Reflection: Turning knowledge into action

Reflection. It is a simple and powerful word. It invites us to pause, look back, and find meaning in what we have experienced so that we can move forward with clarity and purpose. In universities, reflection helps us adapt today to shape tomorrow. It is how we turn our learning, research, and creativity into impact. 

The previous bold word was adventurous. I focused on taking risks, exploring new ideas and stepping into the unknown. But every adventure needs reflection to turn experience into insight. Reflection gives us the chance to ask: What did we learn? What will we do differently next time? How can what we have discovered make a difference for others?

The start of a new year and a new semester is an ideal moment for reflection. It gives time to step back before deadlines begin and think about what we have accomplished and what we hope to achieve next. For students, this might mean considering how coursework and experiences connect to long-term goals. For faculty and staff, it may mean evaluating how teaching, mentoring, and research have grown. 

The Graduate College is especially equipped to make reflection matter. We bring people together from every discipline, connect students with communities, and create spaces where new ideas can take root. 

To me, reflection means asking honest questions about how our work serves students. Are we preparing students to thrive in today’s professional and academic world? Are we supporting faculty to be the best mentors? And do we reward collaboration and implementation as much as publication and theory?

These are the questions I’m asking, as I am writing from South Africa, where I recently gave a keynote presentation at the Marine Science Planning Symposium at Nelson Mandela University. The theme of the symposium was “Science to Action,” and it captured exactly what reflection asks of us: to think about how knowledge moves from analysis to impact. My keynote explored how spatial planning in cities compares to marine spatial planning, which are two very different worlds with similar challenges. Both must manage competing demands for space, energy, and ecological balance. By comparing them, we can see how shared spatial strategies, such as data, modeling, and visualization, help create adaptive solutions. We explored the idea of treating cities like ecosystems and oceans like communities.

As I reflected on the discussions throughout the symposium, I was struck by the strength and scope of the work being done in marine spatial planning. The researchers I met were passionate and deeply skilled. The symposium brought together scholars with talents in data, modeling, art, anthropology, law, and policy to address some of the planet’s most complex challenges in the oceans and coasts. Their work has an international footprint, rooted in South Africa yet felt across the globe. They are building capacity, training new scholars, and expanding the reach of research that truly makes a difference.

Their work also reminded me of what scholars do best: we convene, synthesize, analyze, and assess. We bring people together across the university and within the community to combine perspectives, collect and interpret data, generate new knowledge, and evaluate outcomes over the long term. These are the capabilities that make universities powerful engines of discovery and collaboration.

Yet we must also acknowledge what academia could do better. Scholars are rarely positioned or incentivized to drive policy change, sustain continuous evaluation, or measure unintended consequences. That is not necessarily a failure, it reflects the structure and purpose of academic work. But it does raise an important question: should we be doing more? Should universities and researchers take a more active role in evaluating tradeoffs, assessing the effects of decisions, and translating findings into ongoing change?

Reflection encourages us to sit with those questions honestly. The barriers are real (limited time, resources, authority, and institutional incentives) but so are the opportunities. We can do more to strengthen resilience frameworks, build trust with partners, communicate more broadly and creatively, and design courses that connect research to real-world impact. Reflection challenges us to see how we might evolve to better serve both knowledge and society.

Still, universities face broader challenges in bridging science at scale. Research can remain siloed, separated by departments or disciplines. Academic reward systems often prioritize publication over partnership, slowing the path from discovery to impact. And while universities celebrate innovation, they sometimes struggle to adapt their own structures to support collaboration across fields. These are not shortcomings. They are opportunities to reflect and recalibrate.

Like adventure, reflection takes courage, the courage to look honestly at where we are and to imagine where we could be. When universities reflect deeply and act boldly, they strengthen their ability to adapt today and shape tomorrow, for students and scholars, and for the planet that depends on their discoveries.