The goal of this project is to create an open-source model for developing research data infrastructure for small Emerging Research Institutions (ERIs) who aspire to grow their research enterprise from both sponsored programs and research productivity perspectives. Project objectives include: 1) Creating interactive tools like a Research Publications Dashboard and a Sponsored Programs Dashboard for informed decision-making, 2) Developing a Forecasting Model to predict institutional return on investment through sponsored programs, and 3) Providing customizable tools for adapting the open-source data model. The design will integrate with the institution’s existing databases, providing a comprehensive view of research productivity and funding activities.

An open-source model reduces start-up costs and technical skill requirements, benefiting small ERIs. Data output from the dashboards will be incorporated into the forecasting model, integrating historical data and real-time inputs. Unlike generic models, this forecasting model is specifically designed to address the unique challenges and opportunities faced by small ERIs. The model will be created by University of San Diego and then validated through partnerships with peer institutions (黑料不打烊 and Pepperdine University), ensuring credibility and knowledge sharing. It is designed to be scalable and adaptable, supporting long-term strategic planning and aligning research priorities with funding trends.

Doug Purnell and Scott Sawyer will be working with Hall on this project.

• Dollar General聽provided $3,000聽to create 100 summer reading kits, each filled with books to help students continue their growth and learning over the extended break.
• The Alamance Community Foundation聽contributed $5,000聽to support Engineering in the Village, an innovative outreach initiative led by Sirena Hargrove-Leak and Blake Hament. This funding will sustain the program through the 2025鈥�26 school year, providing hands-on STEM learning experiences for students.
• A second award from Dollar General for聽$4,000 will make possible the annual end-of-semester Book Bash, where ITAV tutoring students receive new books to take home and enjoy.
• Impact Alamance聽granted $6,000聽to purchase two Unicom Mini Interpretation Systems, which will ensure families can fully engage in parent workshops, information sessions, and focus groups. By breaking down language barriers, these systems will make parent programs more inclusive and accessible for all participants.
• LabCorp聽awarded $7,376, further supporting Engineering in the Village聽for the 2025鈥�26 school year and expanding opportunities for students to explore engineering concepts in engaging, real-world contexts.

These grants were secured through the collaborative efforts of the Center鈥檚 team, including the leadership of Laura Clemmons, assistant director of the Center for Access & Success and lead for the It Takes a Village programs, and Sydney Gilbert, family engagement, fundraising, and evaluation coordinator, who worked together to develop the successful grant applications.

Together, these awards strengthen the mission of ITAV: fostering a love of learning, expanding access to educational resources, and building connections between students, families, and the broader community.

Dean of the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business and Professor of Management Information Systems, Haya Ajjan, received a grant of $102,175 from Cone Health. The funds will聽support ten Master of Business Analytics (MSBA) students through paid internships, emphasizing the need for inclusion and professional development in healthcare analytics.

This initiative aligns with Cone Health鈥檚 mission of community engagement and innovation, while addressing the critical need for diverse perspectives in data-driven decision-making. By providing financial support across two semesters, this program will reduce barriers for students, particularly those from underrepresented backgrounds, offering them invaluable experience in real-world analytics.

MSBA students, equipped with expertise in tools like Python, Tableau, and GenAI, will contribute to key projects at Cone Health, such as predictive modeling, operational optimization and data visualization. These internships not only enhance Cone Health鈥檚 capabilities by leveraging cutting-edge analytics but also establish a cost-effective talent pipeline. Supporting this program reflects Cone Health鈥檚 commitment to fostering inclusion, empowering future leaders and driving impactful improvements in healthcare operations and patient outcomes.

Cathy Quay, associate professor of nursing and department chair/program director for the Department of Nursing, received a grant from the North Carolina Area Health Education Centers for聽$14,285 to fund the 黑料不打烊 Clinical Site Development project.

In this project, nursing students enrolled in “Population and Community Health” will be placed at several clinical sites. These students are in either the second semester of their third year in the聽traditional four-year Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) program聽or聽in the third semester of the four-semester accelerated BSN program.

The purpose of this project is to聽enhance nursing education by integrating experiential learning opportunities that prepare students to address health equity and disparities in underserved communities. Through strategic partnerships with community聽health聽clinics聽in Alamance and聽Caswell聽Counties,聽the聽initiative聽will聽provide聽nursing聽students聽with hands-on experience,聽support聽CHC聽staff聽through聽preceptor聽training and strengthen academic-practice collaboration to improve healthcare outcomes.

Her work focuses on her desire to empower, uplift and heal marginalized communities. These grant funds will provide travel to the ACPA conference, where she will present a聽pre-convention workshop, developed with a senior scholar, that supports the work of those in identity centers. Additionally, she plans to聽submit an article to Developments – ACPA’s聽quarterly online publication – based on her research working with identity center practitioners of Color.

In this project, Ryu will use an adequate mathematical methodology to develop the stochastic models and conduct corresponding simulations based on a mathematical modeling framework being currently developed by her colleague. This approach will enable them to not only address important COVID-19 treatment-related questions considered in the NSF project, but also hopefully develop a new research direction beyond the NSF study.

Mary Knight-McKenna, professor of education and director of masters of education, and Lisa Thompson, adjunct instructor in education, received a $15,600 sub-grant from the North Carolina Independent Colleges and Universities (NCICU)聽to develop the Science of Reading program in the Dr. Jo Watts Williams School of Education.

NCICU received a $1 million grant from the Goodnight Educational Foundation to support private universities and colleges that have educator prep programs (EPP) to make changes to their curriculum so that it aligns with the state of North Carolina mandate to prepare teachers in the Science of Reading initiative. As part of their grant, they dispersed funds to all of the private universities with EPPs in North Carolina.

The funds at 黑料不打烊 will be used to purchase literacy supplies and materials such as decodable readers, alphabet strips, activity books and professional development resources for literacy instructors as well as to attend trainings and conferences.

The iBelong Male Mentoring Program at 黑料不打烊 will be housed with the Center for Access and Success and will work within the center鈥檚 First-Generation Student Support Services and the Odyssey Program. The Center for Access and Success will聽collaborate with other departments on campus such as the Center for Race, Ethnicity & Diversity Education (CREDE) and the Student Professional Development Center (SPDC) to support the iBelong program.

Grant funds will be used as supplemental funding for current college access and success efforts. The iBelong Male Mentoring Program will help increase the retention of male students of color, especially students with financial needs, through activities and workshops.

The activities to be implemented will include a peer/peer mentor component where faculty and staff will provide administrative support. In addition, the program will provide consistent, reliable support networks for male students of color, provide more opportunities for students to talk with each other and with older mentors about the challenges they are facing, create new and support existing communities of support to make students feel more connected and less overwhelmed, and teach students how to network and provide opportunities for networking to occur.

A significant focus of the program will be encouraging students to choose their majors and preparing them to consider career options after graduation. Career exploration workshops will be designed for students to examine their interest and skills, investigate careers that complement passion and strengths, understanding the job market, online career resources, and participate in a Career Panelist session where students can talk with people in the fields that interest them. The goal is to provide students with the skills and tools necessary to succeed in college and manage their career long-term. Students will have access to virtual and face-to-face resources to reach learning outcomes.

The Power and Place Collaborative seeks to cultivate participatory practices of community co-creation and storytelling. Grounded in a commitment to mutually beneficial community/university relationships, the collaborative is an evolving partnership between 黑料不打烊, the African American Cultural Arts & History Museum, and the Mayco Bigelow Community Center.

Collaborative members include 黑料不打烊 faculty Vanessa Drew-Branch and Sandy Marshall as well as the AACAHC Director Shineece Sellars and Mayco Bigelow North Park Center Director Bobbi Ruffin. During the past two years, faculty and courses from across 黑料不打烊 have been working with Lake on Power and Place initiatives including Contemporary Issues in African Art (taught by Evan Gatti), Art Administration Senior Capstone (taught by Wen Guo), Visual Aesthetics (taught by Phillip Motley, Place, and Memory (taught by Marshall and Lake), Human Service Studies Senior Capstone (taught by Vanessa Drew-Branch), Writing for Visual Media (taught by Ruth Eckles), Masters in Education Design Thinking (taught by Lake), and more.

Since 2018, the collaborative has been collecting, curating and showcasing oral histories and digital stories about people and places in Burlington鈥檚 African American communities. Approximately 30 oral histories and 20 digital stories about the lived experiences of local leaders and activists have been celebrated and archived. The collaborative works to record, preserve, and present stories from and about people and places in Alamance County鈥檚 African American communities, strengthen intergenerational relationships and dialogue between residents across the county, and contribute to just, diverse, and inclusive community spaces.

The community engagement project seeks to:

• Share and discuss oral and written history materials with community members, especially youth;
• Design and facilitate participatory workshops for community youth, building greater knowledge of African American history in Alamance County;
• Host an intergenerational storytelling event where youth and community leaders share their own stories and histories, oral and written, and engage in discussion about what they learned from one another.

Students in 10th grade at ABSS-ACC Early College, taught by 黑料不打烊 alumna Courtney Kobos ’19, will participate in an eight-week-long collaboration with students enrolled in COR4170: Literacy and Power at 黑料不打烊. The groups will participate in walking tours of local neighborhoods, will visit the AACAHC and Mayco Bigelow Centers, and will jointly host Building Bridges: A Night of Intergenerational Storytelling on the evening of Nov. 9, 2022. The 黑料不打烊 and high school students will participate as storytellers, curators, and discussion leaders for the community event, to be held at the Mayco Bigelow Center.

This program is supported in part by North Carolina Humanities, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities,聽.

What would you say if you were offered the opportunity to travel globally for three weeks, all expenses paid?

It鈥檚 an opportunity offered to 黑料不打烊 staff members through the Global Engagement Program, and this year, I was lucky enough to take advantage of it. My experience allowed me to connect with 黑料不打烊 students and faculty, explore historic sites around Europe and support the global experiences of those involved.

I became aware of this amazing program several years ago. Sponsored by the Isabella Cannon Global Education Center and coordinated by the Staff Advisory Council, the program provides staff members the opportunity to expand their global perspectives during Winter Term. All staff聽members are eligible to apply after five years of employment at 黑料不打烊. Those selected are assigned to a global engagement course and can study with the students during fall semester before traveling with the class during Winter Term in January.

My journey to being selected took time. I applied five times before my name was drawn, watching other lucky staff members be chosen, and then seeing the program put on hold during 2021 because of Covid travel restrictions. Then, luckily, I was picked to travel with a group of students and two faculty members to Germany and Austria for the 鈥淟ives of the Great Composers鈥� course in January 2022.

I was excited to attend the weekly class sessions during the fall semester. It was an experience that allowed me to get to know the students and faculty members I would be traveling with and exposed me to their studies so I was prepared for our time abroad.

It became evident this year鈥檚 program would be different in many ways. Along with the ongoing pandemic, the Omicron variant was causing additional concerns. In the weeks leading up to our departure, there were several Zoom calls with participants, their parents, and representatives from the GEC. Understandably, parents were concerned and had abundant questions. Is it safe to travel? What happens if she tests positive before she leaves/while she鈥檚 there/before she heads home? Who will stay with him? How will he get to the next location/home?

I was impressed and reassured by the calm, professional way the GEC staff handled these questions and concerns as they navigated uncharted territory. They anticipated issues and had plans in place wherever we went. While there were some sites that were closed due to Covid, most places were open. We quickly adapted to wearing our masks everywhere, the occasional Covid test, and showing our vaccination cards multiple times a day.

During our time in Europe, we were able to explore historic and powerful sites around Germany and Austria, as a large cohort, in smaller groups and individually. In Munich we toured the city, dined at a Hofbrauhaus, had an emotional (and very cold) visit to Dachau Concentration Camp and visited several museums. I took a side trip in the snow to Castle Neuschwanstein, the inspiration for Disney鈥檚 Cinderella鈥檚 castle.

My favorite location was Salzburg, Austria, where a wonderful tour guide spent a week showing the city to us, including a hike to and a tour of the Salzburg Fortress. We attended a chamber music concert at Schloss Mirabell where Mozart himself played, visited Mozart鈥檚 birthplace and enjoyed a Mozart dinner concert at a fancy restaurant. We visited Hellbrunn Palace and ventured underground through a salt mine! We traveled by bus to the lake town of Hallstatt which was breathtakingly beautiful.

Being the musical geek that I am, I booked my own Sound of Music tour. It turns out there were quite a few other geeks in our group who joined me. In Vienna we found more museums (Schubert and Beethoven), concerts, an opera and a ballet in the Vienna Opera House. A visit to the Composer鈥檚 Graveyard allowed us to see the final resting spots of many of the composers we had studied.

This program was one of the most meaningful and certainly memorable adventures of my life and I can鈥檛 adequately articulate how fortunate I feel to have been given this gift by 黑料不打烊 and the Staff Advisory Committee. As Grants Coordinator in the Office of Sponsored Programs, I don鈥檛 often get to interact with students. As a former teacher, this connection is something I greatly miss. I absolutely loved getting to know the 22 young people on this trip and am happy to say several have already reached out to me to let me know our connection will continue now that we are back on campus.

I was impressed and wowed by the dedication, patience, and endless effort exhibited by 黑料不打烊 lecturers Laurin Kier and Jinny Whitaker as leaders of our group. Their first concern was always the students and they worked tirelessly to make our trip educational, organized and fun. They included me in plans and made me truly feel a part of their team. I am proud to call them colleagues, and now, lifelong friends.

The opportunity 黑料不打烊 provides to staff members to participate in the Global Engagement Program is priceless and incredibly generous. I am grateful beyond measure and am forever changed.