Gret Atkin
Katherine Baumann and Christian Cerrada were among six students participating in internships this past summer funded by Cornell Cooperative Extension through the College of Human Ecology. They had an opportunity to advance their understanding of human development through participation in community-research partnerships, enhance their practical skills, and make a difference in the lives of New York state residents. Here are their stories.
Internship with the Community Mobilization for Mentoring Youth Project - Christian Cerrada
During the spring 2008 semester 26 freshmen at South Seneca (New York) High School participated in an adult life stories class. A major goal was to help students learn why adults chose to live in their rural community, and how experiences and relationships with other adults during their adolescence made a difference in their life. The Life Stories pilot was the first phase of the project Community Mobilization for Mentoring Youth, a partnership with the high school, the community, and Cornell researchers to mobilize adults in their community for mentoring youth.
The purpose of this action research project is to engage youth and adults in joint activities that will make their community more supportive of youth development, and ultimately to encourage more local youth to achieve the education and skills they will need to be productive workers, nurturing family members, and active citizens.
Christian Cerrada was a summer 2008 intern in this project that integrates extension and research. He is currently a junior human development major in the College of Human Ecology. One of the things that attracted Christian to the college was its interdisciplinary perspectives which blend his interests in social science, research, and application. Of his internship he reports, “I got to see it all come together – from my reading and other preparation to application in the field. It has opened new interests; new doorways have opened for me.”A major responsibility of Christian’s summer internship was creating a database of over 50 service learning projects for youth in the United States. It will be used to develop a handout and webpage on service opportunities for phases 2 and 3 of the project. It will provide youth and adults with easy access to principles and practices to guide their initiatives for team service projects in their community.
Christian cited a project example of a youth group that decided to clean up a toxic waste dump that affected the community’s health. This activity led them to learn about the ecology of that environment and the toxic waste, and to work with research biologists. They then gave tours of the toxic site to encourage community involvement in solutions. The project gave youth a voice and an opportunity to affect policy.
Christian became familiar with some of the literature about focus group methodology. He participated as an observer at one of the summer focus groups where the youth reflected on their experiences in the life story project. He learned that the youth were impressed with the background of people they found in the community. It opened their eyes to local resources. Many youth wanted to take their interviews with the adults further, such as by writing a feature for a local newspaper or making a video. Some were eager to continue the project by helping the new freshmen with their interviews, by doing more interviews, or by collaborating with adults in the community to figure out service projects that would benefit their community.
Christian did a lot of reading to prepare for his internship. It led him along a path that includes community and civic engagement, and service learning. He feels there are ways in which he will incorporate these concepts into his senior thesis, which he begins this fall, and perhaps even his graduate study in clinical psychology or counseling with a focus on inequality studies.
His internship builds nicely on other aspects of his life. In high school he was part of an NYU youth empowerment group of Asian-American youth. He also did a high school community service project, interviewing older people relative to social injustice. Christian is President of the Cornell Filipino Association where he uses his new community development skills to build the strength of the organization. He also has used skills he developed with the focus group to help friends sort out situations with which they are faced. He says of his internship, “It was a great learning experience.”
In addition to his Cornell Cooperative Extension internship this past summer, he worked on a research project in the Department of Human Development on Asian-American ethnic identity. He will focus his senior thesis on aspects of this study, particularly looking at resilience among Asian-American students at Cornell.
Christian’s mentor for the project was Mary Agnes Hamilton, senior research associate in the Family Life Development Center. She says, “Christian's talents and enthusiasm over the summer contributed in multiple ways to the development of the Community Mobilization for Mentoring Youth project. Of special note is his extensive and critical review of nationwide service learning projects which helped our team draft a service learning information card for high school and middle school youth.” Funding for Christian’s internship was provided by Cornell Cooperative Extension through the College of Human Ecology.
Internship with the Prenatal Early Infancy Project – Katherine Baumann
Katherine “Katie” Baumann is interested in clinical and community psychology, early childhood development, community research design and analysis, program development and evaluation, and early intervention/prevention efforts in the field of child development. Not surprisingly, the current sophomore in Human Ecology is majoring in human biology, health and society. Her summer 2008 internship with the Family Life Development Center (FLDC) was also a perfect fit for her pursuits.
Katie worked on three research projects examining programs that provide support and education to families in Chemung County, New York. The first research project looks at factors that influence mothers’ engagement and retention in the Prenatal Early Infancy Project (PEIP), a nurse home visitation program for high-risk families. This program is implemented through a community agency in Elmira (Comprehensive Interdisciplinary Developmental Services, CIDS) and has been in operation since the late 1970s. It involves providing first-time, high-risk mothers with supportive and educational services delivered by registered nurses in the parent’s home. Services begin during pregnancy and continue until the child is two years old.
The program aims to improve the mother’s life course, ensure optimal health and development for the child, and reduce child abuse and neglect. Katie’s initial role in the project involved organizing and entering data, and maintaining data quality. Katie became so interested in this aspect of her internship that she developed her own research proposal and is spending this academic year looking at mothers’ health behaviors and how aspects of the mothers’ health through pregnancy relate to infant outcomes. She is conducting this research for credit.T
his Elmira program has been the subject of world-renowned randomized controlled trial, begun at the program’s inception in the late 1970s by Human Ecology alum, David Olds. A cohort of mothers and their children were assessed during early childhood, and at age 15, and their children were re-assessed at age 19. A second focus of Katie’s internship involved helping with the next follow-up study of these “children” who are now 27 years old.
Earlier studies yielded strong evidence that the program reduces child maltreatment and promotes a range of other positive maternal and child outcomes. Results have influenced state and national policies regarding the provision of preventive services to new parents. Katie got the opportunity to help with the part of the study looking at whether the program also reduced the likelihood that these 27 year-olds maltreated their own children. Katie’s mentor for this portion of her internship was Dr. John Eckenrode, PI on the study and director of FLDC.
In addition to working with data, Katie received a multifaceted orientation to this field of research. She reviewed the broader literature on early intervention and the prevention of child maltreatment, including but not limited to nurse home visiting. She attended staff meetings with PEIP nurses to learn about their wide-ranging services and implementation issues. And she even was able to observe some nurse home visits to get a feel for how services are delivered, and how mothers respond to home visitors.
Finally, Katie took the lead on a third project that entailed developing and implementing a set of measurement instruments to assess the knowledge gained by parents participating in parent training classes at CIDS. This work comprised a full range of activities, including reviewing training curricula, interviewing trainers, observing classes, developing survey items, administering surveys, setting up a database, and entering and analyzing data.
According to mentor Charlie Izzo, “Of particular note, Katie was adept at working collaboratively with practitioners to develop survey instruments that reflected their educational objectives, and that could be understood by low-income, poorly educated parents. These instruments are now the centerpiece of the agency’s routine evaluation of their parent-education curriculum. The results will be used to guide program improvement efforts and to advocate for future funding of these services. Katie’s efforts will have a lasting impact on this agency’s efforts to prevent maltreatment in Chemung County.”
In the tradition of Participatory Action Research, Katie developed the evaluation instrument in collaboration with parent educators, and met repeatedly with them to refine and improve it. She also incorporated feedback from program participants. Parent education staff will also be involved in analyzing the data and interpreting findings.
Katie says the best part of her internship was her work with PEIP. “It was one thing to enter data on the computer. It was interesting and I learned a great deal. But the work with PEIP in Elmira was outstanding. I got to see everything in action, in practice. That is where everything is implemented.” Her summer experience and continuing research fits well with her goal for a future in clinical psychology or psychiatry.
Human Development Today e-News
Human Development Outreach & Extension
