Research Assistantship
Starting in the spring of 2017 I was chosen to work under Dr. Adrienne Duke, a professor in the department of Human Development and Family Studies at Auburn University, as one of her research assistants. Through this position I have gained knowledge and skills about research and programs that are researched based, as well as teaching based. As a research assistant I am currently working to input data in SPSS for the BeSafe program. The BeSafe program is a bullying prevention program across all of Alabama. Once children have done the pre and post examinations and gone through the BeSafe classes, all of the information is sent to Dr.Duke which in turn is given to me to sort, label, input, organize and file. After I have inputed all of the surveys and verified that the numbers are correct I preform T-Tests on the data. By doing these tests I am able to see if there were significant changes in the data from pre to post test. With this information in hand I write a report to the school about how the program has affected the children. Also while working on data entry and outputs, I am working with another assistant, Jessica, on a publication for parents who have children that bully others. By working on this publication I have learned how to research for articles regarding the specific topic of parenting children who are bullies. And also about how to annotate them and write in my own words what the findings from the research are. Through having this assistantship I have learned many advanced skills that I plan on taking and using in graduate school. This has also opened the door for me to understand more about research in general and what work goes behind getting data outputs. I plan on working for Dr.Duke until I graduate and also taking the experience from this and using it later in life. |
Sample of output data |
Overview document for ESC |
Engagement Scholarship Conference
In September of 2017 I had the opportunity to speak at the Engagement Scholarship Conference in Birmingham, Alabama. I spoke with Dr. Adrienne Duke, who works in the college of Human Sciences at Auburn as an Assistant Professor & Extension Specialist, and with Jessica Norton, a graduate research assistant working under Dr. Duke as well. We spoke on the topic of 'Teasing vs. Shooting: Bullying Prevention with Schools in Violent Neighborhoods?' I proposed the question of "Research suggests that bullying prevention should be extended into the community. What does community involvement look like in the a bullying prevention/intervention program? More specifically, what does it look like in neighborhoods that experiences higher than average crime/violence incidents?' My research showed that bullying prevention/intervention and community collaboration is few and far between. But there are some examples of how the two have been combined with positive results. For more in depth reading on this, please see the files below. |