Posters

Title/ Abstract

Presenters
(alphabetically)

Building a Community for Many Cultures: Bridging the UR and Former Refugee Communities in Rochester

This poster will explore how the University of Rochester community and former refugee communities in Rochester have worked together. This will serve as a platform for discussion about how UR can contribute to the understanding and appreciation of diversity in the greater Rochester community, and vice versa.

Safe Space Training

During the spring of 2010, planning for a “Safe Space” program began as a collaboration between faculty and staff from all corners of the University of Rochester. The goal was to provide training initiative intended to create a safer and freer environment for all members of the University community regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity or expression. After 18 dedicated volunteer facilitators completed train-the-trainer workshops, “Safe Space” training was offered to the university community in April 2011. This comprehensive two-hour workshop discusses LGBTQI terminology, heterosexism and homophobia, becoming an ally and the meaning of inclusion. To date, 234 individuals have been trained and provided with the essential tools to become allies in order to reduce LGBTQ prejudice and create inclusive environments in all campuses at the University of Rochester.

Building Community and Making an Impact – the University IT High School Summer Internship Program with the Rochester City schools

During the summer of 2010, University IT in collaboration with Edison Tech launched a High School internship program.  Since then, the program has provided two students with IT internships. Our goal is to empower the participants with real world career experience.  Throughout the internship, students are mentored and exposed to diverse opportunities and perspectives.  Although it is a relatively new program, the personal impact it has had on those involved will last a lifetime.  The poster will highlight the program and accomplishments to date.

An Analysis of Prominent Prosodic Features in African-American English

African-American English (AAE) is a variety of spoken English. Documenting prosodic features of AAE has the broader impact of promoting understanding of linguistic diversity. Prosody in speech refers to the rhythm and stress patterns of how individuals produce language. Here, we present an annotation system that marks for prosodic features of the AAE variety, in two samples of communication between AAE speakers. Close analysis of these samples found increased usage of a falsetto speech register, sweeping pitch variations for certain utterances, and examples of elongated vowel quality. These results provide insights into prosodic features of the AAE variety of English.

The Historical Development of African-American English

African American English (AAE) is a variety of American English spoken by many African American adults and children. There are clear distinctions between AAE and Standard American English. The goal of this study is to learn about and document the grammatical and syntactic roots and historical development of contemporary AAE by analyzing slave narratives and applying modern theories of language change to explain the mechanisms of this language variation’s evolution. The narratives-- recordings of former African American slaves taken in the early twentieth century-- are the oldest data available on AAE. This study demonstrates the impact of language divergence throughout history, displaying how features and characteristics of languages develop over time into the many different varieties present today.

Health Care Literacy for All: How Culturally Competent Care Fosters Improved Outcomes

Rochester has the unfortunate distinction of having the highest number of adolescent pregnancies outside of New York City. Recognizing this community issue and seeking to offer a tangible experience that would expand the cultural competency and community awareness of nursing students, Leann Patel and the School of Nursing embarked on a collaboration with Mercy Community Services. Homeless, pregnant and parenting adolescent mothers have an increased need for health supports and health education for themselves and their children. Beginning in the Fall of 2011, 15 nursing students have delivered seven health literacy workshops to 22 young women residing in the shelter.

Nikisha Johnson, Mercy Community Services

Leann Patel, Instructor of Clinical Nursing

Embracing Diversity within Inner City Support Groups

What is diversity and why is it important? What are the unique diversity needs of inner city populations? The Implementation of cultural competency & diversity when addressing in the support group setting: e.g.: Statistics of effectiveness: visual graphs. Questions, Suggestions.

Yathona Kennedy, Depression Research Care Manager,Highland Hospital

Barbara Gawinski, Associate Professor Department of Family Medicine

Speech Rhythm in African American English

This project aims to look at the differences in speech rhythm between native African American English (AAE) speakers speaking AAE, the same speakers speaking Standard American English (SAE), and European American SAE speakers. The measure of rhythm to be used is the normalized Pairwise Variability Index (nPVI) introduced in Grabe, Low, and Nolan (2000). We predict that the rhythm of AAE will significantly differ from European American speakers’ SAE, having a lower nPVI; if this should obtain, we then plan to explore how much their AAE rhythm can be perceived in their SAE speech.

Timothy Dozat, Stacy Garston, Kellan Head, Stacy Kravitz, Darcey Riley

Rush Rhees Special Book Display, Introducing Diversity of the UR community

We put thematic displays of books each month on the first floor in Rush Rhees Library. They are circulating library books so that patrons can browse and charge them. We have collaborated with student and academic organizations such as the Dev of Arab Cultural Awareness Students and Susan B Anthony Institute to advocate their causes on the displays. It has been a successful way to advocate for the library collection and introduce diversity topics. On this poster session we would like to share the stories of our past successful book displays and collaborations with students and staff. We also would like to invite students and staff for future book display ideas.

30 miles down the road...

The purpose of the poster is to encourage members of postsecondary institutions to consider rural socioeconomic diversity within the larger diversity framework. Rural students from low socioeconomic backgrounds face the same hardships as urban students; however, they are not extended the same opportunities as their urban counterparts. It is the responsibility of postsecondary institutions to provide outreach, learning, and financial opportunities to students whose lack of social and cultural capital prevent or discourage them from pursuing viable postsecondary options.

Karen McCarthy

African-American English Vowels

Due to perceived social stigma, many native speakers of African American English (AAE) use Mainstream American English (MAE) outside of their AAE-speaking environments. Despite this, AAE speakers retain many vowel features specific to AAE. We present a quantitative study of AAE vowels seen in natural speech by measuring and characterizing them based on their specific acoustic properties. Data were collected from a conversation between two male native AAE speakers. We compare the acoustic measures of the vowels in their speech with those found in previous studies of MAE. In doing so we hope to find vowel characteristics specific to AAE.

Leah Miller, Christine Wingrove, Stephen Beckley, Eric Meinhardt, and Jared O'Laughlin. 

Class of 2012

LGBTQ Resources and Student Services at the University of Rochester: Now and Future Directions

Using contributions from faculty, staff, students, alumni, and community members, the poster will address the current support that the University provides members of the LGBTQ community in terms of affinity groups, recognition, event programming, positive growth, leadership, space, and initiatives. The poster will discuss the current state of affairs on campus self-reported data from LGBTQ identified members of the University community, comparisons and contrasts with other peer institutions and their LGBTQ programs, and proposed future initiatives at the University of Rochester.

Andrew Moran

Ithaca City School District, Equity Mentors

Dr. Lesli Myers

Development of an On-Line Cultural Competence Course: One Department's Experience

To institute integrated cultural change and to change the conversation in an academic medical center department requires multiple levels of commitment – from leadership, faculty and staff – as well as an accessible and engaging educational venue. Our department has developed an on-line course that appears to be one important component of facilitating the necessary conversations toward culture change and we would like to share this with others via this poster presentation.

Caroline Nestro, Senior Clinical Nurse Specialist, Psychiatric Nursing Service
Associate Director, Office of Mental Health Promotion

Inclusion of a Transgender Panel Discussion in a Required Diversity Course

Transgender patients are an underserved patient population. Cross-gender hormone therapy has many serious health risks and fear of discrimination may lead many transgender patients to avoid medical and pharmacy care. We developed and evaluated a panel discussion on transgender health issues in a required diversity course to help advocate for transgender patients in the pharmacy. The panel discussion was conducted with first year pharmacy students as part of a course, titled, Introduction to Diversity. The panel consisted of both transgender males and females. After each panel member introduced themselves and shared their healthcare experiences, students were able to ask questions. At the conclusion of the class, students completed evaluations based on defined learning outcomes. Additionally, as part of the course requirement, many students chose to write a self reflection on the transgender panel.  Evaluations were completed by 73 of the 78 enrolled students. 96% of the students strongly agreed or agreed that “I can describe methods for showing respect to a transgender patient while they are in the pharmacy” and 86% of the students strongly agreed or agreed that “I can identify barriers to treatment for transgender patients”. Educating future pharmacists about transgender patients is a first step in addressing the healthcare needs of this underserved population. Our panel may serve as model for other pharmacy schools to implement. 

Amy Parkhill, Assistant Professor, Wegmans School of Pharmacy

Jennifer Mathews,
Assistant Professor, Wegmans School of Pharmacy

JOBS WANTED: Achieving Academic Success and Maximizing Career Potential of Rochester's Urban Youth Through a UR Teen Employment and Support Program

50% of Rochester high school students graduate. Often these graduates don't have needed skills for college and employment success. The UR with community partners developed an employment and support program for nearly 100 Rochester teens. Present state or Rochester Teen health, academic success and career success; Description of UR Teen employment and support program with presentation of data regarding 100% high school graduation rate, 84% college or trade school attendance and coaching/intervention/attrition data.

Susan Piotrowski Lee

The Kearns Model: Building Bridges Towards Successful Partnerships with Youth

This poster will take an in-depth look at the needs of youth in the City of Rochester and describe ways in which the University of Rochester is currently addressing those needs. Using the David T. Kearns Center’s Pre-College division as a framework, we will outline methods to advance first generation, low-income, and minority students along the educational pipeline.

Anthony Plonczynski, Audrey Burns, and Kristin Williams

Network Analysis on Researcher Resilience through Multidimensional Mentoring

As a sub analysis of the Researcher Resilience through Multidimensional Mentoring Study, we are conducting network analysis using the software Pajek to understand the connectivity and academic productivity of protégé/mentor pairs. Protégés include underrepresented minority graduate students, post doctoral fellows, and junior faculty and their senior faculty mentors from three Western New York research universities. By employing network analysis to analyze academic products, including publications and grant money awarded, we offer an innovative approach to evaluating the strength of protégé-to-protégé and mentor-to-protégé connections.

David Alvarado, Work-Study Student '12

Embracing Differences Through Staff Leadership

The Staff Leadership Group in University IT provides a forum for staff to be actively involved in the decision-making process of the organization. It has created the opportunity for staff to be exposed to differences in thought, styles, backgrounds, etc. Over the last few years, this organizational development effort has redefined what it means to be a staff leader in University IT. This poster session will provide a history of the group and provide the opportunity for participants to reflect on what a Staff Leadership Group might look like in their own organization.

Kevin Riggs, University IT

Diane Evans,  Linda Francis, and  Brenda Wideman

Enhancing Neighborhood Natural Helpers in Mental Health Promotion and Violence Prevention within Urban Neighborhoods

We present the partnership process that designed and implemented a “learning collaborative” (LC) for and by neighborhood natural helpers. The LC emerged from a community-based participatory research (CBPR) process to examine the acceptability and feasibility of identifying and preparing neighborhood “natural helpers” (NH), residents who others seek out to enhance mental health and reduce violence among families with school-aged children. This action-research partnership aimed to illuminate and magnify NH voices in how they mediate long-term negative impacts of exposure to violence on perpetration of violence, aggressive behavior and internalizing problems such as suicidality among youth.

Ann Marie White, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry

Melanie Funchess, Mental Health Association

Community Accountability and the Deaf Community

We, at Advocacy Services for Abused Deaf Victims (ASADV), recently created a "Deaf Community Accountability Wheel," modified from Jackson & Garvin's (2003) Community Accountability framework. Examples of how members of this cultural and linguistic group as well as hearing allies can work together to support survivors and hold abusers accountable are identified and discussed.

Aimee Whyte, Erin Esposito, and Sarah Hurd

Library Outreach to Chinese Graduate Students

Without making assumptions, the librarians gathered ideas to adapt the library services to meet the research needs of Chinese graduate students.