Springing Forward!SUSAN HIRT HAGEN CORE

ABOUT USOur mission is to cultivate a holistic, intentional, and in-terdisciplinary approach to positive youth development by promoting resiliency and pro-social behavior. We facilitate community outreach, conduct research, and provide evaluation to support educational instiutions, community agencies, and government initiatives that serve youth.

As an organization, we look forward to springing into new collaborations and projects with community members and organizations in Erie County.

IN THIS ISSUEOpportunities for College Students

Opportunities for CommunityMembers

Newest additions to CORE

Meet Our Interns

AND MORE!

FOLLOW US!

Facebook: @SusanHirtHagenCOREpage

Twitter:@PSU_CORE

Check out our blog!http://www.core-psb.org

4909 Jordan Road, Erie PA 16563-1801 | psbehrend.psu.edu/core | 814-898-6297

Issue 1 | Volume 1 | April 2017The Susan Hirt Hagen Center for Community Outreach, Research, and Evaluation

Charisse Nixon, Director of CORE and Professor of Psychology, cln5@psu.eduAbbe Biebel, PYD Coordinator, abiebel@ucasd.iu5.org

James Hodge, Director of Evaluation and Positive Youth Development Co-Coordinator, jjh335@psu.eduJonathan Kinnear, Research Assistant, jgk14@psu.eduMary A. Baird, Mentor Coordinator, mab894@psu.edu

Melanie Hetzel-Riggin, Faculty Affiliate, mdh33@psu.eduNate Magee, Research Technologist, nam5145@psu.edu

Nicole Shoenberger, Assistant Director and Assistant Professor of Sociology, nas25@psu.eduNicole L. Rosen, Project Director, nlr17@psu.edu

CONTACT INFORMATION

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Our Year in Review

Dr. Melanie Hetzel-Riggin pre-sented at the booster session known as the “Proactive Bystand-er Intervention to Prevent Peer Aggression”. This session intended to give participants an opportunity to learn and practice skills about how to be a proactive bystander, as well as learning to teach others how to be proactive bystanders.

February 7th, 2017The Mentor Project Booster Session

Through this open house, Penn State Behrend students, faculty, and the Erie community were able to learn what this organization is really about and what CORE can do for them. All who came were thrilled to be there and were rather

excited to learn more about CORE!

Janruary 20th, 2017Open House

At Key Bank on East 8th and State Street, speaker Jennifer Domowicz, who is from Girl Scouts, spoke to all who came to this early morning event.

February 14th, 2017PYD Networking Breakfast

Opportunities forCollege Students

CORE provides meaningful opportunities for students to develop leadership and research skills in the fol-lowing areas: Serve as an intern Serve as a mentor Serve as a research assistant in the Positive Youth Development lab

If you love middle school kids and teens, and want to play a significant role in their lives, please sign up to mentor through CORE. We are looking for college students and community members to work with local schools and sites. We would love to have YOU in our program!

We will provide Mentor Training 101 for you to feel prepared. Please contact Mary Baird (Mentor Coordinator at CORE) to learn more about how to become a mentor!

MENTORS WANTED!(Fall 2017/Spring 2018 semesters)

There are internships available in CORE for The Men-tor Project. If you are interested, please contact Mary Baird (Mentor Coordinator at CORE) for details about the internship!

Do you want to make a difference in a young person’s life? Find out how to APPLY cutting edge research findings to optimize children and adoles-cents’ lives.

Enroll now in PSYCH 477 for Fall, 2017. Space is lim-ited! This unique blend of academic research and applied field experience will provide students with significant opportunities to mentor and develop their own leadership skills, while building into the lives of young people. Sign up today!

For more information, contact Dr. Nixon or Mary Baird.

PSYCH 477

INTERNSHIPS

Are you looking for more research experience? Do you want to get out into the community and help conduct research? Apply for a work-study position

at CORE! Please send inquires to core@psu.edu

GENERAL QUESTIONS:This training informed individuals about the 40 Developmental Asset Framework along with concrete ways to build relationships with the youth.

Our CORE mentor trainers have conducted three mentor trainings, reaching a total of 86 potential mentors in the Erie area since the fall of 2016. The importance of mentoring and how to form respectful, caring, and influential relationships with young people is taught during the trainings.

2016-2017Mentor Project Trainings

Currently we are working with Wattsburg Area School District, Girard School District, and E.F. Smith Quality of Life Learning Center.

March 7th, 2017Asset Training

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Over 7 participating schools helped make this a successful event. Students worked together to plan activities and events to foster a pos-itive school climate.

October 7th, 2016PYD Youth Leadership Summit

The Mentor

Training

CORE is looking for community members that would like to serve as mentors in The Mentor Project at Behrend. We provide the training and opportunities to mentor local students in sites and schools in Erie. All clearances are required.

In this program our community mentors work with college students in small group settings to build into the lives of young people. If interested, please contact Mary Baird.

Opportunities for

Community Members

Meet James Hodge!Director of Evaluation and Positive Youth Development Co-Coordinator

Hi, my name is Kimberly Corson! I received my Ph.D. in Human Development and Fami-ly Studies, in December 2011 from Texas Tech University. Currently, I am an assistant profes-sor of psychology here, at Penn State Behrend. I am an experienced educator with a variety of classroom experience, ranging from early child-hood to higher ed. I have an extensive leadership background managing a variety of teams in the education, nonprofit, and public media indus-tries and have served on a number of advisory boards, including the Houston Center for Literacy.My research interests focus on children’s sense of space, both physical space and social or “lived space.” This idea of space branches into several

areas: 1) children’s conceptualization of secre-cy, hiding spaces, and their confidants; 2) chil-dren’s hide and seek play as it relates to space; 3) lived space of refugee and immigrant fami-lies; 4) childhood spaces for play and learning. I also collaborate with colleagues on interdis-ciplinary pedagogical research. Most recently, I have been working on a project examining math anxiety and mindset and another looking at how music education affects children’s socio-emo-tional development. My publications have ap-peared in Early Childhood Development & Care, Journal of Child and Adolescent Trauma, Jour-nal of Early Adolescence, Journal of Communi-ty & Applied Social Psychology, among others.

Meet Kimberly Corson!CORE’s newest faculty affiliate

Hi, my name is James Hodge and I am the Director of Evaluation and Positive Youth Development Co-Co-ordinator at Susan Hirt Hagen Center CORE. I grad-uated with a degree in Psychology from Penn State Behrend in 2009 and I am currently finishing my Ph.D in Social Psychology from the University of Vermont. My dissertation examines situations where tak-ing the perspective of someone trying to manage their weight can – rather unexpectedly – lead to subsequent expressions of prejudice and discrim-ination towards overweight individuals. Other areas of my research have explored the stigma surrounding mental illness labels and those living

with HIV/AIDS, the deleterious consequences of being a target of sexual harassment in the work-place, the social costs of reporting prejudice and discrimination, and how the stigma of be-ing overweight contributes to subsequent eating behavior and performance in stressful situations. While in graduate school, I had the honor of serv-ing as President for the Association for Psychological Science (APS) Student Caucus in Washington, DC. I bring to CORE extensive training in quantitative re-search, coupled with a passion for understanding and promoting positive social change for youth.

Are you part of the Behrend community and looking to get involved?We are always looking to collaborate with other faculty and staff members in the Behrend community. In the past, we have worked on both large and small grants, helped develop evaluation plans (including both formative and summative evaluations), and written our own grants as well. Whatever your need is, please reach out to us. We will gladly help if we are able!

We are frequently asked to work on projects within the Erie community that span across disciplines including topics such as literacy (Education), character education (Psychology and Sociology), and attitudes towards vaccines (Biology) just to name a few. If you are interested in working with CORE as a faculty affiliate, please send us the following information: Your full name, title, and contact information A general description of your areas of expertise A copy of your curriculum vitae or resume

Once we have received this information, we will be in contact to discuss your interest, availability, and desired level of affiliation. As proj-ects are brought to our center, we will reach out to those faculty affiliates with appropriate expertise.

In addition, we would love to collaborate on faculty projects! If you are working on an outreach, research, or evaluation project and be-lieve that it fits within the mission and vision of CORE, please contact us! Send us an email with a brief description of the project and how you see CORE fitting into the project, and we will work with you on developing a mutually beneficial collaborative project! You can email us at core@psu.edu.

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What’s to come...

Meet Our Interns!Hi, my name is Chelsea Ptak!

I am a junior here on campus majoring in psy-chology and minoring in business, and am from Erie, Pa originally. I first became a mentor second semester sophomore year (2015) by taking the mentoring class that Dr. Nixon offers. For me, the best part of mentoring has been creating relationships with not only the students that you mentor, but also your peers and the professors. One of my favorite aspects of mentoring is journaling, and each week you and your men-tees get to write to each other. Having that addi-tional form of communication really brought me closer to my mentees, and provided a different outlet for students to express themselves.

Mentoring is something where you not only get to help and interact with students, but you also get to see yourself grow as you go through the same lessons that they do. It uniquely allows insight and growth that is applicable in everyday life. Being an intern here at CORE, and working specifically with the mentoring project, I have learned more about the research and the intricacies that are behind the curriculum and the different assets that are implemented into the lessons. Doing the literature reviews and having the ability to increase my knowledge by directly working with the different professors has increased my abilities in regard to creat-ing curriculum and conducting research and

evaluation.

Hi, my name is Brittany Dougan!

I am a senior adult student graduating this spring. My major is psychology with a focus in child development. I am from Harborcreek, PA. This is currently my third semester as a mentor. I decided to become a mentor because I am pursuing a career working with children. On a more personal level, I chose to partici-pate in the mentoring program because I think of how my life would have been different if I had a mentor as a child. That is why I strive to be a great mentor for others. As an intern I have been able to grow in my communication, organization, and especially my leadership skills. I really enjoy the opportuni-

ty to express my ideas and utilize my creativity for lesson plan activities. The most challenging thing as a mentor is channeling 12-year-old Brittany and remember-ing how it feels to be that age and how to relate with kids who are having completely different life experiences. The important part of the program is forming bonds and connections with children and this isn’t always an easy task espe-cially if they do not feel you can relate to them. I believe everyone should take at least one semester and mentor. Not only is it important for these children who we are working with, but it is an incredible opportunity for personal growth in so many aspects, both emotionally and intellectually, and is an extremely rewarding experience.

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Professional Development:

Dr. Nicole “Shoney” Shoenberger has been asked to be the Director of this year’s Council of Academic Advisors. The County Executive has asked the Council to examine the success of Day Reporting Centers as a diversion pro-gram for criminal offenders. It is expected that the meet-ing will take place late Spring/Early Summer. This is the first project sponsored by the political science department’s Public Policy Fund at Penn State Behrend.

Dr. Charisse Nixon has been asked to coordinate a na-tional research group of experts to come together and discuss how to develop and sustain protective factors among youth. This group will meet at the International Bullying Conference in Nashville, November 2017.

In June 2017, Dr. Nicole Rosen and Dr. Kim Corson will be presenting a paper entitled, “Common Ground: The Importance of Music for Multi-Cultural Students” at Groves Conference on Marriage and Family in Charleston, SC.

Psychology students Taylor Morris (senior) and Rebecca Dins-more (junior) are speaking about their research during a poster presentation titled “The Role of Personality and Just World Beliefs on Bystander” at the annual Association of Psychological Sci-ence (APS) conference. This conference will be held in Boston during May of 2017. Dr. Melanie Hetzel-Riggin is their advisor.

Community Opportunities:

The Mentor Project is offering a Mentor Training 101 session in July 2017! Contact Mary Baird for more information.

PYD Networking Breakfast (Late April)

PYD Youth Summit (Late May)

If you are interested in Co-Hosting a Family Game Night or Hosting a 40 Developmen-tal Assets/Developmental Relationships Training then contact our PYD Staff!

Also, keep your eyes open for a PYD Summer Event coming soon!