It's that time of the year again: end of semester evaluations. At the end of each semester, my design and production colleagues and I all get together for a couple of hours and take time to share our experiences with each others' graduate students over the last 16 weeks. Ideally, this is an opportunity to celebrate the many good experiences while discussing those times when we've perceived opportunities for growth and development.

I'll confess that I approach these meetings with a pretty even mixture of trepidation and enthusiasm. I absolutely respect and depend upon my colleagues' reflections of their time with my students--they each have a perspective I don't, and often see facets of a student's development that I can't see, and hearing their thoughts helps me create a fuller image of my students' development. On the other hand, there have been times when we--myself included--have "jumped on the bandwagon" and shared our particular story of a student's challenges and failures, leading to an overwhelming conversation about the opportunities that particular student faces. Make no mistake, these conversations all come from a place of wanting to ensure that we all have a clear and full picture of each student's progress and development; however, it is always easier to hear an overwhelming number of stories about a student's successes than it is to hear one about their failures.

Every few years, for me, the stakes get a little higher in these evaluation conversations because I have students who are completing the program. I am typically very excited to hear my colleagues relate conversations about these students--they've grown, and blossomed, and if I've done my job, they have become colleagues more than students. I suspect that this will be true again, this year, as we discuss the third-year student who is graduating. These moments are a great opportunity to reflect on how far a student has developed.

One of the things that strikes me whenever we talk about student progress--whether in formal evaluations, or in off-the-cuff conversations in the hallway--is how easy it is to forget that our students all typically start in a similar place, and inevitably have to make the same journey of growth over the time they are with us. I typically hear all the same things when strong grads leave the program: most of these comments boil down to a concern that the students who have been in the shadow of these departing "heroes" won't be able to fill the more experienced grad's shoes.

In Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan, Spock's trainee crew is suddenly thrust into service to answer a distress call. Admiral Kirk, on board the Enterprise for an inspection tour, asks Spock how these green recruits will handle themselves if things go badly. "As anyone," Spock replies, "each with their own abilities." (At least, it goes something like that.) This is true of our students, too: each one is different, each with their own abilities, strengths and weaknesses; and when asked to step up when an older grad leaves, they will--in their own way, with their own strengths and weaknesses. The trick, for us as faculty, is to remember that these strengths are of course very different than those of the folks who are moving on; the weaknesses are different as well. This means things will be different--processes will change, things that went smoothly in the past will be rougher. But things that have gone roughly may suddenly go much better, too. It's our job to find a way to embrace and accept these changes as part of each students' progress--to celebrate their strengths, to help build and develop their weaknesses.

That's why we do this, right? Isn't that why we teach? Sure--it can sometimes feel like we're starting over--like, "didn't we already teach this?"--but that's because we are starting over. Each student has to take a similar journey from less knowledge and experience to greater, and it's our job to guide them along--and this means we're taking the same journey with them every time. It can be frustrating at times, and exhausting, and sometimes it can feel like nothing is getting better. But it helps to remember that in just a few years we'll be talking about how these students have grown into colleagues, and fretting over how the next batch will fill their shoes.