NC State has announced that the Panoramic Dance Project, led by Associate Teaching Professor Christa Oliver, is the winner of the Provost’s Award for High-Impact Experiential Learning. Oliver and the Panoramic Dance Project were honored at the University Teaching Awards on Tuesday, April 21.
Since 2010, the Panoramic Dance Project has provided rigorous, pre-professional training that fosters artistic growth, creative expression, interdisciplinary inquiry and career readiness for hundreds of NC State students. As an academic-year course housed in the Department of Performing Arts and Technology, the course combines intensive technical instruction with collaborative research, creative practice, leadership development and meaningful, community-engaged performance opportunities.
Each year, students from across campus audition for the course, reflecting the wide interest and engagement it generates. Throughout the academic year, students commit approximately 150-200 hours to rehearsals, performances, interdisciplinary collaborations, community engagement and reflective assignments. This sustained structure supports the core tenets of high-impact experiences, creating a deeply immersive learning environment that mirrors professional dance practices.
“We are fortunate to have deeply talented and dedicated educators like Dr. Oliver at NC State, and I know our students feel the same way,” said Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Warwick Arden. “Creating and promoting high-impact experiences provides students a well-rounded education that profoundly shapes their college experience and prepares them for life after graduation.”
High-impact experiences, a key focus of Packways: Learning by Doing, NC State’s 2024-2029 Quality Enhancement Plan, are defined by several criteria: they consistently engage participants at a deep level; they offer formal or informal mentoring and opportunities for collaborative work; they prioritize access, belonging and wellbeing throughout; they require students to critically reflect on, discuss, connect and apply new skills, knowledge and perspectives; and they provide reflective or public opportunities for students to demonstrate how these experiences have helped them integrate and apply their learning to real-world problems and their own lives.
The Panoramic Dance Project is a Packways Recognized High-Impact Experience that reflects Oliver’s completion of a Packways workshop and aligns with the essential elements of high-impact experiences. Packways provides an additional $2,000 supplement to the PAHIEL Award for Packways Recognized HIEs.
The Provost’s Award for High-Impact Experiential Learning is designed to recognize and support the growth and delivery of exceptional programs that offer such experiences. Selected programs will receive a monetary grant of $12,500 to support further development.An honorable mention was awarded to the Northeast Leadership Academy (NELA). Under the purview of the College of Education, NELA seeks to increase student achievement by preparing and retaining principals in high-poverty, hard-to-staff and historically low-performing schools. NELA creates a comprehensive leadership development and succession plan for NC high-need school districts.
Each component is anchored in research-based best practices in leadership preparation and is designed to meet the specific contextualized needs of schools in North Carolina. Current cohorts are fully funded by the North Carolina Principal Fellows Program. The program is led by Professor Bonnie C. Fusarelli, Professor Lance D. Fusarelli, Associate Professor Timothy A. Drake, Associate Teaching Professor Lacey Seaton and Associate Director Lesley G. Wirt, all of the Department of Educational Leadership, Policy, and Human Development in the College of Education.
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