Faces of Community-Engaged Scholarship

Faces of Community-Engaged Scholarship: Amanda Giguere

Arielle Wiedenbeck — Thu, 17 Jul 2025 19:03:54 +0000

Faces of Community-Engaged Scholarship: Amanda Giguere Arielle Wiedenbeck Thu, 07/17/2025 - 13:03

Gretchen Minekime

“This is not the time for siloed knowledge, and experts agree that violence is a complicated issue that will require innovative and collaborative solutions. How can violence-prevention researchers harness knowledge from other disciplines to translate research into practice, and how can we bridge the gap between research and the daily lives of real people? Enter Shakespeare.” ~Amanda Giguere, Shakespeare & Violence Prevention: A Practical Handbook for Educators

Amanda Giguere is a pioneer or, at least, the leader of a team of pioneers. Giguere is the director of outreach for the Colorado Shakespeare Festival (CSF) and the founder of the Shakespeare and Violence Prevention Program. Since 2011, she and her colleagues at CSF, ɫ��ֱ��’s Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence (CSPV), and other community partners in the violence prevention field have adapted and staged Shakespeare’s plays to see how the content and approaches can reinforce violence-prevention skills in K-12 students. To date, the program has reached nearly 140,000 students in 30 counties and more than 300 schools across Colorado, garnering national attention.

Giguere just published Shakespeare & Violence Prevention: A Practical Handbook for Educators to help educators everywhere apply the lessons of the world’s most famous bard.

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The first play CSF adapted for this violence prevention program was Twelfth Night. What sparked your initial idea to incorporate an anti-bullying message into the play?

As someone who works with Shakespeare, I am always thinking about how the plays resonate with the present moment. Tim Orr, CSF’s current producing artistic director, and I wanted to produce Twelfth Night in K-12 schools because that title was slated to appear in CSF’s upcoming mainstage season. This was 2011, and we were hearing a lot in the news about bullying. It was becoming a prevalent issue. There was even a new term coined for suicide deaths caused by bullying: “bullycide.”

In the play, the character Malvolio spoke to the present moment [2011]. This character is the target of a prank that escalates over the course of the play. His last line of the play is “I’ll be revenged on the whole pack of you.” The play’s scenario reminded us of present-day issues with cyberbullying. Malvolio’s story unlocked a connection to the present.

While we started this as an anti-bullying project, we’ve learned that Shakespeare’s plays invite engaging conversations about violence overall.

What research and evidence did you incorporate in Twelfth Night? What led to adapting more plays?

Research about the power and effectiveness of upstander behavior to address harm gave us an entry point to the plays. Shakespeare’s plays would be very different if the characters operated in a culture where upstander behavior was normalized and respected.

A 2001 study found that 57% of the time, bullying stops in 10 seconds or less if someone acts as an upstander (someone who takes action to protect others). There’s no one way to be an upstander, but if witnesses choose to take action, it’s often really effective. When bullying occurs, young people are usually more aware of it than adults are. Students can practice their own upstander strategies before they need to use them in real life.

When we first staged Much Ado About Nothing in 2014, our CSPV colleagues were concerned about the plotline of spreading a rumor that someone had died. We didn’t know how depicting a rumor of someone dying would impact young audiences. Would there be any chance that depicting the behavior could encourage the idea? So, we changed the play to “Hero has fled” rather than “Hero is dead.” That was 2014. In 2019, when staging Romeo and Juliet, we worked with the Colorado Office of Suicide Prevention and learned that the research had shifted. We know now that talking about suicide, for example, does not plant the idea in someone’s brain. The latest recommendation is that it’s important to ask someone directly if they are having thoughts of suicide. That’s an example of research evolving and, therefore, our approach.

Every time we produce a play we start from scratch, look at what has shifted in the world, and what has shifted in the research. The second time we adapted Julius Caesar was right after the January 6 attack at the U.S. Capitol. So, a play about a planned attack at the capitol resonated differently.

In response to data that show youth are struggling with mental health needs, we’re currently adapting Hamlet and analyzing the mental health themes in the play. The 2023 Healthy Kids Colorado survey revealed that 28% of youth reported poor mental health most of the time or all of the time during the past month.

It’s neat to see how these plays written more than 400 years ago can bring the latest research to life.

How many students has Shakespeare & Violence Prevention reached, in how many schools, and in what areas of Colorado?

Since 2011, the program has worked with schools in 30 of Colorado’s 64 counties and reached 139,919 students from 315 schools. I should shout out to my colleague at CSF, Dr. Heidi Schmidt, for developing the processes we use to keep track of these statistics!

How do you know this program is making a difference?

With our very first Office for Public and Community-Engaged Scholarship grant in 2011, we set up four or five weeks of touring, and it booked up quickly, which suggests there was demand for this kind of arts programming that addressed schools’ needs. After that initial 2011 tour, we repeated the tour due to continuing demand. Then, at the 2012 annual conference of the Shakespeare Theatre Association, we gave a presentation about our anti-bullying approach to Twelfth Night. Colleagues were intrigued about the connection between Shakespeare and violence.

We kept exploring more titles and realized Shakespeare’s plays have so many overlaps with the violence-prevention field. Since that initial production, we have adapted nine Shakespeare plays for the violence prevention program. The upcoming Hamlet will be our 10th.

When our actors visit schools, audiences are surprised by how fun and accessible Shakespeare can be. Teachers tell us that students who are not very engaged otherwise are surprisingly so during our visits. This program is also the first time many students see a play. Teachers and administrators frequently express appreciation for how our work aligns with and reinforces the school’s existing work. My favorite anecdotes are from teachers who report hearing the characters and the stories sneaking into students’ everyday language with one another. An elementary school teacher recently reported overhearing a student on the playground say: “Hey, remember Malvolio.”

The arts offer a powerful kind of learning. I think the idea of taking a play and seasoned professional actors and letting kids watch them work, in and of itself, is highly engaging. I believe any exposure to live theatre is violence prevention because you’re practicing empathy, thinking about the world from other perspectives, and you’re physically around other people.

The most important question we ask after workshops is whether students are likely to act as an upstander the next time they witness mistreatment, and historically, between 85-90% of students say yes.

My hope for this project is that we’ll be able to eventually stop doing it because we have a world of upstanders, and it will no longer be necessary.

Why your book and why now?

The program had been running for about seven years, and we were all excited by how effective the work is. I knew we were onto something here in Colorado—reaching 6,000-10,000 students per year with our in-person performances and workshops. But I wondered how we could reach beyond where our little van could travel. How else could we empower more people to integrate violence prevention into a theatre or language arts curriculum?

CSF, as part of ɫ��ֱ��, has an amazing connection to world-class research. Not every theatre company has a violence prevention research center right next door! Plus, it’s CSPV’s goal to get the research into as many hands as possible. So, I started writing the book in 2018, with a goal of sharing this work more widely and getting this kind of applied Shakespeare into classrooms everywhere.

Although it is written for educators, the content is approachable for a wide readership, regardless of whether you’re a classroom teacher or someone with an interest in Shakespeare.

Really, the book offers a model for how we can consume a lot of different art forms through a violence prevention lens.

How has working in partnership with communities flavored your work?

Over the years, we’ve learned to leave more room for participants’ voices and solutions during workshops in K-12 classrooms. Our actors are trained to facilitate activities, rather than teach any predetermined outcomes. Their job is to get curious about the existing wisdom in each classroom they visit. They ask questions and use students’ ideas to reframe scenarios from the plays, inviting students to step in with their own strategies as upstanders.

Dr. Beverly Kingston, director of CSPV, says that we have a lot of scientific information about violence and preventing violence, but that information alone will not get us there. We need human connection and human stories. The actors who work on this project show up in schools, perform plays that depict a wide range of emotions and experiences, and then they work directly with students to talk about what they saw in the play. When people can authentically connect with others, slow down, and have a discussion about violence in our world, this builds really healthy connections and promotes social and emotional skills. Working with Shakespeare’s plays reminds us about what it means to be human—and this kind of community engagement helps us recognize our shared humanity.

Why do you think community-engaged scholarship is important for this campus?

From my perspective in the theatre world, it’s an important way to expose young people to the arts. The arts are the balm to the soul. Our actors performed in a rural community this past spring, and many of the kids had never seen a play. Afterwards, a student who had not been participating much in the post-show activities approached an actor and said: “That was the best day of my life.”

We truly never know what's going to stick with a kid. It's easy to forget we’re in this bubble on campus where, of course, we value learning and research and the arts and the sciences and the humanities. But, that’s not a given everywhere.

I see this type of work as a pipeline and a way of building excitement about higher education and meaningful work. It’s exposure to ɫ��ֱ�� for many young people and an important reminder for our staff, students, and faculty that we are not alone in our research and creative work. Through community engagement, we are building the next generation of scholars, artists, teachers, and citizens.

What’s next for you?

I’ll be speaking about and signing the book at ɫ��ֱ�� Bookstore on July 29. And in the fall, I’ll teach an online course for CU’s Applied Shakespeare program (Teaching Shakespeare), oversee the school touring productions of Hamlet and The Tempest, and I’ll visit Australia to speak about the Shakespeare & Violence Prevention Program at the University of Melbourne. But in the meantime, we are in the midst of the CSF summer season (two beautiful productions of The Tempest and Richard II now open—everyone on campus should see them!)

Amanda Giguere is the director of outreach for the Colorado Shakespeare Festival (CSF) and the founder of the Shakespeare and Violence Prevention Program. Since 2011, she and her colleagues and other community partners in the violence prevention field have adapted and staged Shakespeare’s plays to see how the content and approaches can reinforce violence-prevention skills in K-12 students.

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Faces of Community-Engaged Scholarship: Caroline Frischmon

Arielle Wiedenbeck — Mon, 23 Jun 2025 17:51:11 +0000

Faces of Community-Engaged Scholarship: Caroline Frischmon Arielle Wiedenbeck Mon, 06/23/2025 - 11:51

Gretchen Minekime

Caroline Frischmon came to ɫ��ֱ�� to get out of the lab. After studying bioproducts engineering, interning with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and writing for a science communications lab, PhD candidate Frischmon sought to combine her engineering and science communication background through ɫ��ֱ��’s Hannigan Air Quality and Technology Research Lab (HAQLab), which is known for its community-engaged research.

How does community-engaged research fit into your goals?

I think all air monitoring research should be with the goal of helping people breathe cleaner air. Some of that must happen in the lab. And there’s lots of work to be done to get the lab developments into communities.

I really like bringing technology into communities because it’s powerful to give people access. Industry groups and the government have had access for a long time, and the air quality narrative has centered around what data those entities collect. When only one group has access, it’s a very lopsided story. Now, communities can learn and tell their own stories using data. Data talks both ways, and there’s not one truth when collecting data. I’m interested in exploring what communities can do with the data they collect. I want to support their advocacy. It’s really motivating.

Even now, when funding is questionable, I have seen how expertise can go a long way by answering questions and supporting communities with their concerns.

How did you get involved in research in Mississippi?

The American Geophysical Union has a program called Thriving Earth Exchange, and it pairs residents with researchers. I was paired with Katharine Duderstadt from the University of New Hampshire to assist a neighborhood group in Pascagoula, Mississippi. Cherokee Concerned Citizens wanted assistance looking at pre-collected data about their Cherokee Forest neighborhood, which has 110 homes. We all worked together for about a year before I applied for a Tier 2 grant from the Office for Public and Community-Engaged Scholarship (PACES) to continue the work.

What was the scope of the work you completed with the PACES grant?

We set up air monitors (HAQ pods from the HAQLab) in the Cherokee neighborhood and across town for comparison and measured air quality from February 2024 to April 2024. We found frequent and intense episodes of pollution coming on the wind from the industrial area, which includes a Chevron Refinery, a ship building yard, superfund sites, a gas processing plant, and more.

During the same period, seven Cherokee Forest households, recruited by Cherokee Concerned Citizens, recorded symptoms and odors. One particularly intense night, multiple households reported vomiting and nausea at the same time as when pollution spiked in the neighborhood. That pollution wasn’t recorded across town in the other neighborhood further from the industries.

When my colleague and I were there setting up the monitoring equipment, I experienced odors and itchy skin, and she also had irritated eyes.

Most of the involved residents are toward retirement age or older, but there are some young families, and kids were involved in the heavy metal sampling.

In addition, a small group of people maintained the air monitors and downloaded data.

Once we completed our data analysis, Katharine and I returned to share initial findings and get input from the broader community. This happened over a couple of dinners with 15 or so people. Members of Cherokee Concerned Citizens hosted at their homes and guided the discussions. Thoughts from these community discussions were included in the study published March 2025, which was co-authored by Katharine, three community residents, and me.

What’s the status of the project now?

This community has been organizing for a decade-plus, but the pilot study was one of the first times when everything they’ve reported and been feeling was directly linked to pollution data. This was powerful in validating them, and it showed that all the previous times they had been told they were wrong, that they were probably right.

I received an EPA grant that set us up to continue with a multi-year study, but this spring the grant was canceled, with a reason given of “administrative priorities have changed.”

The cancellation is heartbreaking all around. Our initial study did a great job of highlighting air pollution in Cherokee Forest, but it was only pilot scale and didn’t give details about pollution concentrations. So, the EPA study would have allowed for deeper detail, as well as expanded the work in Louisiana.

It’s hard to leave behind these communities who don’t have many allies right now. And this study was going to be my post-doc work. I’m not sure now what I’ll do after December.

I’m doing my best to keep the relationships and support where I can. For example, I’m helping Cherokee Concerned Citizens interpret data collected by the state. But there’s only so much that Katharine and I can do without funding for the citizen science aspect and for equipment.

I would love to highlight how much ɫ��ֱ�� made this project possible. The PACES grant funded the pilot study. The Department of Information Science's Community-based Design course helped me write the proposal for the PACES grant. The Graduate Fellowship in Community-Based Research supported me as I conducted the study. There are a lot of amazing resources to support grad students with community-based research.

What did you learn about research using a community-engaged model?

This was my first time working closely with a community to design and conduct research. It was fun to learn how to collaborate. There were all good intentions but also really different approaches.

The relationships we built started a year before the pilot study. That foundation helped when we ran into technical difficulties, communication challenges and red tape. The trust was there. Community members commented about how different it was working with our team because of our commitment and time given. In the past, other researchers hadn’t taken the time to build relationships or stick around. I’m still meeting with them every other week or so to see how I can continue to provide support. The pilot study also sparked interest from more Cherokee Forest households.

An article in Mississippi Today led to another community group reaching out to me for help. I hope to help however I can.

People can specifically describe their experiences, but they don't always have the data or scientific language to communicate with state regulators. Lots of communities are facing these issues, and researchers can help make that difference.

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Hannah Brenkert-Smith Part of Team Receiving the 2024 Governor’s Pathfinding Partnerships Award

Arielle Wiedenbeck — Fri, 18 Oct 2024 21:06:25 +0000

Hannah Brenkert-Smith Part of Team Receiving the 2024 Governor’s Pathfinding Partnerships Award Arielle Wiedenbeck Fri, 10/18/2024 - 15:06

Gretchen Minekime

Associate Research Professor Hannah Brenkert-Smith, Institute of Behavioral Science, is a member of the Wildfire Research (WiRē) Team that will receive the Pathfinding Partnerships Award through the 2024 Governor’s Awards for High Impact Research on Nov. 20.

The award honors research that engages four or more distinct research entities in Colorado whose results leverage the resources and strengths among partnering organizations—and demonstrate the power of collaboration. Brenkert-Smith received a Public and Community-Engaged Scholarship Grant to support WiRē’s work in Chaffee and Lake Counties.

WiRē collaborates with local wildfire education practitioners to develop evidence-based community wildfire education programs at the invitation of local communities. Social science and community-engagement practices make it possible to tailor information for communities.

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Jota Samper Receives Award for Excellence in Engaged Scholarship

Arielle Wiedenbeck — Fri, 18 Oct 2024 21:01:06 +0000

Jota Samper Receives Award for Excellence in Engaged Scholarship Arielle Wiedenbeck Fri, 10/18/2024 - 15:01

Gretchen Minekime

Associate Professor Jota Samper, Program in Environmental Design, is the 2024 recipient of the Excellence in Faculty Community Engagement Award from the Engagement Scholarship Consortium (ESC). This national award is one of the most prestigious of its kind.

Samper’s research concentrates on sustainable urban growth, focusing on the intersection between urban informality and violent conflict. ɫ��ֱ��’s Office for Public and Community-Engaged Scholarship nominated Samper for 15 years of connecting his scholarship and study abroad programs (at ɫ��ֱ��, Duke University, Emerson College and MIT) with multiple unplanned settlements near Medellin, Colombia. Violence prompted Medellin residents to flee and set up informal dwellings outside the city limits.

Settlements in the region face issues such as landslides and access to potable water, healthcare, public spaces and education. Samper’s Colombian Displaced Communities: Planning and Urban Design Seminar students collaborate with residents to create community development plans and infrastructure designs and help build physical interventions. Communities decide which ideas make it to the building phase. Examples include a rain collection system, paving roads, reconditioning a community kitchen that serves more than 200 youth, and building sewers and potable water lines.

The seventh to win the faculty award nationally and the first from ɫ��ֱ��, Samper joined other Awards for Excellence in Engaged Scholarship recipients in Portland, Oregon, on Oct. 10 at the annual ESC conference.

The grant selection committee for public and community-engaged scholarship has funded Samper’s work eight times since 2018.

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Jota Samper receives his award

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Faces of Public and Community-Engaged Scholarship: Associate Professor Leah Sprain

Arielle Wiedenbeck — Thu, 28 Sep 2023 19:31:42 +0000

Faces of Public and Community-Engaged Scholarship: Associate Professor Leah Sprain Arielle Wiedenbeck Thu, 09/28/2023 - 13:31

Gretchen Minekime

Associate Professor Leah Sprain, Communication, College of Media, Communication and Information

Associate Professor Leah Sprain’s work embraces the idea that the communication discipline is a practical discipline and that community partnerships are key components to doing scholarship well. She also believes partnerships with communities outside the university can be high-impact ways for professors to get satisfaction from their work. For these reasons—and more—it makes perfect sense that Sprain is embarking on her second year as a fellow in the Higher Education and Democracy Initiative.

Tell us about being a Higher Education and Democracy Fellow.

I was born and raised in Colorado. Much of my sense of the Western Slope was shaped by opportunities to recreate there. So, I’ve appreciated the opportunity to learn different nuances about a part of the state that I was familiar with in only one sense of the word, to have a sense of the things important to community life and changing dynamics.

I’ve also appreciated the structure of the fellows program because it enables developing relationships, trying things out to see what works and taking time to establish real trust.

What’s an example of a public and community-engaged project you have going, and how is it advancing your scholarly work?

On the Western Slope, the League of Women Voters—Mesa County wanted to ask better questions at their candidate forums. I was able to study past meetings (through transcripts) and provide recommendations based on the types of situations encountered. For example: How do you get people to speak beyond their talking points? How do you ask challenging questions that do not seem to have a partisan bias? When follow-up questions are not part of the format, how do you ask questions that help audiences recognize when a candidate evades the question?

This is part of what’s exciting about community-based work. I’m considering questions like “What counts as a non-partisan question in an age when democracy is under threat?” because the League was asking. It’s connected to bigger stakes and sparks research ideas.

Why is public and community-engaged scholarship important for ɫ��ֱ��?

CU has an important place in the public’s imagination in CO, but sometimes it’s about things we don’t want to be known for. I want us to be seen as a public resource—to students and people of the state. The university is an entertaining place for sports, music and theater, but there are also dynamic relationships of research, thinking, inquiry and knowledge that the university represents and is connecting to the needs of the people of CO.

We face so many interconnected crises, and I want ɫ��ֱ�� to be part of how we respond and move forward.

What would you say to fellow faculty members about incorporating public and community-engaged scholarship into their activities?

I have many colleagues who see their classrooms as important places where they’re working out the type of world they want to be in. Yes, students are a vital part of that, but creating projects that can be capacity-building for everyone, and the way community members can amplify scholarly instincts and connect scholars to the people already doing the work, is valuable. We’re [scholars] investing in big systems and institutions, but engaging with the people inside them helps us understand practical limitations and opportunities.

Like many professions, faculty memberscan feel like we’re asked to do too much with too few resources. Public partnerships can feel like extra. The only way we get out of that trap is to talk about and model synergies between public and community-engaged scholarship and reward so it won’t feel just like extra. I’m excited to be part of a program that supports the work and shows that it’s valued. And, that allows for professional satisfaction.

The ɫ��ֱ�� Office for Outreach and Engagement facilitates mutually beneficial partnerships between communities and scholars who seek to advance their work in community settings. Faces of Community-Engaged Scholarship highlights the stories of ɫ��ֱ�� faculty, staff, students and public partners conducting the work and what they’re accomplishing together. See more Faces of Community-Engaged Scholarship stories and learn about what the Office for Outreach and Engagement offers.

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Scholars and Leaders from CU Campuses Gather to Discuss University’s Public and Community-Engaged Scholarship

Arielle Wiedenbeck — Wed, 30 Aug 2023 21:37:42 +0000

Scholars and Leaders from CU Campuses Gather to Discuss University’s Public and Community-Engaged Scholarship Arielle Wiedenbeck Wed, 08/30/2023 - 15:37

Gretchen Minekime

Whether it’s addressing workforce development needs, providing data on air and water quality, or supporting future physicians with placements at regional health education centers, the University of Colorado actively partners with communities to address the issues facing our state.

In recent years, the Board of Regents and President Saliman have made strengthening connections around Colorado a top CU System priority. Against this backdrop, representatives from all four campuses gathered last April to discuss the University of Colorado’s public and community-engaged scholarship efforts. The ɫ��ֱ�� campus’s Office for Outreach and Engagement organized and hosted the April gathering. The presidents of two influential national organizations with a focus on public and community-engaged scholarship (Engagement Scholarship Consortium [ESC] and Campus Compact) supported the summit, providing opening remarks and facilitation services; ESC also provided fiscal sponsorship through a grant.

Building partnerships with communities and harnessing the University of Colorado’s academic resources to address public issues has been an institutional priority since at least 1912 when leaders created University Extension to reach beyond the campus. A quote from the department’s first director, Loran D. Osborn, rings as true today as it did then.

“Only a fortunate few have the privilege of being in residence at the University of Colorado…Its expert resources are too valuable an asset to the state to be thus limited. They should be at the disposal of individuals who cannot come within the college walls, and communities which are seeking information and guidance in solution of the complex problems of modern life.”

Extension efforts eventually grew into the University of Colorado system, which was established in the early 1970s. Over the years, each of the system’s four campuses has built a reputation based on its unique attributes. By no means is the reach of each campus limited to its immediate geographic area, nor can any of the campuses alone address the complex needs facing Colorado communities. Participants who attended the April 21 summit shared their perspectives about potential gains from more coordination and related obstacles. They explored issues pertaining to communications, financial and human resources, data, and approaches with community partnerships.

Those gathered included campus-level administrators of research and faculty development, several chairs, deans, and program directors, and a small number of faculty and staff practitioners. Together, the group explored ways that coordinated and collaborative efforts would reduce redundancies and increase efficiencies, while increasing opportunities for more profound community impact and authentically building the university’s standing with diverse constituencies throughout Colorado.

They also identified challenges related to decentralization, inadequate resources, messaging and political will. Many participants emphasized, however, that an aligned approach would not need to be at odds with each campus’s distinct characteristics and offerings. Instead, leveraging the best from each campus in a more coordinated approach to partnering with the residents of Colorado could reinforce the unique character of each while achieving greater collective impact.

“A major part of the mission of CU is to serve the State of Colorado. Community-engaged scholarship is an important way that we do that,” said Lynn Vidler, professor and dean of the College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, University of Colorado Colorado Springs. “The summit facilitated connections between faculty at the different campuses who are engaged in this work and highlighted for CU System leaders the impact they are making. I was truly inspired by the mission-focused work everyone is doing.”

Participants’ exploratory efforts regarding a more coordinated approach to public and community-engaged scholarship will complement the CU system Office of Outreach and Engagement’s work, especially the group known as the Strategic Colorado Outreach and Engagement (SCOrE) team convened by Vice President Tony Salazar. SCOrE is the coordinating body for the university’s outreach activities and comprises representatives from all four campuses.

According to Salazar, “The incredible service that CU provides to Colorado communities has been and will continue to be driven by the work of the faculty, staff and students on our campuses. At System, we seek to help coordinate and publicize engagement statewide for even greater impact.”

In response to one proposal that emerged from April 21 summit participants, System will be covering membership costs for all four campuses to join Campus Compact for one year. A leading national organization supporting public engagement in higher education since its creation in 1985, Campus Compact membership will unlock access to a number of opportunities and resources. The organization’s national conference will be held in Denver April 7-10, 2024.

More than one hundred years after Osborn encouraged the University of Colorado to extend its resources beyond campus borders, the problems of modern life continue to increase in complexity. The university can still play a unique and transformational role. As Colorado’s first and largest university system, it is the University of Colorado’s responsibility to offer its best to the residents and communities of this state.

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Empowering Native American Communities: Kayla Toledo’s Journey with RCWS Ignacio

Arielle Wiedenbeck — Thu, 06 Jul 2023 21:48:18 +0000

Empowering Native American Communities: Kayla Toledo’s Journey with RCWS Ignacio Arielle Wiedenbeck Thu, 07/06/2023 - 15:48

Kayla Toledo, a member of the Jemez Indian Tribe located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, has been caring for children her whole life. Since the age of 12, Kayla has played a huge role in raising her family's children and caring for the “little ones” during the summer, some as young as six months old. With six siblings and countless cousins, Kayla has worked long hours contributing to their upbringing. Her story is one of many for people in her community, as childcare options are sparse. That’s why Kayla was first inspired to create change in the Native American childcare space and pioneer an initiative to bring daycare centers to Native American families where they can learn and be educated on their culture.

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Faces of Community-Engaged Scholarship: Professor Shelly L. Miller

Arielle Wiedenbeck — Wed, 26 Apr 2023 22:11:09 +0000

Faces of Community-Engaged Scholarship: Professor Shelly L. Miller Arielle Wiedenbeck Wed, 04/26/2023 - 16:11

Gretchen Minekime

Professor Shelly L. Miller, Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering and Applied Science

Professor Shelly L. Miller is a problem solver and an air pollution engineer. She finds reward and value when solving issues with immediate benefits, such as improved public health. Doing her work through a community partnership model is a match made in heaven.

How did you start working in public and community-engaged scholarship, and what motivates you to prioritize it?

My interest came about in the early 2000s when I joined CU Denver colleagues to work in Commerce City on a HUD-funded project. That was my first community-engaged work. We went into 100 homes to set up monitoring stations, created questionnaires and interviewed community members. My CU Denver colleagues were experienced in a public setting, whereas I had previously only been in the lab.

Afterward, I started working more with citizen scientists and community members because, to make an impact, I need to work in communities to determine their number one concern and how we can address it. I’m dedicated to problem solving for urban air pollution because I care about people’s health, and air pollution increases illness and death. I need to engage in order to help.

What have you learned about this model of working?

I appreciate multi-disciplinary teams, and I like that environment. Currently, I’m working with a sociologist and computer scientist, and I’m the environment person. It’s a great team because the social science team is incredibly skilled in working with communities. It takes time and extra asks, and participants want and deserve something in return. Previously, I worked with a geographer who can really work with large data sets and geographical differences between communities and those influences on working with communities.

I’ve also learned that I have to be comfortable with variability in data collection. I have to be able to say I can’t answer some of the technical questions because I'm working with citizen scientists in less controlled environments.

I see two things over and over again when visiting communities. Few people realize they should use a carbon monoxide detector at home. The second thing is that people don’t have ducted stove hoods, or they don’t use them. No matter the type of stove, we should always vent when cooking. Cooking foods release volatile compounds and airborne particles. If your vent isn’t ducted, open your windows or move an air cleaner into your kitchen. Air pollutants move around the house rapidly.

What current projects are you involved in?

The project I mentioned before, with my sociology and computer science colleagues, is an NSF project called Social Justice and Environmental Air Quality (SJEQ-D). We’re working in Denver communities next to an I-70 construction project to see how the construction has affected air quality and health. We hope to conduct the same study in other locations such as Pueblo and Colorado Springs.

Two years ago, the Office for Outreach and Engagement funded a project about pesticide exposure. I don’t have much expertise in this area, but my colleague had wristband samplers. We found interesting results in the City of ɫ��ֱ��, and the city has funded us to repeat the study this spring.

I’m advising two projects out of California related to exposures from wildfires. With one, we ran into issues for lower-income communities who often don’t have AC, so they use open windows. In response, my colleagues are developing a swamp cooler with air filtration abilities. The other project is assessing elder communities and whether wildfire exposure increases aging markers and health issues.

Why is public and community-engaged scholarship important for ɫ��ֱ��?

It’s one of my favorite parts of ɫ��ֱ��. What else are we here for? We’re here to develop future leaders, community members and engineers, but at the same time, we also need to actively support our communities right now.

Training an engineer is four years of education, but along the way, they can engage in helping communities. And at CU, we do this across all disciplines. It makes Colorado a better place and connects CU to our citizens in a grounded way. They meet us and can see the institution’s value.

What would you say to fellow faculty members about incorporating public and community-engaged scholarship?

I guess I would say that you won't know how great it is or if you’ll enjoy it until you’ve tried it. The barrier isn’t that high. The outreach program is welcoming of kinds of ideas and funds lots of work. I encourage people just to try it. They might find it incredibly rewarding.

Read about PhD student Aniya Khalili, one of Miller’s mentees, and the projects underway in their lab.

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Faces of Community-Engaged Scholarship: Brenda Aguirre-Ortega

Arielle Wiedenbeck — Wed, 22 Feb 2023 23:32:50 +0000

Faces of Community-Engaged Scholarship: Brenda Aguirre-Ortega Arielle Wiedenbeck Wed, 02/22/2023 - 16:32

Gretchen Minekime

What do a chemical engineer, a singer-songwriter, a translator and a math teacher have in common?

Brenda Aguirre-Ortega, PhD student in the School of Education (STEM) and Engaged Arts and Humanities Scholar

Aguirre-Ortega uses her impressive combination of interests and experiences to co-construct and co-facilitate a music production workshop for 4^th and 5^th graders to learn about music composition and math—one subject through the other.

She is February’s Face of Community-Engaged Scholarship.

How did community-engaged scholarship become part of your academic path?

When I started my PhD, I had the thought that I wanted to study and become an expert in math education to make a meaningful contribution to my community. My advisor sent me the Engaged Arts and Humanities Graduate Student Scholars (EAH) application, and it resonated with me. At first, I only knew that I wanted to create a project in a school and that it would have something to do with music production. The idea became more tangible when I started sharing it with the EAH cohort. We were all beginning projects, and we helped each other develop ideas. At the same time, I was learning in my classes about the role of culture as a mediator of educational practices that are sensitive to inclusion and diversity. I decided to incorporate music, math, Spanish, and cultural practices into my project, and then I got connected to ɫ��ֱ�� Valley School District’s Columbine Elementary School.

What plan developed from the ideating?

When I reached out to the principal and vice principal of Columbine with my idea of a music production workshop for Latinx students, they asked me to offer it in Spanish. They emphasized the importance of providing an after-school program in Spanish. They connected me with the school’s Family Outreach Coordinator, and she identified 10 4^th and 5^thgraders interested in music and songwriting. At ɫ��ֱ��, we made a team with two undergraduates and one graduate student with whom we developed the curriculum and had sessions to plan lessons.

In the fall of 2022, we started the after-school program and met once per week for eight weeks. We learned to use Soundtrap, a recording app from Google. We also learned about music production, lyric writing, MIDI keyboards, improvisation, sampling, artwork to represent the songs, and more. Most students wrote one song and some multiple songs. Everything culminated in a final presentation of their work and our group song. Parents and siblings came, and the children had the opportunity to share their music production journey, sources of inspiration and overall process.

That first iteration of the workshop didn’t have a lot of direct connections to math. The second iteration (taking place April-May 2023) will have more, and by the third iteration, I intend to have explicit math problems incorporated using Soundtrap.

For the second iteration, there are five undergrads learning to use Soundtrap and co-planning lessons. am. Two are education majors; one is a music education major, another is an international business major, and the fifth has a minor in Spanish and a major in physiology. All identify as Latinx and are heritage Spanish speakers. During our first meeting, they shared their goals of connecting with children through music. I believe it is important to share spaces with people that make us feel represented, and I think that the elementary students see themselves reflected in the undergraduate facilitators. .

What influence has the work had on you professionally and personally?

The project is helping me develop new identities (e.g., leader, community-engaged practitioner), and I am building my confidence and skills.

I want to be a teacher educator. Having the opportunity to work closely with the undergraduate instructors—developing learning spaces for them and then moving our work together to a different learning space for the elementary students—is allowing me to develop tools.

One of my biggest goals to emerge is that I want to do research within the workshop and with the participating undergraduates. We all meet regularly to prepare and rehearse for the elementary school sessions. So, research potentially about the collaborative process of building curriculum that draws on cultural practices and the facilitation of spaces that are culturally sustaining. I would like to do research that is participatory, ethical and inclusive. This project has given me a start learning how to do those things.

This is the first time I’ve led a music project with children. During the fall series, I felt like I was learning new ways of structuring a space where students have guidelines but also the freedom to explore and have agency over their learning. Learning from children in such a space has been rewarding. The things they say, their wise words, the way they are—I’m just so grateful to see them express themselves.

On a personal level, I find the school beautiful. There’s kids’ work on the walls, a big playground and a soccer field. The front desk people and the teachers are all bilingual, and they speak with us in Spanish. I identify as Latina, which is not an identification I need in my native Ecuador, but here I need it. Although the words Latina and Latinx are used to include people from or with roots in Latin America, I am aware that my experience in the U.S. is different from the experiences of the undergraduate students and the elementary students, as they have a transnational identity that I don’t.

What’s been your biggest lesson?

It is possible to work collectively towards a goal and to co-create and co-facilitate. I don’t need to do it all. Just how powerful groups of people working together can be. I wasn’t used to group work. It can be messy, but it’s OK.

Applications are being accepted through March 8 for the 2023-24 Engaged Arts and Humanities Graduate Student Scholars. Learn more.

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Join the Journey to Inclusive Cultures Workshop

Arielle Wiedenbeck — Mon, 23 Jan 2023 23:49:16 +0000

Join the Journey to Inclusive Cultures Workshop Arielle Wiedenbeck Mon, 01/23/2023 - 16:49

Gretchen Minekime

Encountering differences with other people is a part of daily life. How we relate to one another when navigating our differences either builds or erodes trust and affects the quality of our work.

“ɫ��ֱ�� is an R1 flagship university. We have a responsibility to ensure our work contributes to the public good,” said Anthony Siracusa, senior director of inclusive culture and initiatives. “Everyone’s scholarship (research, teaching or creative work) has implications for people, no matter the discipline. So, how do we grapple with those implications? And, with community-engaged work, knowing how to operationalize diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) principles—how to navigate differences skillfully—is part of our professional responsibility.”

To that end, Siracusa and Montez Butts, director of inclusive culture and outreach, will facilitate a three-part Journey to Inclusive Culture (JIC) Workshop Series, especially for outreach and engagement professionals.

“Members of ɫ��ֱ��’s Outreach and Engagement Professionals Network (OEPN) answered in our survey that they want and need this type of skills-building training. The Inclusive Culture Team is a great ongoing resource for ɫ��ֱ��’s community-engaged scholars and outreach and engagement practitioners. I hope faculty and staff members will prioritize this workshop,” said Katie Kleinhesselink, community program manager with the Office for Outreach and Engagement.

Butts describes the series’ curriculum as foundational.

“I think DEI work can be very complex with a host of individuals from different backgrounds. This can be exciting or intimidating or daunting. The JIC series intends to challenge people in a safe space and a brave space. Anthony and I invite people to share, push and grow. We want to provide resources and tools to help people get started.”

Siracusa and Butts view DEI skill-building as a mindfulness practice that requires daily attention. Mistakes are inevitable for everyone—no matter a person’s background, level of privilege, consciousness about personal biases or years committed to creating more diverse, inclusive and equitable systems.

“Everyone in the modern U.S. has a cultural context and group identities with historical tendrils. So, when scholars think about engaging with external communities, we have to know about these histories and their contemporary valances. Why? Because we must build trust to do our work. Depending on who we are, we have different levels of work to establish that trust. Any of us might say something that creates a barrier for someone else or causes someone to feel like they don’t belong. The workshop can help individuals identify what we don’t know about ourselves and help groups practice collaboration and a willingness to give and receive feedback,” said Siracusa.

Workshop participants will be asked to self-reflect during the first two sessions to understand their personal privileges, biases and roles within a larger context. Participants will explore how they impact one another and the structures and systems of which we are all a part. During the third session, participants will practice techniques for establishing partnerships and projects possessing open feedback cultures.

“Community-based work always encounters the need to build relationships. It involves encountering differences, whether from a marginalized or privileged background. Colleges and universities, despite efforts, continue to be engines of inequality. People who work at ɫ��ֱ�� will encounter differences with external communities,” said Siracusa. “No matter your background, you need to be prepared to navigate differences, and that is DEI work.

“And,” added Butts, “we need to be able to help individuals be prepared to work across differences and deal with conflict.”

Siracusa and Butts stress that it’s not about having all the answers but about recognizing that we all live in the same system, have something at stake and carry a responsibility to impact that system positively.

“We won’t get into the political during the workshop, but there is a divisive human experience in this country,” said Butts. “DEI work has always been around in some shape or form. So, I say, if not you, then who? If not now, then when? If you can’t see yourself in the struggle, it’s time to start. This workshop can create a space for us to work together. It can motivate people, and it can reinspire people.”

If you are a faculty or staff member involved in community-engaged scholarship or other outreach and engagement work, please see here to learn more about the upcoming Journey to Inclusive Culture Workshop hosted by the Office for Outreach and Engagement.

Any unit on campus may request a Journey to Inclusive Culture workshop through the Inclusive Culture Team (inclusiveculture@colorado.edu).

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Faces of Community-Engaged Scholarship

Faces of Community-Engaged Scholarship: Amanda Giguere

The first play CSF adapted for this violence prevention program was Twelfth Night. What sparked your initial idea to incorporate an anti-bullying message into the play?

What research and evidence did you incorporate in Twelfth Night? What led to adapting more plays?

How many students has Shakespeare & Violence Prevention reached, in how many schools, and in what areas of Colorado?

How do you know this program is making a difference?

Why your book and why now?

How has working in partnership with communities flavored your work?

Why do you think community-engaged scholarship is important for this campus?

What’s next for you?

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Faces of Community-Engaged Scholarship: Caroline Frischmon

How does community-engaged research fit into your goals?

How did you get involved in research in Mississippi?

What was the scope of the work you completed with the PACES grant?

What’s the status of the project now?

What did you learn about research using a community-engaged model?

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Hannah Brenkert-Smith Part of Team Receiving the 2024 Governor’s Pathfinding Partnerships Award

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Join the Journey to Inclusive Cultures Workshop

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