The CU Engage Graduate Fellowship in Community Based Research (CBR), has proudly welcomed 6 new fellows at the start of the 2023-2024 academic year. Meant for students in their 2nd-6th year, the fellowship helps train graduate students in the field of CBR practices and principles, and aligns with the CU Engage mission of public service and reciprocity. Dr. Vandna Sinha oversees the program for CU Engage. Over the summer we met for a two-day training institute, and have met bi-weekly this semester, where, as a group, and true to the CBR process, we were able to identify pieces of the CBR process we were interested in learning more about.Ìý
This year’s fellows come from the School of Education (SOE), the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences (CLAS), the College of Media, Communication, & Information (CMCI), and the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences (CEAS). Our fellows this year are Brenda Aguirre (SOE), Dylan Doyle-Burke, Amy Dunbar-Wallis, Caroline Frischmon, Hannah Kim, & Beatriz Salazar Medina.
Our projects are:
- Te Lo Cuento Con Canciones: Bilingual Math and Music Production Workshop for Latinx Elementary Students (Brenda Aguirre)
- Designing for Death: Community-Based Oncology Research for the Pre-Mortem Planning of Post-Mortem Data (Dylan Doyle-Burke)
- Forging relationships between colleges and community through apple orchards (Amy Dunbar-Wallis)
- ​​Community-based exploration of environmental and human health impacts of industrial air pollution in Pascagoula, MS (Caroline Frischmon)
- Culturally Responsive Social Emotional Learning (SEL) for Refugee Newcomer Students (Hannah Kim)
- Feeling Seen in Pedagogy: Building Professional Development Units (PDU) with & for Manual High School (Beatriz Salazar Medina)
This semester we have learned about the financial management process of CBR projects, how to build trust as researchers with our communities, considerations as we step into and out of communities (if applicable), applying for IRB approval, & communicating CBR to diverse communities.Ìý