A Case Study of the Ellison Model's Use of Mentoring as an Approach Toward Inclusive Community Building

The Ellison Executive Mentoring Inclusive Community Building (ICB) Model is a paradigm for initiating and implementing projects utilizing executives and professionals from a variety of fields and industries, university students, and pre-college students. The model emphasizes adherence to ethical values and promotes inclusiveness in community development. It is a hierarchical model in which actors in each succeeding level of operation serve as mentors to the next. Through a three-step process--content, process, and product--participants must be trained with this mentoring and apprenticeship paradigm in conflict resolution, and they receive sensitivitiy and diversity training, through an interactive and dramatic exposition. The content phase introduces participants to the model's philosophy, ethics, values and methods of operation. The process used to teach and reinforce its precepts is the mentoring and apprenticeship activities and projects in which the participants engage and whose end product demontrates their knowledge and understanding of the model's concepts. This study sought to ascertain from the participants' perspectives whether the model's mentoring approach is an effective means of fostering inclusiveness, based upon their own experiences in using it. The research utilized a qualitative approach and included data from field observations, individual and group interviews, and written accounts of participants' attitudes. Participants complete ICB projects utilizing the Ellison Model as a method of development and implementation. They generally perceive that the model is a viable tool for dealing with diversity issues whether at work, at school, or at home. The projects are also instructional in that whether participants are mentored or seve as apprentices, they gain useful skills and knowledge about their careers. Since the model is relatively new, there is ample room for research in a variety of areas including organizational studies to dertmine its effectiveness in combating problems related to various kinds of discrimination.

Exploring the role of therapy process and outcome in interventions that target adolescent identity and intimacy

This study examined the feasibility of using a session impact measure with a sample of 24 at risk high school students participating in an intervention targeting identity and intimacy. Three therapists led 3 intervention groups with the same format. The study investigated the impact of therapy process, including Group, Facilitator, Skills, and Exploration impacts as measured by the Session Evaluation Form (SEF). The study also investigated the differential impact of session process on intervention outcome as measured by the CPSS, EPSI, RAVS, EIPQ and Youth Report Form. Analyses were conducted using descriptive statistics, frequencies, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), and Chi square tests. The results supported the utility of the SEF and they tentatively supported the impact of the therapist on participants' perceptions of therapeutic processes and on intervention outcome. In particular, Group 1 performed better than Group 3. This study found that the SEF is a useful session impact measure.

Effects of academic integration on the persistence and achievement of under-prepared college students

The purpose of this dissertation was to examine the effect of academic integration, defined in terms of instructor/student contact, on the persistence of under-prepared college students and the achievement of those who persist. The overall design of this study compared instructor-initiated contact with conventional contact. The dependent variables were persistence, achievement, motivation and anxiety. Information was collected by administering the College-Level Mathematics Test (CLM), the Perceived Affective Contact Questionnaire (PAC), the expectancy and anxiety components of the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ), a departmental final examination, and by accessing university records. The sample consisted of 130 college algebra students at a large, public university with a Hispanic majority. The main analyses consisted of a 2x2x2 ANOVA (treatment by ethnicity by gender) to test for differences in achievement, t-tests to compare motivation, anxiety and perceived affective contact scores for the two groups, Chi-square tests to assess differences in persistence, and Pearson Product-Moment Correlation to determine the relationship between pretest scores and achievement variables. Results indicated that neither instructor-initiated contact, gender nor ethnicity is related to persistence, motivation or anxiety. A significant disordinal interaction of treatment and ethnicity was observed, with Hispanic experimental students scoring significantly higher on a test of algebra achievement than Hispanic control students. Academic integration, defined in terms of instructor/student contact, has a positive influence on the achievement of Hispanic students. This may imply their positive responsiveness to the relational aspect of contact due to traditional cultural values of interdependence, acquiescence to authority and physical closeness. Such interactive feedback is a means by which students with these values are recognized as members of the university academic community, prompting increased academic effort. Training in contact initiation to promote academic integration is implied, by the results of this study, for instructors dealing with first year students, especially instructors at institutions accommodating instructional methods to the needs of diverse groups.

Development of Independent Living Skills in Project Panther LIFE Students during the Summer Residential Program

Project Panther LIFE: Panther Learning Is For Everyone is an ongoing collaborative partnership between Florida International University (FIU), Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS), and Parent to Parent of Miami, Inc. to develop, implement, support, and expand a non-degree postsecondary transition program for students with intellectual disabilities (ID). In Summer 2014, the program launched its first on-campus three-week Summer Residential Program (SRP) which focused on the development of independent living skills and self-determination skills An overview of the SRP components, program support systems, and benefits of the experience will be given through the perspective of key personnel, partnerships, and students.