The divide between faculty members' positions as teachers and students' positions as learners can be challenging to see, much less overcome. As experts, faculty may fail to provide appropriate entry points or convey specific goals, even when they think they are succeeding in these areas. Because they are rooted in their experience of teaching something over which they have mastery, they may not empathize with the student experience of learning the material fresh. Faculty may not even realize until assignments are graded that a significant distance exists between what they are asking of students and what students are able to do. This disconnect is problematic. Even faculty who are intentional in their teaching and dedicated to their students may lack opportunities to develop an empathetic approach that can support students' academic success. In this article, the authors explore four elements of the UC Davis Provost Hybrid Course Award (PHCA) program that contributed to participants' ability to (re)design courses so they truly centered on students. PHCA sponsors faculty through a technologically challenging and professionally supported workshop to hybridize one of their courses (through both online and in-class components), UC Davis provided an avenue for participants to develop empathy for the students they teach. That newfound empathy helped faculty participants identify and clearly state objectives, design appropriate learning modules, and build assessments that supported their goals. First, faculty connected to each other as student-centered individuals within a community of practice. Second, through learning new technological tools in order to teach familiar material, faculty developed learner-centered thinking that changed how many approached teaching. Third, faculty developed greater intentionality about their learning goals for students. Lastly, faculty developed new empathy for students' experiences by thinking through the technology involved in hybridizing course material within a supported and immersive environment.