Seven Cornell undergraduates receive new Bartels research fellowships

By Franklin Crawford

Seven Cornell students have been selected to participate in the inaugural Henry and Nancy Horton Bartels Undergraduate Action Research Fellowship Program. The program offers undergraduates the opportunity to pursue public policy research in collaboration with leaders from local community-based groups and human service organizations as well as city and county governments.

The list of fellowship winners follows, with the students' colleges and their projects:

• Sylvia Doxtater '02, Agriculture and Life Sciences: How women's health information has been shared across generations on the Six Nations Indian Reserve in Ohsweken, Ontario;

• Avery DeVenanzio '03, Arts and Sciences: Collaboration with a Native American field study program at the Alternative Community School in Ithaca;

• Jamecia Finnie '03, Agriculture and Life Sciences: Developing evaluation tools for inner city youth development programs at the Cornell Cooperative Extension Program in New York City;

• Melanie Somjen Frazer '03, Arts and Sciences: An examination of the social barriers to receiving student health services on campus;

• Sally Jenkins-Stevens '04, Engineering: An exploration of the interaction between Asian immigrant families and social service providers in Ithaca's Northside neighborhood;

• Adam Levine '03, Arts and Sciences: An exploration of ways to strengthen the relationship between Cornell's Habitat for Humanity chapter and the Ithaca community;

• Gary Schueller '03, School of Industrial and Labor Relations: An investigation of Caribbean drumming as a youth development strategy.

Students were selected to participate on the basis of proposals they developed in cooperation with local civic leaders. Fellowships help students in collaborative social projects with the local community members the students have selected. Working together, program partners set an agenda, learn the techniques of research, conduct research, and apply and report results. The program encourages respect for local knowledge and multidisciplinary approaches to problem-solving.

Each Bartels fellow will receive supplemental student aid in recognition of the time they will devote to their research. Each student also will be eligible for up to $2,500 in program expenses for their projects. Students will be introduced to the core theories, methods and challenges of action research -- they will participate in hands-on-research in a seminar offered by an interdisciplinary faculty team drawn from the Cornell departments of Anthropology, City and Regional Planning, Communication, Landscape Architecture, Education, Policy Analysis and Management, Nutritional Sciences and the American Indian Program and the Ethics and Public Life Program.

The Bartels fellowship program was developed by a faculty committee headed by Davydd Greenwood, Goldwin Smith Professor of Anthropology and director of the Institute for European Studies of the Einaudi Center for International Studies, with assistance from Leonardo Vargas-Méndez, interim director of the Cornell Public Service Center. Participating faculty members and their associated departments include: David Pelletier of Nutritional Sciences; John Forester and Kenneth Reardon of City and Regional Planning; Paula Horrigan of Landscape Architecture; Brian Baker of the American Indian Program; Michele Moody-Adams, director of the Ethics and Public Life Program; Arthur Wilson and Scott Peters of Education; Don Tobias of Policy Analysis and Management; Shelly Campo of Communication; and Risa Lieberwitz of Industrial and Labor Relations.

Administrative support for the program is being provided by Reneé Farkas, assistant director for community programs at the Public Service Center. Additional advising support is being provided by Kristine DeLuca-Beach of the Cornell Commitment and David DeVries of the College of Arts and Sciences advising center.

The research fellowship program is endowed through a gift from Henry and Nancy Horton Bartels.