June 1, 2026      

Dear STP Members,

We hope your summer is off to a productive and rejuvenating start, full of sweeter skies and longer days of sun! This month, Past President Stephanie Afful and I wanted to take a moment to pull back the curtain on how we spent our month of May - aside from finishing grading and sending another group of seniors onto the next chapter in their lives - highlighting a remarkable coincidence that beautifully illustrates how deeply connected our STP community truly is, even when we are thousands of miles away from home.

By the time you read this, both of us will have returned from taking separate cohorts of students on study abroad experiences to Poland. Although we didn't plan it this way, our paths aligned perfectly as Stephanie chaperoned a group of 15 students and alumni from Lindenwood University at the same time Drew was on the ground with 17 students from Albion College. More important than a shared travel window, our trips represented the exact kind of high-impact pedagogical practice we champion within the Society.

The Albion College group participated in a Holocaust Service-Learning Project. From May 10-19, our days were split between meaningful service-learning and profound historical education. We first traveled to Wrocław, a city whose pre-WWII Jewish population once exceeded 25,000 people, but today hovers around 350. Our students rolled up their sleeves to help restore the overgrown New Jewish Cemetery, physically reconnecting with history by clearing away decades of neglect. Because so many descendants of those buried there perished in the Holocaust, there are simply very few people remaining to tend to the graves.

We balanced this labor with academic reflection, exploring Wrocław's White Stork Synagogue and the Old Jewish Cemetery, before transferring to Kraków to stand on the harrowing grounds of Plaszow, Schindler’s Factory, and Auschwitz-Birkenau. It was an emotionally demanding itinerary, but watching students process these events in real-time through the lens of psychological resilience and historical trauma was unforgettable.  

Meanwhile, the Lindenwood group was navigating their own impactful journey across Germany, Poland, and Czechia for a Psychology of the Holocaust class. The goal was to understand how a social psychological lens can help explain propaganda, identity, and oppression during the Holocaust, as well as the roles of bystanders and resistance. We toured Jewish History museums, ghettos, and synagogues in Berlin, Warsaw, Kraków, and Prague. The day we will never forget was Auschwitz-Birkenau (which we witnessed just a few hours before the Albion group). As much as we can read, discuss, and prepare for such a visit, the experience was still overwhelming. This trip allowed us to witness history alongside our students, be vulnerable, check our biases, and to engage in learning in a way that cannot be replicated in a traditional course. It is worth the risk, worth the cost, and ultimately helps fill our cups—even though it is emotionally exhausting.

Although our daily itineraries differed, the core pedagogical mission remained identical: pushing students outside the traditional classroom boundaries to foster deep, experiential learning, cultural humility, and global citizenship. 

As psychology educators, we frequently discuss the importance of teaching empathy, the psychology of peace and conflict, and the power of civic engagement. Getting to live those values alongside our students—and realizing that fellow STP leaders were doing the exact same work across the very same borders—was an incredibly affirming reminder of the passion that drives our society. 

Stephanie and I are currently unpacking our bags, processing our respective experiences, and looking forward to sharing more specific pedagogical takeaways with you all in the future. We hope this letter serves as a brief inspiration of how we can bring history, service, and psychology to life for our students. 

As you dive into your own summer research, course prep, or well-deserved rest, we thank you for everything you do to support the teaching of psychology. 

Warmly,

Drew Christopher, STP President, and Stephanie Afful, STP Past President (2025)

Read past letters from the STP President