evidence.” 

The course — taught by Joel Greenhouse, a professor in the Department of Statistics & Data Science, and Christopher Phillips, a professor and head of the Department of History — blended history and statistics in a way that surprised and intrigued Wang.

“They shared a lot of interesting stories,” she said, recalling the story of Florence Nightingale as particularly influential. “She kind of pioneered in data visualization techniques.”

At the start of her undergraduate journey, Wang initially envisioned a path through the humanities. She ultimately chose a primary major in CMU’s Information Systems Program.

“I thought I was going to be doing anthropology or something related to that,” Wang explained. But the seminar changed that trajectory.

“I found data and statistics interesting in general,” she said. “I took data visualization, and that course was really interesting. It got me into doing an additional major in statistics.”

More Than a Class: A Mentor Connection

Greenhouse didn’t just teach the class — he became a mentor to Wang, later serving as her advisor on her senior capstone project. Despite the seminar being remote during the pandemic, that early connection left a lasting impression. 

“An implicit goal of the Grand Challenge Seminars is to give first-year students an opportunity to develop a relationship with a professor, not only to help support their transition from high school but also to excite and inspire them about interdisciplinary inquiry and discovery,” Greenhouse said.

Wang noted that many of her peers who took the seminar ended up continuing in statistics as well.

“Some of the other people who were in the seminar, we were in the same capstone course and chose Professor Greenhouse as our advisor,” Wang said.

Deepening Her Thinking

Beyond sparking academic interest, the course shifted how Wang viewed the world.

“I started to be curious about how things are developed,” she said. “I had this misunderstanding that things just are the way they are. After the course, I started to have a deeper thinking process about why things are the way they are currently.”

Wang credits the course with helping her appreciate history more fully.

“I was reluctant at first,” Wang said about taking another required history course, “but I ended up enjoying it a lot, because the seminar made me see how statistics as a subject developed.”

The Power of Interdisciplinary Exploration

Wang even mentioned the course in her graduate school application, a testament to the lasting impression it made. Now fully immersed in her graduate studies, Wang often reflects on the early freedom to explore that “Thinking With Evidence” provided.

“Currently all of my courses are statistics and math. I can’t take courses outside the department now,” Wang said. “So I think it’s good to explore different subjects early.”

She believes Grand Challenge Seminars like “Thinking With Evidence” are crucial.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s going to make an impact on your career path,” she said. “Exploring different topics is a good thing.”