The CBR Fellows Program: Enhancing Student and Community Outcomes

1. The CBR Fellows Program:Enhancing Student and Community Outcomes Anna Sims Bartel and Georgia Nigro International Institute on Partnerships May 24, 2011

3. Facilitating Contexts and Conditions Strong history of undergraduate research in all disciplines and CBR in a few disciplines. Seniors in most majors write a thesis; the tiny minority who do not have alternative capstone experience. Vibrant and healthy network of campus-community partnerships established by the Harward Center. Developmental pathways for student engagement in the community crafted by the Harward Center. Grant support from the National CBR Networking Initiative and the Christian A. Johnson Endeavor Foundation. Inhibiting Contexts and Conditions Disciplinary standards still the yardstick, since program is co-curricular. Workload issues inhibit interested faculty members. Students sometimes overwhelmed by engaging too deeply too early. Community partners bring different calendars, lexicons, and approaches to the work, not to mention competing priorities. Projects necessarily of a small scale. Contexts and Conditions

4. Contexts and Conditions Questions for Reflection and Discussion • What conditions facilitate and inhibit CBR on your campuses? • What’s different about doing CBR with graduate students? • Is a campus-community partnership center necessary but not sufficient for successful undergraduate CBR?

5. Program Elements • Students apply for CBR Fellowships for one semester or one summer. • Proposals developed with community partner, faculty member, and Harward Center staff. • Projects generally serve, extend, and deepen existing collaborations, but they may also build new partnerships. • Students attend a noncredit seminar seven times over the period of the Fellowship. At seminar meetings, students discuss readings as well as the progress of their projects. One student leads discussion about a particular stage of his or her research, often sharing material for peers to react to. How Elements Support Students • Students come to program familiar with disciplinary research methods. • Students work with a center that has built trust and mutual respect between college and community. • Students develop robust peer supports for community engagement How Elements Enhance Community Impact • Seminar meetings stress the different discourse communities created by disciplinary writing styles, so students develop capacity to write for different audiences. • Peers support one another in their efforts to ferret out research practices that may silence or disempower community members. • The web of relationships with community partners that undergirds the work impresses upon students the importance of sustainable community initiatives.

6. Program Elements Questions for Reflection and Discussion • Is there room for academic-driven questions in CBR, or must all research questions be community-driven? • How do we help students engage in early discussions about what partners will do in the event of embarrassing data? • Who speaks for the community in ethical oversight of research? • How do you help undergraduates operate in the different discourse communities in a way that fosters translational research? • How do you invite undergraduates to learn, respect, and move beyond disciplinary boundaries?

7. Results and Products • CBR Fellows Program stresses development of projects that can be reasonably completed within the term of the Fellow’s involvement. • Program faculty frame outcomes as opposed to impacts; they help Fellows see impacts as larger, composite goals to which they may contribute a piece. • Products vary and include research reports, public presentations, guidebooks, brochures and marketing materials. Questions for Reflection and Discussion • Where do these different products fit into our disciplinary standards for scholarship? • Must we impose upon students the requirement of dual dissemination? • Can undergraduate research have real community impact?