Audra Grady, the Experiential and Community-Engaged Learning program administrator, is leaving her position at the University to develop her yoga business and begin working for a consulting firm, according to Senior Associate Dean of Arts and Sciences Elaine Wong. Lexi Kriss '11 will replace her as administrator on an interim basis while the program assesses its future in accordance with the University-wide strategic planning process.

"My time at Brandeis over the past two and a half years has been a wonderful exploration and exercise in moving an initiative forward," wrote Grady in an email to the Justice. "The best part of the work I did was to bring people together in new and different ways that address contemporary student learning objectives, the Brandeis mission and local community needs."

The experiential learning program features academic internships for credit, experiential learning courses, research opportunities and events such as the annual "Experiential Learning, Engaged Learners" symposium. The symposium aims "to provide students, particularly freshmen, with information about some of the opportunities that are going to be available to them, so they'll learn about things they should be thinking about putting into their Brandeis education," according to Wong. The symposium is on March 22 this year.

"Experiential learning has a promising future and much potential at Brandeis, and Lexi is a perfect leader to ensure continuity during this transition," Grady wrote.

"[Lexi] is basically the perfect person to help us this spring," said Wong in an interview with the Justice. "We're lucky to have her, because she's a great example of someone who's taken advantage of a lot of EL opportunities."

Kriss, who worked in the Experiential Learning office when Grady was the administrator, was an "outstanding student" who was a Roosevelt fellow, a member of the Orientation core committee and a recipient of a Schiff Undergraduate Fellowship, according to Wong. Her experience with the program will be especially useful this spring as the program prepares to evaluate its future and submit a report to the strategic planning committee.

"Through the strategic planning process, [we are going to] figure out what are the qualifications that [the next administrator] should have, and what are the main tasks we should focus on in the future," said Wong. "We are really trying to figure out [how EL fits into the Brandeis experience] … One of the questions is going to be, ‘What is the role of EL going to be?' How are we going to be talking about it in the future?"

"This is one of the most exciting moments for ExCEL because there is so much opportunity for growth and participation," said Kriss in an email to the Justice. "Anything can happen."

The program was founded in 2005 in the form of an initiative called Learning by Doing: Deepening Liberal Arts through Experiential Learning, according to the Brandeis website. The initiative was funded by a two-and-a-half year grant from the Davis Educational Foundation. After the grant expired, the University agreed to provide financial and administrative support for the program.

Kriss said that experiential learning experiences are readily available at Brandeis. "There is an ExCEL opportunity out there for everyone because the choices are as diverse as our students."