Inspiration Through the Humanities at Maximum Security Facility – Residents Relay Impact

U.Va. students with inmates at Beaumont Juvenile Correctional Center

U.Va. students interact with incarcerated youth at Beaumont Juvenile Correctional Center

Guest contributor, Rob Wolman is the teaching assistant and primary research assistant for the Books Behind Bars / Awakening Youth Project. Rob is a Montessori teacher and corporate trainer.

Related posts: Research, Seed Funded Research, Community

Awakening Youth Through the Humanities is an interdisciplinary, mixed-methods study that seeks to understand the outcomes of a U.Va. course called Books Behind Bars: Life, Literature, and Leadership. In this course, undergraduates travel to a maximum security correctional facility to lead incarcerated youth in discussions and creative activities related to great works of Russian literature. The course brings college students and correctional center residents together in a community of learning that uses the power of literature to inform, transform, and build connections between people from widely diverse backgrounds. Continue reading

Eye Tracking, Food Labs and More – New Funding Announced

Mock up of school whose architecture is designed to encourage healthy habits

Related posts can be found under Research and Seed Funded Research.

By Ellen Daniels, Youth-Nex Communications Director

Youth-Nex has awarded funding to four teams of researchers who will study a range of
issues from how innovative school architecture can affect healthy eating to increasing
bullying awareness through student video production.

This is the third time the center has seeded University faculty research promoting positive youth development in the past three years. Patrick Tolan, center director, said projects were also chosen because of their collaborative nature and potential for growth.

“We are already seeing external funding applications growing out of the first rounds. We think there is great potential for similar success from this excellent set of seed grants which also represent multidisciplinary efforts across U.Va.,” said Tolan.

The 2012 funded projects are: Continue reading

A Salute to SALUD

Nutritionist discusses proper portions with kids

The three researchers had never met before their work creating an intervention for one of Charlottesville’s Latino communities. Diane Whaley, Mark DeBoer and Amy Boitnott, all from different parts of the University, got the idea when one of Whaley’s students who had also worked in the Children’s Fitness Center suggested a collaboration. They joined forces in 2010 through an annual Youth-Nex grant which seeds multidisciplinary U.Va. research efforts to enhance effective youth development.

The following post from Dr. Whaley describes, SALUD, a family-based intervention, designed to teach Latino families skills to facilitate healthy eating and physical activity involvement. Continue reading