On April 17, 2018, the The University Scholars Program and the Office of Undergraduate Research and Fellowships celebrated the many accomplishments of the Northeastern University undergraduate students funded to conduct Service/Research Projects (SRP) and participate in Alternative Spring Breaks (ASB). The products of 13 Service/Research Project Awards and 4 Alternative Spring Break trips were showcased during the event.
A unique option for civic engagement, the Service/Research Project Awards allow Northeastern students to provide tangible benefits for the populations with which they work and develop critical skills as applied researchers in the field. The projects are student-directed and offer participants the unique opportunity to work in an interdisciplinary year-long service research project to collaborate closely with a community partner. In addition to financial support to carry out their projects, SRP Award recipients receive mentorship from the staff and Faculty Fellows at the University Scholars Program and the Office of Undergraduate Research and Fellowships. Associate Director Dr. Peña-Talamantes served as the primary liaison for these projects throughout the year. We extend our gratitude to the community partners who collaborated with our Scholars throughout the year: Boston Public Library—Grove Hall Branch; The DREAM Program; Vibrant Boston; Boston Parks and Recreation Department; Susan Bailis Assisted Living; United South End Settlements; Roxbury Youth Orchestra; John D. O’Bryant School of Mathematics and Science; St. Stephen’s Youth Programs; Citizen Schools; Curley K-8 School; United Somali Youth; and Asian Community Development Corporation.
Additionally, Alternative Spring Break trips allow for a week-long immersive living and volunteering experience. Through meaningful action, reflection, and education, volunteers engage in direct service that addresses a critical, social issue. In collaboration with Associate Director Dr. Karas and Faculty Fellow Professor Greg Goodale, the University Scholars created, developed, and planned learning and service trips to Costa Rica, the Bahamas, Philadelphia, and Peru.
We are very proud of all of our students and the vital work they do in our communities. In the six years of the Scholars Program, they have contributed over 181,000 hours of service to their communities, amounting to $5.5 million of in-kind volunteer time contributions to this city and those the Scholars call home. Read on to learn more about their projects this year and get a gander at their wonderful accomplishments - so far.
Be sure to check out the videos created by each project!
SERVICE RESEARCH PROJECT AWARDS
BITS & BOTS
Brett Krutiansky, Thurston Brevett, Kim Terrizzi, John Howard, Diego Delgado, Kevin Luo Kurt Jaisle, Jenna Lue, Catarina Smith, Daniel Rassaby, John Harrington, Tyler Gogal, and Chloe Scudder
Faculty Mentor: Professor Erin Cram
By providing a high quality introductory robotics education program, free of charge, at the Grove Hall branch of the Boston Public Library, Bits & Bots aims to inspire and motivate primarily underprivileged 3rd-8th grade students to further explore and pursue the STEM fields. The group’s research focused on curriculum planning and student engagement with the goal of developing a STEM program model that can be used to provide robotics education to underserved populations elsewhere.
C.A.R.E. – COLLEGE ACCESS AND RESILIENCE IN EDUCATION
Blair Childs-Biscoe and Camila Simons
Faculty Mentor: Professor Marilyn Minus
This project’s aims to provide college preparation to immigrant youth in Boston. The group has conducted research in the Boston area to identify areas of concern for college access and opportunity among marginalized youth and their families. The goal is to then collaborate with local organizations to develop workshops, survey tools, and other resources to help young people learn about the college-going process, help them with their college admissions applications, and provide support for them to obtain their college degrees.
THE DREAM PROGRAM
Derick Anderson, Shahed Najjar, Elisa Figueras, Amina Ly, Berta Bartoli, and Riddhi Samtani
Faculty Mentor: Professor Erin Cram
The DREAM Program pairs college student mentors with grade-school children in an effort to empower and encourage them to achieve their dreams and goals. This team worked directly with mentors and the program’s administration to improve outcomes by identifying and implementing best practices across multiple sites.
ECO-SCHOLARS
Ryan Maia, Abby Plummer, Sydney Yonack, Ava Gallo, Isabel Baird, Dan Koerner, and Chloe Merat
Faculty Mentor: Professor Erin Cram
This project aims to provide high school students in in the Boston area with environmental education. The group conducted research to assess strategies for effective delivery of this timely material and worked to secure times with community programs to provide these lessons. Their goal is to enhance students understanding of the science and policy of environmental problems, the environmentally conscious lifestyle changes they can implement, and the green projects and careers they can pursue.
THE FLO INITIATIVE
Danielle Reid and Erin Sedita
Faculty Mentor: Professor Marilyn Minus
This project aims to break the stigma associated with the menstrual cup as method of menstrual hygiene and ensure more sustainable access to these products for low income women and femmes. The group conducted research on the techniques used to make menstrual cups and worked to find ways to reduce their costs with manufacturers. They are looking to distribute these products through community partners in the Boston area. They seek to continue analyzing the effectiveness of implementing a cost subside, assess the usability of the product, and evaluate its ability to be maintained during its usage.
GREENER LUNCHES
Elise Dovletoglou, Andrea Aponte, Kelly Marchese, Amanda Barr, Journey Wise, and Julianna Minissale
Faculty Mentor: Professor Marilyn Minus
This project aims to address issues of nutrition and sustainability in Boston Public Schools through advocacy for plant-based foods in children’s diets and the implementation of more vegetarian options in school lunches. This year, the focus was on conducting research on affordable, local produce farmers and vendors and engage with a local school to implement a pilot program that will offer one vegetarian alternative to everyday lunch options.
MALARIA FREE WORLD
Kritika Singh, Adriell Louis, Francesca Giorgianni, Stephanie Stumbur, and Hugh Shirley
Faculty Mentor: Professor Carey Rappaport
This project aims to raise awareness about malaria and other infectious diseases on a local, national, and global scale through the development and support of research symposiums for high school students, fun interactive activities for K-8 students, and global events in endemic countries. The group is developing a mobile app to educate individuals on malaria, help provide resources to eradicate the disease, and empower individuals to take action and seek help. The group's collaborators include Northeastern’s Generate (to develop the app), and the Defeating Malaria Initiative and the UN’s Nothing but Nets Program (to disseminate information on the disease). In addition, the group has engaged in a large collaboration to develop the NU Global Health Initiative, a conference to bring professionals, advocate, and students together to speak on timely global health issues and innovative ways to tackle them in the future.
THE PLAYGROUND PROJECT: INDIGO
Monisha Reginald, Durward Benham, Hayden Henderson, Max Sminkey, Marya Lupandina, Laura Blumenfeld, Alex Castillo, Maria Bermudez, Charles Chierico, Elise Dovletoglou, Dan Ostberg, and Tia Thomson
Faculty Mentor: Professor Darien Wood
The Playground Project: INDIGO strives to increase the number and quality of inclusive playgrounds in Boston by working with the Parks and Recreation Department as well as community organizations to ensure that accessibility is a key component of playground design. The team strives to make Boston a city which is home to truly inclusive play spaces that meet the needs of its diverse community. Their focus this year was to develop a survey tool that could be disseminated to other locations for playground evaluation and develop workshops and sessions to share their tool with others at national and regional conferences.
PROJECT FIT
Tavia Allen, Danielle Murad, Cindy Wu, Agota Sakalauskaite, Alastair Abrahan, Talia Petersen, Alastair Abraham, and Botakoz Kashkarova
Faculty Mentor: Professor Carey Rappaport
Project FIT is dedicated to the well-being of senior citizens in the Boston area. This group's curriculum promotes physical activity and a wider range of mobility for participants while also emphasizing a healthy lifestyle and social interaction, reflecting a holistic and integrated notion of well-being. This year, the group worked with seniors within the Susan Bailis Assisted Living.
ROXBURY ROCKS!
Suraya Foster, Jacqueline Tam, Lucas Calero Forero, Niklas Pousette Harger, Paulina De Lima, Amalia DeCoursey, and Melanie Senk
Faculty Mentor: Professor Carey Rappaport
This project introduces children from all backgrounds to music and dance education. The group believes that exposure to the ars should not be a privilege, but a right. In collaboration with the Roxbury Youth Orchestra, Roxbury Rocks! combines case studies and direct service to design curricula for young students in the neighborhoods surrounding Northeastern’s campus who attend after-school programs at the United South End Settlements.
THE SCIENCE SQUAD
Ana Paz, Carl Uchytil, Victoria Matta, Rachel Mumma, Kritika Singh, Congtin Nguyen, Maria Paz, Anja Deric, Jeremy Philbrick, Hugh Shirley, Nikita Patel, Tyler Gogal, Ffion Titmuss, Alison Miller, and Sabie Marcellus
Faculty Mentor: Professor Darien Wood
The science squad is focused on getting young students excited about science. The group volunteers in the science department at John D. O’Bryant School of Math and Science. They also assist with science fairs around the city and teach experimentation classes at Northeastern’s NEPTUN program.
THE SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER (SPLC) AT NORTHEASTERN
Lola Akingbade, Gabriel Morris, Matthew Cueto, Maggie King, Karl Meakin, Kamran Parsa, Rafi Nizam, Alexandra Jacobs, and Jasmine Williams
Faculty Mentor: Professor Darien Wood
SPLC at Northeastern brings civil rights and social justice education to youth groups and schools through Southern Poverty Law Center’s Teaching Tolerance curriculum, an anti-bias program enriched with writing and inquiry around central social justice texts and multimedia. This year, the group partnered with St. Stephen’s Youth Programs.
STEMVENTURES
Jessie Sigler, Kiara Taquechel, Kristen Brown, Matthew Lamontagne, Jaedyn Lee, and Jacqueline Banning
Faculty Mentor: Professor Darien Wood
This project aims to get kids excited about science, technology, engineering and mathematics through afterschool sessions at the Curley K-8 School in Jamaica Plain. By partnering with Northeastern’s Center for STEM Education, STEMventures taps into Northeastern’s community connections and shares the fruits of their experience with campus partners.
ALTERNATIVE SPRING BREAK TRIPS
Understanding Sustainable Fair-Trade Coffee Production in San Marcos De Tarrazu, Costa Rica
Gavin Winter (Team Leader), Kalil Menezes (Team Leader), Leila Habib, Andrew Mello, Zhao (Lucy) Luo, Kaustubh Bansal, Elliot Horen, Vasco De Sa Nunes Correia Diogo, Kristen Braley, Adriell Louis, Daniel Ostberg, Benjamin Silvers, Samantha Price, and Elizabeth Trauger
Scholars travelled to San Marcos de Tarrazu, Costa Rica with our Director, Dr. Jonna Iacono, to get a first-hand look at the inner workings of the fair trade coffee industry in Costa Rica. Volunteers, working with RAW Tours, were immersed in the coffee culture, visiting several local coffee farms and experiencing all aspects of the growing, harvesting, and milling process. Scholars also helped beautify the local playground, painting murals and installing planter boxes and imaginative elements.
Tracking Sea Turtles in the Bahamas
Johanna Loepke (Team Leader), Jodi Robertson (Team Leader), Amina Ly, Raashmi Patalapati, Max Sminkey, Christopher Bunn, Yara Gosula, Zoë Bishop, Colton Stevens, Carson Markle, and Michael Wheeler
This citizen-science project, shepherded by Faculty Fellow and Distinguished Professor Carey Rappaport, aimed to characterize the preferred foraging grounds of juvenile hawksbill and green sea turtles by recording the abundance of these creatures in various environments including tidal mangrove creeks, sea grass beds, and coral reefs. Working with scientists from Earthwatch, students caught and studied these endangered turtles and recorded physical characteristics of their environment, data which will help shape more effective conservation measures.
The Past, Present, and Future of the LGBT Community in Philadelphia
Diego Rivera (Team Leader), Kim Terrizzi (Team Leader), Meghan McCallister, Tavish Fenbert, Kiara Taquechel, Jacob Potts, Alyssa Wren, Sarina Dass, Shemual Tsai, and Mina Nayeri
This trip traveled to Philadelphia to work with the William Way LGBT Community Center, an institution with a 43-year history of advocacy and support for sexual and gender minorities in the region. In addition to engaging with the center’s active and diverse constituencies, students worked with the center’s 14,000-volume library and its extensive historical archive, looking back at its storied history as well as forward to new dimensions of community and connection. The office’s Associate Director, Dr. Andrew Karas, served as the faculty/staff lead for this project.
Childhood Education and Healthcare: Global Volunteers in Peru
Lauren Enright (Team Leader), Kyle Rossini (Team Leader), Durward Benham, Laura Blumenfeld, Michelle Reichman, Nicholas Rioux, Kenneth Barragan, Felipe Castellano-Macias, Natalie McGowan, Isabella Ragazzi, Morgan Hines, and Christopher Mirabella
According to UNICEF, 25% of Peruvian children under the age of 5 are chronically malnourished, 59% of children ages 5-11 are below their grade level in math and communication skills, and almost 60% of children under the age of 11 are considered poor. This poverty inhibits children from receiving the proper education, health services, and general care they need to develop both mentally and physically. By working with Global Volunteers and their partners Puericultorio Pérez Araníbar (PPA) and Municipality of Miraflores in Peru, this group contributed to efforts to improve language and socialization skills, educate on proper hygiene and nutrition habits, and repair/rebuild valuable facilities. The Director of the Center of Spirituality and Service, Alexander Levering Kern, served as the faculty/staff representative for this team.