Digital Commons Network^™

Social And Cognitive Outcomes Of Service Learning: Results From A Pre-Post And Control Group Comparison, Rebecca G. Ryan

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

Students in an undergraduate course opted to either complete a service-learning project or write article summary papers over the course of a semester. Analyses revealed a significant increase in aspects of empathy, social responsibility, and community and personal involvement in the service-learning group, but not in the control group. The findings are discussed in terms of the social and cognitive benefits of service learning and considerations for incorporating service learning into a gerontology-related course.

Service Learning For The Port Jefferson History And Nature Center: Senior Capstone Forestry Course, David L. Kulhavy, Daniel Unger, Ryan Grisham, Gary Endlsey

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

A community partnership between the Collins Academy, Jefferson, Texas, and the Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture, Stephen F. Austin State University, Nacogdoches, Texas, developed a plan to manage the 38-acre Port Jefferson History and Nature Center, located on Big Cypress Bayou. Students used knowledge of the resources, GPS (global positioning systems), ArcGIS 10.4, presentations, and posters to complete the project. The reflection and feedback with the community partners continued throughout the project and as guidance for future work. This partnership instilled in participating students the value of incorporating service learning into development of professional relationships for continued cooperation …

Collaboration And Advocacy: A Community-University Partnership And The Well-Being Of Children, Alycia Elfreich, Robert Helfenbein

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

This paper examines a case study of a community-university collaboration in a Midwestern suburban community. In an effort to promote the well-being of students, a collaborative youth initiative partnership was created alongside a local university, public schools, and other community organizations. We reflect upon this collaboration and the need for a holistic approach to child development through community partnerships. We also address embedded tensions that call for a more transparent approach to challenges of cross-cultural work.

Interdisciplinary Service Learning Opportunity: A Nontraditional Approach To Migrant Farmworkers Rehabilitation, Jodan D. Garcia, Rachael A. Frank

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

Interdisciplinary service learning opportunities are recognized as valuable educational tools for health care students. The Farm Worker Family Health Program, based on a community academic partnership model, enables health care students to treat migrant workers in rural Georgia during the annual farmworker migration. The present article describes how this opportunity has been incorporated into a graduate curriculum, including examining the challenges and successes associated with implementing this type of program. An additional aim is to explore the implications of merging interdisciplinary service learning and community partnerships with physical therapy education, specifically how student volunteers and migrant workers may be impacted …

Service-Learning & Early Childhood Teacher Education: A Qualitative Exploration Of Professional Preparation Standards, Tina M. Kruger, Mary Jane Eisenhauer, Laura Weaver

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

Preparing teachers to work with children and families cultivates high-quality early learning. This study explored the impact of service-learning on early childhood pre-professional students (candidates) and community partners (CPs). Focus group transcripts illustrate connections between service and professional preparation standards. Service-learning and professional standards intersect through the experience of candidates and CPs. Findings support the use of Kolb’s model as a foundation for service-learning in early childhood teacher education and can inform service-learning in other disciplines.

Researcher-Practitioner Collaborations: Applying Developmental Science To Understand Sport Participation And Positive Youth Development, Andrea Vest Ettekal, Lily S. Konowitz, Jennifer P. Agans, Richard M. Lerner

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

We report data from the first year of a three-year collaboration between a sport-based youth development program, Positive Coaching Alliance (PCA), and a university-based research institute. The theory of change of PCA was tested with youth athletes, representing multiple sport types (e.g., individual/team) and seasons (e.g., fall/winter), who completed self-report surveys indexing a key facet of positive youth development—character. Noting assets and challenges of such researcher-practitioner collaborations, we discuss the results of the first year of data derived from this collaboration and differences in their use to the researchers and practitioners. Using this collaboration as a sample case, we discuss …

A Needs Assessment And Program Evaluation Of A Physical Therapy Service-Learning Program In China, Kerstin M. Palombaro, Samuel R. Pierce, Robin L. Dole

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

International service-learning (ISL) programs in physical and occupational therapy programs are increasing in number. This paper describes a needs assessment and initial program evaluation conducted for a physical therapy ISL program at an orphanage in China. Chinese orphanage staff and Widener University physical therapy students were surveyed. Chinese staff expressed satisfaction with the training and provided suggestions for programming needs. Students identified areas for further education of orphanage staff and suggestions for future program design.

Community-Based Participatory Research, Catherine Stemmans Paterson

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

This article investigates community-based participatory research (CBPR) within the framework of service learning and community engagement initiatives within contemporary higher education. It identifies the characteristics of high-quality CBPR, delves into two criticisms of these efforts, and provides ideas for addressing these criticisms.

Maintaining Engaged Scholarship In Challenging Times: Experiences Working With Veteran Medical Providers In Greater Los Angeles, Angela Chalé, Elizabeth Avila, Yvette Avila, Christina Chalé

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

This paper describes the challenges experienced in a study premised on scholarly engagement that consisted of a partnership between the nutritional science program and medical providers at the Veterans Administration, Greater Los Angeles, following allegations of systemic misconduct in the delivery of health care by the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). Since the VHA is a primary provider of medical training in the United States, we were interested in obtaining their opinion about and knowledge of vitamin D nutriture in relation to cognitive and physical functioning. We were unable to overcome challenges that undermined collaboration and propose incentivization, partnering with grounded …

Enhancing Service-Learning Experiences For International Students: An Auto-Ethnography And A Dialogue, Li Mao, Laura Servage, Donna Chovanec

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

This auto-ethnographic study recounts the experiences of an international doctoral student in a service-learning (SL) placement. The narrative discusses the cultural and linguistic barriers that the student faced, both in the classroom and in her SL field placement. The authors use the student’s secondary sources as well as a series of reflective dialogues as data toward an analysis of the learning needs of linguistic and cultural minorities in service-learning—an as of yet underexplored area of research in service-learning pedagogy.

Working To Improve The Quality Of Care For Young Children In One Community Organization, Anna H. Hall, Amber Simpson

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

This study examines a partnership effort between researchers and one community organization to improve childcare. The results of the study indicate that facility changes were made that improved the quality of the physical environment, but that little or no changes were observed in the areas of personal care, adult-child interactions, or peer interactions. Based on the results, the researchers and childcare director extended their partnership in order to continue working together toward making improvements.

Community Engagement Initiative: Academia Partnering With The Health Department And Community Agencies For Change, Martha L. Coulter, Karen D. Liller, Chukwudi Ejiofor, Casey Mcbride, John Roth, Lilia Cruz

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

The Community Engagement Initiative developed at the University of South Florida, College of Public Health illustrates the importance of developing partnerships between academia, health departments, and community agencies to build capacity and expand the cadre of researchers equipped with skills in community organization, community participation, constituency development, capacity building, community empowerment, and coalition building. A case study of Champions for Children is provided to demonstrate how the initiative functioned in a realworld environment.

Elementary School-University Partnership: The Elementary Parent Leadership Academy, M. Blake Berryhill, Madalyn Riggins, Rosiana Gray

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

School-family-community partnerships have been shown to increase student success and overall school climate. In order to support local schools and their students and families, The University of Alabama created the Elementary Parent Leadership Academy (EPLA), a training program that prepares elementary school parent leaders with the skills to strengthen school communities through supporting parent involvement. Quantitative and qualitative analyses of the 2014-2015 EPLA graduates found that the program increased parent school leadership behaviors and attitudes.

Creating Culturally Relevant And Responsive Health Care Models, Naomi N. Duke

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

Western-based health models situate formalized education as a distinct driver of outcomes, including health and well-being. This study, conducted as part of the Community-engaged Scholars Program, interviewed elders and practitioners in cultural communities about relationships between cultural ways of knowing and health to inform Western-based models of health service delivery. While years of schooling may translate into practical means for obtaining goods and services, cultural knowledge frames provide a foundation for addressing the complexities of health.

Addressing Health And Education Disparities In Low‐Income Families With Young Children: Lessons Learned As A Community Engaged Scholar, Mary O. Hearst

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

Health and education disparities persist in low-income communities. This project, part of University of Minnesota Extension’s Community-engaged Scholars Program, aimed to identify common root causes of health and education disparities as part of a school readiness intervention for low-income, multiethnic children. In this paper I describe my growth as a communityengaged scholar attempting to understand the role of community voice in documenting the complex, interrelated nature of early childhood and lifelong well-being.

Community‐Based Participatory Research On Urban Parks And Health Dispariɵes: Perspecɵves From An Urban Planning Researcher, Yingling Fan

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

As part of the University of Minnesota Community-engaged Scholars Program, I undertook a Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) project evaluating the potential of urban parks to improve health outcomes in disadvantaged communities. This paper describes my CBPR rookie experiences and discusses challenges in the CBPR process. By reflecting on my missteps, I offer critical insights and recommendations. Urban Planning researchers interested in applying the CBPR approach are recommended to commit to the “muddling through” process, seek institutional support, engage both government agencies and community advocates, and acquire long-range and flexible funding.

Community‐Based Research And The Historian’S Craft, Zorian Maksymec, Christina Redmond, Nina Reid-Maroney

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

This paper discusses a community-based research project that paired undergraduate history students with local community partners in an exploration of the antislavery movement in Canada and the problem of its erasure from local historical memory. The article outlines the project’s background and method, examines the wide-ranging importance of the community classroom it helped to create, and reflects on the importance of undergraduate research in the setting of a liberal arts university as a bridge between classroom and community.

Faculty Feel It Too: The Emotions Of Teaching Through Service‐Learning, Carrie W. Lecrom, Lynn Pelco, Jill W. Lassiter

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

The authors used Coles’ (1993) framework of emotional satisfactions and hazards to examine the experiences of faculty members teaching service-learning classes for the first time. Seven faculty from two institutions completed monthly reflections and focus groups for one year. Qualitative analysis indicated that faculty experienced several of Coles’ emotional satisfactions and hazards, were prone to emotional contagion, and depended on colleague mentoring to navigate the experiences of using service-learning pedagogy for the first time.

A Qualitative Assessment Of The Impact Of A Service‐Learning Course On Students’ Discipline‐Specific Self‐Efficacy, L. Suzanne Goodell, Natalie K. Cooke, Sarah L. Ash

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

Investigators employed a multi-method qualitative approach to determine the impact of a service- learning course on students’ discipline-specific self-efficacy. The majority of students reported an increase in discipline-specific self-efficacy after participating in this service-learning course. Analysis resulted in three major themes: (1) constructive criticism and self-reflection improve self-efficacy; (2) experience breeds confidence; and (3) service-learning encourages students to obtain more knowledge and experience in areas of deficiency after the servicelearning experience.

Assessing Global Citizenship After Participation In Service Learning In Physical Therapy Education, Mark Drnach, Craig Ruby, Kelley Kluender, Brian Palomba, Marissa Ursick

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

Promoting a global perspective has become a recent topic in health care education (Frenk et al., 2010). The idea is to produce graduates who are capable of delivering culturally appropriate services to communities in need, both locally and globally. Various didactic components and pedagogies can be used but the outcome of producing a graduate who acts on that education is unclear. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effects of service learning on promoting identified behaviors reflective of a global citizen in graduates from Wheeling Jesuit University’s (WJU) Physical Therapy Program. This doctoral program includes service-learning courses that …

Development Of Community‐Based Workshops For Mexican‐Origin Rural, Low‐Income Study Participants, Rosa D. Manzo, Yvette G. Flores, Adela De La Torre

Journal of Community Engagement and Higher Education

This paper documents the process of developing community-based psychoeducational workshops to engage and retain study participants within a comparison research site. The development and adaptation of the workshops followed methods of cultural adaptation and ecological validity (Domenech-Rodriguez & Wieling, 2004; Bernal, Bonilla, & Bellido, 1995). Our work supports the idea that culturally responsive approaches can engage community members and increase the acceptability of researchers in low-income Mexican-origin communities.

Sexannodb, A Knowledgebase Of Sex-Specific Regulations From Multi-Omics Data Of Human Cancers, Mengyuan Yang, Yuzhou Feng, Jiajia Liu, Hong Wang, Sijia Wu, Weiling Zhao, Pora Kim, Xiaobo Zhou

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background

Sexual differences across molecular levels profoundly impact cancer biology and outcomes. Patient gender significantly influences drug responses, with divergent reactions between men and women to the same drugs. Despite databases on sex differences in human tissues, understanding regulations of sex disparities in cancer is limited. These resources lack detailed mechanistic studies on sex-biased molecules.

Methods

In this study, we conducted a comprehensive examination of molecular distinctions and regulatory networks across 27 cancer types, delving into sex-biased effects. Our analyses encompassed sex-biased competitive endogenous RNA networks, regulatory networks involving sex-biased RNA binding protein-exon skipping events, sex-biased transcription factor-gene regulatory networks, …

Unaccompanied Migrant Children In The Mountain West, 2015-2023, Annie Vong, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Demography

This fact sheet examines data on the number of unaccompanied migrant children who obtained sponsors and relocated to 22 cities in five Mountain West states from 2015 to 2023. Data from Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah are included from a New York Times report which includes U.S. Department of Human Health and Services data on unaccompanied migrant children in all 50 states and Washington D.C.

What’S Mine Is Yours: Managing Student Loans Within Different Gender Couples, Samantha Leigh Moser

Theses and Dissertations

In the United States, borrowing student loans from the federal government or private market to attend college has become increasingly common. Roughly one in eight Americans has student loans (Looney, Wessel, & Yilla 2020). Reports on federal student loans indicate that roughly 1.6 billion dollars was outstanding in May of 2022 (Hanson 2022b). Additionally, about 43.4 million borrowers each owe an estimated $37,014 in federal education loans (Hanson 2022a). Privately, as of July 2023, $131 billion dollars was outstanding for education loans.

Sociologists have begun researching the consequences of student loan debt on borrowers and their families. Consequences of student …

Epigenome-Wide Association Study Of Prostate Cancer In African American Men Identified Differentially Methylated Genes, Anders Berglund, Kosj Yamoah, Steven A. Eschrich, Rana Falahat, James J. Mulé, Sungjune Kim, Jaime Matta, Julie Dutil, Gilberto Ruiz-Deya, Carmen Ortiz Sanchez, Liang Wang, Hyun Park, Hirendra N. Banerjee, Tamara Lotan, Kathryn Hughes Barry, Ryan M. Putney, Seung Joon Kim, Clement Gwede, Jacob K. Kresovich, Youngchul Kim, Hui Yi Lin, Jasreman Dhillon, Ratna Chakrabarti, Jong Y. Park

School of Public Health Faculty Publications

Introduction: Men with African ancestry have the highest incidence and mortality rates of prostate cancer (PCa) worldwide. Methods: This study aimed to identify differentially methylated genes between tumor vs. adjacent normal and aggressive vs. indolent PCa in 121 African American patients. Epigenome-wide DNA methylation patterns in tumor DNA were assessed using the human Illumina Methylation EPIC V1 array. Results: Around 5,139 differentially methylated CpG-sites (q < 0.01, lΔβl > 0.2) were identified when comparing normal vs. tumor, with an overall trend of hypermethylation in prostate tumors. Multiple representative differentially methylated regions (DMRs), including immune-related genes, such as CD40, Galectin3, OX40L, and STING, were detected …

Socioeconomic Status, Physical Inactivity, And Bmi In Transitional Urban China: Contextualizing The Theory Of Fundamental Causes, Jun Xu, Fang Gong, Wei Zhao

International Journal of Physical Activity and Health

Drawing insights from the theory of fundamental causes of disease, this study examined the relationships between socioeconomic status (SES) and selected risk factors in transitional urban China. Specifically, under China’s distinct institutional and sociocultural environment, we examined how contextualized SES (i.e., party membership, hukou status, housing ownership, and subjective social status) and conventional SES indicators (i.e., education, income, and occupation) were associated with physical inactivity and body mass index (BMI). Utilizing the urban subsample of the 2017 Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS), we found that individuals with higher education, income, Communist Party membership, and urban hukou status had lower risks …

The Experience Of Pet Ownership In Transitional Housing, Kathryn Holden Ots, Susan Macdermott Otd, Otr/L

Summer 2024 OTD Capstone Symposium

25% of people experiencing homelessness have pets, but few transitional housing programs allow pets (Rhoades et al., 2015); therefore, there is a gap in the literature about the experience of pet ownership during the transitional housing process. This study aimed to explore pet owners' experiences at a transitional housing site in San Diego County. The student interviewed two current dog owners and four recent dog owners. All participants prioritized their pets because it was their strongest relationship. The prioritization of their dogs positively and negatively influenced occupational engagement. While receiving services, owners experienced consequences when separated from their dogs, including …

The Experiences Of Decision Making In Gangs, Julian Geoffrey Harris

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Gang violence and illicit gang activities continue to be a major problem to society and law enforcement. Gang violence is responsible for much of the violence death and illicit drug trade. The decision juveniles make to initiate into a gang increases these unwelcome behaviors. The ways in which juveniles make decisions about gang initiation and how to assess the ramifications of those decisions are understudied and reflect a gap in the literature. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to better comprehend the experiences of juveniles who make decisions to initiate into a gang and to better understand how they …

Enhancing Co-Occupation Of Play For Families Experiencing Homelessness, Vienna Vargas, Susan Macdermott

Summer 2024 OTD Capstone Symposium

The presentation covers program development for families residing in transitional housing with the opportunity to engage in healthy play activities to promote health and wellness.

Cudos To The Teachers: Using Merton’S Norms Of Scientific Practice To Guide Lessons In Critical Thinking, Inez Z. Ponce De Leon

Department of Communication Faculty Publications

Professors are often exhorted to foster an atmosphere in critical thinking in their classes, and there is a wide variety of lessons and activities that college students can be given in order to keep their questioning spirit alive. In this paper, the researcher sets critical thinking against the framework of Merton’s Norms of scientific practice. Robert Merton’s work has been used in the philosophy and sociology of science as a way to discuss what constitutes a scientific culture. The norms are summarized in the acronym CUDOs: Communalism (scientific knowledge is open to all), Universalism (that the practice of science is …