The fellowship
Moments from the work
Great Questions Foundation Fellow · 2025–2027
An interdisciplinary fellowship at Miami Dade College built around dialogue — and around the questions humanity has never stopped asking.
Representing Miami Dade College, Dr. Arlene Garcia-Lopez, Dr. Marc Magellan, Dr. Rachel Weiss, and Dr. Jessyca Perez were selected as Fellows of the Great Questions Foundation. Together, they collaborate across disciplines to advance dialogue-based learning, interdisciplinary inquiry, and the exploration of life's most enduring questions. Their work is centered on fostering meaningful conversations that encourage students to think critically, reflect deeply, and engage thoughtfully with the world around them.
As a fellowship team, they believe that transformative education extends beyond the classroom. By bringing together perspectives from psychology, literature, the humanities, and philosophy, they create opportunities for students to examine complex ideas, appreciate diverse viewpoints, and connect academic learning with their personal and civic lives.
The fellowship team
Signature initiative
An interdisciplinary campus dialogue designed to bring students, faculty, and staff together around timeless questions that transcend disciplinary boundaries.
The inaugural event explored the theme of time — drawing from Seneca's Letters from a Stoic, Salvador Dalí's The Persistence of Memory, Pink Floyd's Time, and other influential works that invite reflection on purpose, mortality, and human flourishing.
“How does time define or punctuate the life you live — and how does that lead to The Good Life?”
Seneca
Salvador Dalí
Pink Floyd
The fellowship
Rather than focusing solely on answers, the fellows encourage students to engage in meaningful dialogue.
Through the Great Questions Fellowship, they are committed to cultivating a culture of curiosity, respectful dialogue, and intellectual humility across the Miami Dade College community. Students are encouraged to engage constructively across differences, and to develop the critical thinking, empathy, and communication skills essential for leadership and engaged citizenship.
Their fellowship reflects Miami Dade College's commitment to academic excellence, interdisciplinary collaboration, and preparing students not only for successful careers, but for lives of purpose, service, and lifelong learning.