The Riccobono Academic Resilience Faculty Fellowship Mini-Grants Program
Promoting Intersections between Well-Being, Teaching, and Learning.
One of the core tenets of the PC Lifelines Suicide Prevention Project is that the successful promotion of student well-being and resilience is a community effort. Students who struggle with mental health challenges (i.e., anxiety, depression, symptoms of eating disorders) have lower GPAs and are less likely to graduate (Eisenberg, Golberstein, & Hunt, 2009).
Academic resilience, which is the ability to experience positive educational outcomes in the face of challenging life experiences, is fundamental to student flourishing.
Academic and social engagement, a sense of belonging and purpose, gratitude, hardiness, mindfulness, and self-compassion are among the key factors identified as important for promoting student resilience and overall well-being (Bonamo, Legerski, & Thomas, 2015; Fong & Loi, 2016; Masten, 2014; Smith, Epstein, Ortiz, Christopher, & Tooley, 2013). The Riccobono Academic Resilience Faculty Fellowship Mini-Grants Program is a collaborative effort involving Student Affairs, the PC Lifelines Project, and the Center for Engaged Learning. Funded primarily through a generous gift from PC Alumnus Chris Riccobono ’01, it is designed to promote student flourishing at Providence College.
Modeled after Georgetown University’s Engelhard Connecting Life and Learning Enrichment Project, this mini-grants program is designed to incentivize and support efforts to infuse well-being promotion throughout the curriculum and integrate classroom experiences that promote student well-being across a variety of majors and programs. Up to 10 proposals per academic year will be awarded.
- These grants are designed to promote activities that merge classroom experience with opportunities related to promoting health and well-being (outside and/or co-curricular opportunities are encouraged).
- Riccobono Academic Resilience Faculty Fellows integrate a well-being topic into their course to make meaningful connections between course content and students’ lived experiences. Fellows are encouraged to be creative in how they incorporate the health topic(s) of choice into their course.
- Innovative ideas that may lend themselves to adoption in other courses are of particular interest.
Example course profiles from Georgetown’s Engelhard Project can be viewed at http://engelhard.georgetown.edu/profiles/
Funding
- Individual faculty members will be awarded a maximum of $750 per year (not per course). An initial $250 award is provided following participation in the Riccobono Academic Resilience Faculty Fellows mini-retreat held at the end of the spring 2020 semester. The remaining $500 award will be provided following completion of all RARFF Grant Requirements (see below).
- An additional $250 per year is available to support project-based expenses (speakers, off-campus activities).
Eligibility
This program is open to all ordinary and practitioner faculty. Applications from full-time visiting faculty will be considered on a space available basis. Only individual applications, not joint applications, will be considered.
Grant Requirements
Riccobono Academic Resilience Faculty Fellows will commit to:
- Attend the Riccobono Academic Resilience Faculty Fellows mini-retreat for project planning and to share resources and ideas to support academic resilience and student flourishing.
- Have enrolled students complete on-line pre/post assessments to evaluate program outcomes (links to the assessments will be provided).
- Write a RAR course blurb (50-75 word summary) and brief report summarizing students’ experiences and reflecting on the overall merits of the project.
- Attend a post-luncheon (Jan/Feb 2021 for fall 2020 courses, May 2021 for spring 2021 courses) to share reflections and debrief.
2020-21 Riccobono Academic Resilience Faculty Fellowship Recipients
School of Arts & Sciences
Dr. Margaret Healy-Varley, English
ENG480: Medieval Meditation in Theory and Practice
Fr. David Orique, O.P., History, Latin American and Latinx Studies, DWC
DWC202 Cuba Libre: Global Commodities in Latin American and Caribbean History
Dr. Cayla McBee, Mathematics
MTH107 Math Business Analysis I
Dr. Saaid Mendoza, Psychology
PSY321: Industrial Organizational Psychology
Dr. Victoria Templer, Psychology
PSY326/426 Biopsychology/Experimental Biopsychology
Dr. Kelly Warmuth, Psychology
PSY178 Introduction to the Psychology Major
Dr. Dana Dillon, Public and Community Service, Theology
PSP/THL 479: Faith, Politics, and Dialogue*cross listed course
Dr. Terence McGoldrick, Theology
THL270/470 Growth Christ Life/Faith, Friendship & Resilience
Fr. R. Gabriel Pivarnik, O.P., Theology
THL 380 Prayer and the Liturgical Life
School of Business
Dr. Christopher Lyddy, Management
MGT301 Organizational Behavior
School of Professional Studies
Dr. Lin Zhang, Elementary and Special Education
EDU 270 Teaching Science and Math in Elementary Schools
Dr. Tuba Agartan, Health Policy and Management
HPM 101 American Health Care System
Dr. Robert Hackey, Health Policy and Management
HPM 450 Field Experience
Dr. Comfort Ateh, Secondary Education
EDU 211 Urban Education
Dr. Kevin O’Connor, Secondary Education
EDU201 Educational Psychology
Dr. Robert G. Hasson III, Social Work
SWK-253 Human Behavior through the Life Span
