GSE in the New Brunswick Community
As part of the inaugural round of the Community-University Research Partnership Grants for New Brunswick, two GSE programs were selected as recipients. The grant program is designed to promote community-based participatory research in the city through partnerships between members of the Rutgers community and New Brunswick community partners. Each project features at least one community partner who will be directly involved in the project.
The two proposals were from Dr. Alissa Lange, Assistant Research Professor of the National Institute of Early Education Research (NIEER), and Dr. Mary Curran, Language Education Program Coordinator at the GSE.
Dr. Curran’s project, Empowering Parents through SALSA: A Community-based Service Learning and Research Partnership highlights SALSA (Students Advancing Literary Skills in Adults), a service learning and research initiative that will provide Rutgers students as trained English language conversation partners to ESL immigrant youth and their parents in New Brunswick. The SALSA Project was designed and is being implemented by the Civic Engagement and Service Education Partnership, under the guidance of Amy Michael, Senior Program Administrator. In partnership with Youth Empowerment Services (YES), the project will help community members improve their English proficiency and knowledge about U.S. culture. The results will include an evaluation of the impact of the conversations with both Rutgers students and the community participants. In addition, the production of a parent guide is planned. Learn more by contacting Dr. Curran at mary.curran@gse.rutgers.edu.
Dr.Lange’s project, Math and Science Story Time Series: Bringing Math and Science to Life through Reading and Art for Preschoolers in a Community-based Setting, is designed as a collaboration between the New Brunswick Free Public Library (NBFPL) and Rutgers National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER.) This will involve the design and implementation of a Math and Science Story Time Series for young children ages 3-6 years who speak English or Spanish. The program will use engaging, integrative, community-based learning approaches to increase access to math and science for educationally at-risk youngsters. The program will also increase community awareness of and participation in NBFPL programs for young children, enhance the library’s existing resources for use beyond the scope of the project, and provide NIEER with knowledge about effective transfer of resources and practices from school-based to community-based settings. Learn more by contacting Dr. Lange at alange@nieer.org.
The complete list of 2012 Grant Recipients can be found here.