August 01, 2008
One Will Provide Support to At-Risk
Youth, the Second Will Empower First-Year Students
St. John’s University recently secured two competitive grants,
each of which in its own way supports the University’s Vincentian
mission which calls for providing quality education to all,
especially those who lack economic, physical or social advantages
and encouraging solutions to poverty that are effective, adaptable
and concrete.
The first, a highly competitive 21st Century
Community Learning Centers grant from the New York State
Education Department, will provide $575,638 per year for five
years, a total of $2,878,190. The garnering of such a prestigious
and competitive grant as the 21st Century exemplifies St. John’s
dedication to serving disadvantaged people located within their own
neighborhood.
“Obtaining the 21st Century grant was a collaborative effort
between St. John’s and the After-School All Stars—they played a key
role in this proposal,” commented Jared Littman, Director of St.
John’s Office of
Grants and Sponsored Research.
The collaboration is between St. John’s and the New York chapter of
After-School All Stars
(ASASNY), a nation-wide organization that provides after-school
programs and summer camps for at-risk youth. Their objective is to
provide children and teens with engaging learning opportunities
through one-on-one attention from adults, a positive model peer
group, and interesting activities that build self-esteem.
The recently awarded grant, coupled with a separate grant
awarded by the 21st Century Community Learning Centers program to
After-School All Stars, will go toward funding a new after-school
program created jointly by St. John’s and the After-School All
Stars in two middle schools, I.S. 192 and J.H.S. 217, located in
two of Queens’ most economically disadvantaged
neighborhoods.
Richard Sinatra, Ph.D., Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in
The School of Education, and Deborah Saldana, Ed.D., Associate
Professor in Early Childhood and Adolescent Education, will
co-direct the program, which will provide services for 500 students
and 200 parents in after-school activities as well as summer camp
at St. John’s Queens’ campus. Inclusion of services for the
children’s parents is a unique aspect of this program which will
devote several hours each week to program development and workshops
for parents.
“This is a wonderful opportunity to expand the programs we
already have for at-risk inner-city students by providing them with
a full 15 hours of after-school activities and educational
enrichment each week, and integrating some of these children into
our existing summer programs,” notes Dean Sinatra.
Littman said that when he called Alan Fields, Executive Director
of After-School All-Stars in New York City, to tell him that St.
John’s had secured the grant, “Alan Fields practically jumped
through the phone—he was so excited to carry out these
programs.”
“We’re ecstatic,” says Fields. “This grant is important because
it will allow us to extend the vision and mission of St. John’s,
which embodies service, to the schools in the community directly
outside campus.”
“Research has shown that for many children who are enrolled in
low-performing schools, high school is too late to get students
prepared for college,” explains Dr. Saldana “This program
will allow us to motivate students, help them prepare academically,
and provide opportunities for them to visit and participate in
activities on a college campus. It is our hope that these
experiences will help them select college as a postsecondary
choice.”
The gamut of after-school program offerings will include
scholastic academy, computer literacy, journalism, strategy games,
band, and chorus. Other services provided will be college awareness
and preparation, future careers information, and adult educational
workshops for parents.
Sober 24/7 Project Will Educate First-Year
Students
St. John’s
Department of Student Wellness also recently secured a
competitive grant, this one from the U.S. Department of
Education. The “Prevention of High-Risk Drinking & Violent
Behavior” grant will bring in $428,684 over the course of two years
and will be used to fund the 24/7 program, “Reducing High Risk
Drinking Among First-Year Students.”
Led by project investigator
Kathryn Hutchinson, Ph.D., Executive Director of Student
Wellness at St. John’s, the project’s aim is to use a layering
approach to education and prevention of high risk behavior in
first-year college students, while teaching the lifelong benefits
of controlling alcohol consumption.
Students will engage in an on-line prevention program
before they start their first semester at St. John's and then they
will be connected with prevention programming at various times
throughout their first semester on campus. The addition of
peer-educators is a component of the program that distinguishes it
from others around the country. Peer-educators will work with
professors to develop media materials for the campaign.
“I’m excited about the huge opportunities the grant provides to
boost prevention efforts across campus and throughout the St.
John’s neighboring communities. The layering approach to prevention
and the peer-created media campaign are the hallmark components of
this program,” comments Dr. Hutchinson.
24/7 will also involve parents of incoming students and faculty
who teach first-year students. Parents will have the
opportunity to participate in the same on-line alcohol education
and prevention program in which their first-year student in
required to participate. Parents are also provided with
talking points to help facilitate open discussion with their child
about alcohol use.
This is not the Student Wellness Director’s first foray into
educating students at St. John’s about the risks involved with
alcohol consumption. In 2006, she worked with 57 St. John’s
students and six professors in a semester-long, co-curricular
project to create a multimedia advertising campaign intended to
combat the growing problem of underage drinking. The campaign they
developed, which used the slogan “Sober 24/7,” was entered into a
state-wide contest sponsored by the Office of Alcoholism and
Substance Abuse Services (OASAS) and the group subsequently
received two Citation awards for their work.
Process Is Facilitated by Grants and
Research Office
The Office of Grants and Sponsored Research in St John’s
collaborates extensively with various departments on campus to
write, package and, when awarded, administer these grants. They
both locate appropriate grant opportunities for which faculty
members might apply, or they respond to grant suggestions that
project directors and faculty bring to them.
Littman believes their recent success is two-fold: the actual
program proposals were outstanding and his office followed all
agencies’ instructions, guidelines, and regulations, so the grant
proposals were flawless when submitted.
“These awards were very competitive,” explains Littman. “They
will enable St. John’s to carry out its mission of providing
support to the underprivileged with the 21st Century grant. The
24/7 campaign will allow St. John’s to promote and empower diverse
learners with quality education. And St. John’s will implement
these programs with grace, care, energy and enthusiasm, as
always.”