September 17, 2025

By Louis Huler

Taslim Sabil, BS in Secondary Education '27, made the most of her first year at Drexel. The rising sophomore spent her summer in the STAR Scholars program, an opportunity awarded to highly motivated students to conduct real-world academic research under the guidance of an experienced faculty mentor. Sabil focused her research on studying the social and emotional development of kindergarten-age students in Drexel’s K-Bridge program at Samuel Powel elementary school.

STAR Scholars is a program meant for passionate students like Sabil. Jaya Mohan, Drexel’s Director for Undergraduate Research, who manages STAR, calls it “a program designed to engage highly motivated first year students in faculty mentored research scholarship or creative work during the summer. It is meant to be an introduction to knowledge creation in their field.”

Sabil’s motivation in the field of educational development doesn’t come from nowhere. Studying secondary education, she is also a Philadelphia local with her finger on the pulse of the community. Her STAR mentor Valerie Klein, PhD, was a big part of turning her inspiration into a real plan. “I am a product of the school district of Philadelphia, and Dr. Klein inspired me to reach out, go to my community, and I had the opportunity to become a community leader for the School District of Philadelphia's facility planning process,” she explained. As a leader, she attended monthly meetings to synthesize public input from surveys and listening sessions and review data, aiding the district in providing community feedback.

This desire for involvement culminated in her STAR research, leading her to conduct a study on the K-Bridge program, a pre-kindergarten opportunity for young students to learn some of the ins and outs of elementary school. “My research is about defining Kindergarten readiness,” Sabil said. “[Kindergarten’s] original intent was to be a place for social development, a garden where children can play. But along the way, our definition shifted, now it's more academic focused.”

It was through this interest she joined the K-Bridge, a summer program led by the School of Education that helps rising kindergarteners get used to life as an elementary school student. Andrea DiMola, Director of Strategic Partnerships for the School of Education helped organize the research opportunity, saying, “it was really great to have Taslim on the team, especially to be able to serve as both a program teacher working directly with kids, and know that she was really thinking about what does readiness mean, what does this look like in a broader, more research based perspective?”

As for the specific research, Sabil’s vision was to seek out what makes learning most effective for kids at this age. “I’m researching the tension between modern academic readiness standards versus [Kindergarten’s] original vision. Academics are important, but also making space for social and emotional development,” she said.

Her results told an interesting story. By emphasizing play and social interaction, Sabil measured a legitimate increase in multiple major categories for students upon completion. She found that programs geared towards nurturing natural and social learning environments at this age, rather than simply academic standards, actually help kindergarten-aged kids to meet the standards in numeracy, literacy, and social emotional learning (SEL).

Sabil presented her research on August 28th and 29th at the STAR Summer Showcase, where she was recognized by the program and selected as a finalist in the pitch competition. Her three minute pitch, which she presented in front of the Drexel community, displayed the importance of her work in understanding the development of young students, particularly advocating for a more holistic approach to teaching. She also presented a poster of her work that demonstrated some of the “play” techniques that could stimulate development for onlookers.

Sabil’s summer research and eventual presentations within the STAR Scholars program was an exhibition of not just a successful research opportunity, but of her own personal drive to push the envelope. She worked to further our understanding of what is effective in the development of kids, a job that made an impact within the Drexel community at the Summer Showcase, and beyond.