So could you give some practical approaches that you've seen of how to be success-oriented, how to build these classroom environments that really will be, um, allowing our students to grow and thrive?

Sure.

There's a mindset, if you will, that, um, a person has to take on if they're going to be focused on the success of the student versus the deficit, right? Um, this individual, or this mindset rather, allows the individual to focus on students' potential versus critiquing their capabilities, and we are very well trained on critiquing capabilities.

We know how to write tests.

We know how to, you know, um, assess some of the things you even mentioned earlier, um, indi- individuals not coming to class meaning one thing versus it could possibly mean life is happening.

And how do I then reach out to that student to help them through that in the ways that I can with what's at my, um, what's at my disposal to address that, to make sure we have, um, focus, we have strategies that focus on showing them that they belong.

So for instance, if a student isn't coming to class, you know, often the easy answer is they're irresponsible.

[laughs]

I'm particularly wondering how cosmetic science is different from similar classical chemistry or biology courses beyond what you've just shared.

Absolutely.

When we sat down to create this program, we understood, and we operate also in an environment, I should say, at Spelman where interdisciplinarity is very important.

And so our curriculum teaches students how to convert their scientific knowledge into practical understanding of the field.

So yes, chemistry is the foundation of all of the cosmetics we make.

We also know that there's some physics involved as we understand fluid dynamics.

We understand that individuals have to have a sense of what the market needs and how to translate that into science.

Are there other examples of institutions or companies you've partnered with that you might want to tell us about?