Isaiah Makar, LAS ’05
Alumnus Isaiah Makar is the Founder and Chief Engagement Officer of Impact Makars. After graduating with his degree in Communication (concentration on organizational and corporate communication) from the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), Isaiah used his research on how poetry can be used in the classroom to enhance and sustain student engagement, which won the “Outstanding Oral Presentation” award at the Illinois Summer Research Symposium, to design the Mākar Method. The Mākar Method is a cross-disciplinary learning model focusing on applying spoken word poetry skills to practice six communication styles that are transferable beyond a stage and a page to foster the learning and development of educators and employees. Isaiah demonstrated the Mākar Method by teaching a class at Roosevelt University for undergrad students titled, “Teaching is a Performance,” where he taught how to blend creative spoken word aesthetics into a teaching style that better engages students. He also led the “Teaching is a Performance” workshop session at INCubatoredu’s National Summit, training entrepreneurial educators on applying poetic performance techniques to foster an “edutaining” learning environment.