Sense of Belonging Initiative

The 3 R's Initiative: RECLAIM REIMAGINE REPURPOSE

Principal(s): Michael Palladino

This initiative will serve 4 purposes:
1. Build a sense of community through collaboration towards a shared ethos and goal
2. Allow students to tap into their creative side without judgement
3. Offer concrete applications of what students learn as "buzz" words: sustainability, upcycling. green practices and serving the community
4. Understanding how to activate the power to create change that is in each of us

The 3 R's Initiative will begin in Fall 23, with a larger footprint for spring 24.  This initiative has already gained traction among students outside of the Fashion Programs which will allow for greater student interaction outside of their course of study.   There is no expectation for a desired result.  The only stipulation is that students begin with something discarded, and by applying the 3 R's ( Reclaim, Reimagne, Repurpose) the newly recreated garment will have new value.  The student work will be available for purchase with all proceeds to go to Bottomless Closet.  BC is a not-for-profit agency that supports women as they re-enter the workforce through wardrobing and strategic workshops.  

The initiative will attract students from the Fashion Programs and beyond.  It has been my experience that creativity is in each of us. but often does not have a conduit or perceived outcome.
Participants will learn how to activate their creativity and apply it in a practical way to help others.  Fashion can be a catalyst for change and that power will be realized by participants.

Students will have the chance to unite in a common goal which will provide a sense of confidence among peers.  I also plan to have Bottomless Closet share with our students how this initiative will impact their clients as they strive for a path forward.  Students will be asked for feedback at the beginning and at the end of the process to understand their experience and hopefully a hands-on understanding of community service.

I hope to enlarge The 3 R's so that it's reach will beyond KBCC and perhaps be shared on other CUNY sites.  There is also the hope that if this continues to gain traction we can model it as student run on campus business with a physical location where student work can be sold.  I would like to see all receipts go to a student selected not-for-profit going forward.  I am beginning talks with B.R.A.G. (Black Retail Action Group) who thought this initiative a great idea.  This is all in early stages but B.R.A.G. has an active presence at LIM and FIT.   They don't have a relationship with a community college but are interested in what that could look like.   They do offer extensive networking opportunities, internships, professional events and scholarships.  In other words I am thinking hard on this last point.

Zero Waste Kingsborough; a 2024 PTK/AtD College Project

Principal(s):

Midori Yamamura
Peter Santiago (Staff)
JoAnne Meyers (Staff)
Beth King (Professor)
Sara Rotkowski (Professor)
Javere Johson (Student)
Tanzeela Jahangir (Student)
Olga Shaidakova (Student)
Nawel Messaauid (student)

Reorganizing the school environment toward an eco-friendly place is crucial for establishing a sense of belonging for our healthy future. Zero Waste movement that we are establishing as a 2024 PTK campus project connects various academic disciplines and clubs with the topic of waste, led by the PTK students and the PTK/AtD advisors and committee members. AtD is our campus group that has been working hard to distinguish our students' strengths and eliminate the gaps among them. All four AtD student committee members, who also belong to the PTK, and some staff and faculty members attended the Oct. 19th Sustainability Council Meeting intending to do research and host an event on November 15, 2023, National Recycling Day. We plan to continue this effort in collaboration with the Career Center Marisa Joseph, start communicating with the local green businesses, involve professors teaching about Waste, such as Prof.s Colon and Ortiz, and involve the new Liberal Arts Committee members. With this grant, we will remove the silos among different groups and try to put a whole campus together with the efforts of students and their research and leadership. More specifically, the PTK members will determine and invite one speaker from the industry for the next Earth Day (April 2024), do research by inviting different professors from the campus to the PTC committee meeting to hear about their work, and write, design, and publish related promotional materials, with the help of English and Art (Graphic and UX Design) professors to strengthen the campus bonds and intensify and promote the sense of belonging that will culminate on the next Earth Day. 

The program will help provide a sense of community among our students (we plan to expand the Zero Waste movement by communicating with the student clubs) population, faculty members, and staff by hosting the study sessions, researching the local green business, designing, writing, and publishing the brochures to promote the Zero Waste and reorganize the KBCC environment.

The program will make the students, faculty, and staff members understand the impact of garbage in our environment and get them involved in a Zero Waste movement.

Professor Mary Ortiz is engaged in measuring the campus garbage distinction. We will ask Prof. Ortiz and her research group how the garbage reduction happened with their research data before and after the 2024 Earth Day. 

The budget might be a subject for change: Speaker fee ($500), Speaker transportation ($200), design and print of the brochure ($200), students activity fee ($600). The last item include their transportation, creating and printing the refillable aluminum water bottles, etc. It will depends on where the research will take the students. 

We just started the activity in October 2023. Currently, the funding is based on the staff members' pocket money (JoAnne Meyers contributed $50, and Prof. Yamamura wants to donate her research fund to a student not eligible for federal funding). Excepting one student, all the student AtD committee members are covered by the FWS for this semester. 

The Earth & Planetary Sciences Organization

Principal(s):
Robert Schenck
Michael Weisberg
Jisun Park
Stephen Jaret

This is a new project for the Earth and Planetary Sciences Program students and majors in the Department of Physical Sciences. This program will help build a community of EPS students by providing a congregational space for students, hosting informal social events, and providing access and advice to faculty and staff for enrollment and registration. Approximately 800 students each year are registered in our EPS program courses. EPS students strongly mirror and reflect the demographic makeup of Kingsborough students in general, which is unusual for an Earth Science program, normally ES programs have a consistent under representation of most minority groups. 
We are proposing to have monthly meetings in our EPS labspaces and elsewhere, where EPS students and those interested in this science and technology can congregate. We will provide drinks and food during these meetings and faculty and staff will be available to talk to and coordinate with these students.  We are also asking for a canopy to set up outside in the warmer months for the same purpose.This will allow students to network with each other and also put them in contact with faculty and staff who can help interested students enroll; enrolled students plan their course of study; and help graduates learn about bachelors programs in the area. We will provide food and drinks and also will have hydroflask stickers made featuring the EPS program to hand out to students.
EPS students also traditionally use small magnifying hand loups/lenses as part of their field of study. In our labs we provide them for in class use. We are proposing that at the last meeting all EPS degree graduates be given a hand loup to carry with them to their 4-year program/senior college. This is something earth scientists use throughout their career and will nicely mark their physical belonging to the campus even after they have left it.

This program will allow EPS students to have a place to network and meet. Where they can potentially plan and organize new activities related to this area of study. Students will also be able to meet instructors and staff in order to plan out future course selections and registration.

This program will serve EPS students including majors and those interested in possibly majoring in EPS. EPS students demographically match the overall demographics of the college, which represents an unusual advantage of the program here. Most Earth Science programs have a well noted under representation of minority students. 
This program will impact our students by providing them with a physical space to belong to on campus, allow them to network with each other and faculty/staff, and promote learning and belonging within our program. We also hope that if this program continues, graduates will be able to return help promote a sense of community here.

We’re going to ask students who they personally know in the program at the start and then again at the end of the program. We will compare these pre and post program networks. We will also track EPS degree graduates on which 4-year programs they enroll in and expect to see that Kingsborough graduates will  grouping in other programs they’ve become aware of through these interactions. Through interviews and surveys we will gauge how the program affects students and could be changed.

We  be searching through 2yr Earth Science organizations such as the NAGT and Serc-Carlton for continuing funding. We hope that the student meetings will help develop future activities that can meet the requirements for further external funding, such as field trips, invited talks, etc.

Be A Part

Principal(s): 

Michael Rodriguez
Damani Thomas

This program, tentatively called “Be A Part …" is being organized in the framework of underrepresented student groups at Kingsborough, specifically African American males. This project will focus on identifying, engaging, and supporting to these groups. All student population will be invited with an emphasis and care towards Men of Color. 

The project will be implemented as a Fraternal order event featuring several Divine 9 fraternities. It is proposed that the event would open with a stepping demonstration or a fraternal stroll to illicit excitement and engagement. The 2nd part of the event will be a panel discussion from representatives from several fraternities and sororities. The panel would highlight the importance of community services, academic excellence, and the benefits of brotherhood/sisterhood. The 3rd part of the event will be the opportunity for student participants to learn more about Divine 9 frats/sororities and as well as services Kingsborough Community College offers, e.g., Career Services; Men’s Resource Center, Athletics, KCC Farm and other areas. 

Be A Part” is an event organized by The Men’s Resource Center and the Office of Student Engagement with the intention to bring Men of Color together in a non-formal way promoting services which can enhance their college experience. Exposing them to fraternal orders will increase their awareness of the importance of adhering to a strong ethical code, as well as moral and professional standard. Additionally, Be A Part will expose students to service opportunities based at Kingsborough Community College. 

This program is primarily targeting men of color. This program will impact our target population by strengthen the sense of community among moc while exposing them to the importance of community service. 

A post event mix method survey will be sent to all attendees to gain feeback and measure impact. 

Validating Linguistic Diversity 

Principal(s):  Faith Fogelman

Validating Linguistic Diversity  A different language is a different vision of life - Federico Fellini

The welcome banners on high display along the KCC post office corridor reflect the linguistic diversity of the KCC community. Native speakers of the represented foreign languages might feel a sense of belonging, if only for a minute, as they look up and see a welcome greeting in their native tongue. As students are the greatest sector of the KCC community, is there something more that the college can do for students whose native language is not English in order to improve their sense of belonging, validate linguistic difference, and embrace them into KCC’s social fabric? 

Unless they are asked, student experiences among those who are not native English language speakers will remain unknown. Each experience may be discrete, but there may also be collective trends. Validating Linguistic Diversity will be an opportunity for non-native English speakers to tell their story and identify what they need for stronger connections to the college. They may need a conversational mentor with whom to practice English or a club comprised of students who speak a host of languages as they all practice English together, which would satisfy socialization needs, too. 

In lieu of guessing and planning initiatives for students who are not native English speakers, this project will provide the college with more solid information. Validating Linguistic Diversity will be a first step to minimize belonging gaps. When the college validates students, they feel less stressed and more understood. This student subset may share other student demographics, such as low-income, first generation, disability, even immigrant status, and so on, but this project will focus on their status as non-native English speakers.

As an expansion and variant of last year’s This Forum Belongs to Us, the project will coordinate a focus group series comprised of students who grew up speaking and feel more comfortable engaging in a language other than English. The forums will provide a safe, non-judgmental place to share and receive reassurance that KCC is invested in their progression. At the end of the series, the principal will submit a report to administration summarizing what students need as non-native English speakers for an improved sense of belonging. If their socialization - and progression needs - are appropriately addressed, so might their persistence rates and degree of comfort on campus.  

If the aforementioned quote by Fellini is correct, the college should improve appreciation of the KCC experience of non-native English speakers. In light of his statement, and with administrative sanction, KCC will identify a designated day to celebrate each language represented at the forums. Whether it is Spanish Day (Día del Español) or any other language celebration, native speakers will distribute flyers on campus to inform how to say basic greetings in that language. Students will write a text for a Communications email accompanied by an English translation. Instead of students stretching to communicate in English, this will be the day when the college will stretch to communicate in their language, reinforcing respect for linguistic diversity, and providing reinforcement for a better sense of belonging.

The challenges faced by students whose native language is not English will be recognized and supported. The feeling of belonging will be strengthened for this student subset as no individual will have to shout to be heard or feel overwhelmingly linguistically challenged, discouraged, or embarrassed to come forward. The aforementioned report will be a communication vehicle so that students will be collectively heard and expressed needs can be addressed, when appropriate.

Eligible students who participate will be reassured that the college cares about their discrete challenges. The project estimates that between 30-50 students representing a host of diverse languages will participate in the focus groups after receiving a college-wide e-mail. Word will spread, both internally among other students in this subset and externally among potential students, that KCC is a welcoming place for students who speak other languages, triggering positive publicity. Individual students might gain greater confidence to assume leadership roles in the face of linguistic challenges, even with imperfect English. As refenced in the project description, when the college provides validation, students feel less stressed and better understood. We matter; we count.

The evaluation will be both formative and summative. The principal will conduct focus in winter and early spring 2024. In late spring, the principal will re-convene the focus groups to assess quantitative differences (increased participation in KCC functions, making more friends without consideration of linguistic differences, greater integration with student government) and qualitative differences (how students assess their sense of belonging).

 

Your Words Matter: Writing/Speaking Your KCC Experience

Principal(s): Pittershawn Palmer

A sense of belonging begins with shared language; the words we use to express ourselves and communicate our place in the world. Our words tell others who we are, why we perceive ourselves the way we do, and what we believe in and stand for. This program would provide a framework for students to learn how the written and spoken word can be powerful tools used to fearlessly establish a sense of belonging. 

This is a new project aimed at increasing student self-esteem and confidence toward the goal of positive and authentic self-expression. Writing and public speaking can be used therapeutically to help position students positively in their chosen educational, social or professional spaces. It can encourage self-expression so their sense of self can be fully realized. This realization leads to increased actualization of dreams and aspirations, leading to a sense of belonging at KCC and in the world. After finding their voice, students will become more invested in their education and future through increased feelings of empowerment.

This program will serve all students seeking a sense of belonging in the spaces they occupy. Not only will this serve the students, but it will increase morale in the overall college community. As a sense of belonging increases, so will the spirit, energy, and voice of the students and college. Strong, united, engaged voices cannot be silenced. They build nations.

Students will sign in and be tracked to see how the project has helped them in establishing a sense of belonging. 

 

HereAreOurStories: International Students

Principal(s):
William Park
Gavin Ireland
Ishrat Rahman

5 international students (selected by International Student Affairs) with diverse backgrounds will each have 8-10 minutes to share their unique journey of choosing, studying, and acclimating at Kingsborough. Their stories may include topics of culture shocks, adjustment difficulties, overcoming challenges, and future goals or dreams. This will be similar to a TED Talks format held in COVE/101A. dent speakers should prepare presentation slides with pictures (limit of texts) only to aid their stories while presenting. There will be a 30–45-minute Q & A session where the attendees of the event (which may include students, staff, and faculty) can ask questions to each student at the end of students’ presentations. This session will be also recorded as a video for future resources.  

The program will help provide a sense of community among F-1 international including the out-of-state population of students by hosting a unique student-centered TED Talks-style and Q & A program. The program will bring greater awareness and understanding of KCC International Students and their experiences to other students, staff, and faculty who had little to no interaction and/or knowledge of international students. As a result, that will promote diversity in the KCC campus environment and foster intercultural understanding from one another. 

Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs, Dr. Denise B. Maybank said the following words at the CUNY Board of Trustees Committee on Student Life on October 2. “When we think about CUNY, all too often, we focus specifically on New York City, and we don’t think about our reach so far beyond. CUNY has a reach that goes across the waters of this world and pulls in the world.”  

Our diverse group of KCC international students hail from over 50 countries and travel across the ocean and continents to study at Kingsborough Community College. Some have waited for over a year to have the opportunity to study in the U.S. due to visa delays and gathering financial support in order. These students are among the most resilient, high-achieving, courageous, and dedicated full-time students at Kingsborough, who chose to step outside their comfort zones to pursue their education in a foreign country. In addition, English is often not the first language for many international students. International Students make up 3 to 4 percent of the entire KCC student body population. They face unique struggles and challenges inside and outside the classroom. Compared to the majority counterparts of in-state students, many international students mentioned feeling isolated, out of place, and not fully understood by fellow students, staff, and faculty.  
 
The KCC International Students need an opportunity to have a space and platform to share and educate the Kingsborough community as a whole. Most importantly, international students need to see students like them actively participating and narrating their own stories at Kingsborough. 

The learning objectives of the program would be to appreciate out-of-state/international student students’ stories in the U.S., Kingsborough, and understand the value that they bring not just to the classroom, but to the overall educational experience; to provide attendees and speakers the chance to reflect, empower, share, and narrate their own unique stories and experiences. 

The program will also empower and inspire international students who are speaking and attending the event to become active participants in classes and extracurricular activities at Kingsborough. Most importantly, international students would learn that they are not alone in experiencing particular challenges and hardships.  

This program will encourage and inspire to further increase international students’ involvement, persistence, and sense of belonging on our campus.  

The video recording of this event could also be played at the new student orientation or First-Year-Experience (FYE) courses to bring awareness about international students. 

The quality of the program depends on how well selected international students prepare and present their presentations.  

Our ISA staff have reviewed, assisted, and recommended numerous KCC scholarship applications such as Kann & Southpole Foundation Scholarships for our international students. Students who were awarded these scholarships already have written and articulated their journeys, challenges, accomplishments, and dreams at Kingsborough.   

The programming event will have 3-4 draft deadlines for selected students to submit their outline, draft, and final work of the presentation and receive detailed suggestions and feedback to enhance their stories and presentations.  

The attendees of the program will need to do a short qualitative and quantitative survey before the event starts to measure their knowledge of international students. The attendees will do the same survey after the event to measure and compare the attendees' responses. 

Based on how well the programming event executes and received, we hope to have it annually in the middle of the Spring semester. We will then select new international students to speak at the event.

As for future funding or budget, we hope to continue to receive the funds or donations allocated to this international student-centered event. We hope to collaborate with other departments such as the Office of Student Life, Student Wellness Services, and/or Student Union and Intercultural Center.

The Kingsborough Collaborative Research Bootcamp (K-CORE): creating a research community for our students

Principal(s): Laura Spinu

Authentic research activities and community colleges have long been perceived as incompatible with each other, a view that a growing body of research has strongly challenged in recent years. Unfortunately, many community college students continue to espouse this view, often beginning college with weak quantitative skills and reduced scientific literacy. Research experiences of various kinds have been identified as some of the best ways to recruit students into STEM majors and support their persistence to graduate with a STEM degree. However, community colleges typically lack a culture of research. Bridging this gap requires creating opportunities for community college students to engage in a variety of research experiences that meet their needs. The overarching goal of the current proposal is to expand K-CORE, a campus-wide undergraduate research program that allows students to engage in STEM research projects of different types. 

K-CORE (Kingsborough COllaborative REsearch Bootcamp) provides mentorship and specialized training to students from all majors at KCC. Students are trained to conduct collaborative experimental research projects and present them at conferences, acquiring STEM exposure and hands-on experiential training. To date, 24 students have participated in the first two cycles of the program, resulting in 4 publications first-authored by students (notably, one of these in a volume at Cambridge University Press) and over 30 presentations (virtually and in-person) at professional conferences. Please see https://lspinu.commons.gc.cuny.edu/kcore for pictures and details on students' conference participation over the years.

In the past decade (2020, 2018, 2012), the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology has reported a STEM educational crisis, with the number of current jobs in STEM fields exceeding the number of qualified candidates to fill them. Suggested solutions include providing students with access to more trained educators, educational content that is engaging and hands- on, and pathways to discover a multitude of STEM-related job opportunities enabling them to see a clear professional future. All of the approaches suggested by PCAST in order to solve the STEM educational crisis have been actively included in K-CORE's development, and will continue to be emphasized going forward. Thus, students receive (1) access to highly trained educators through the PI's network within CUNY (facilitated by my role as doctoral faculty at the Graduate Center - a joint appointment with my primary KCC position) and more generally through my network of domestic and international collaborators providing enhanced psychosocial support for students through faculty encouragement, empathizing, and serving as a role model, (2) engaging and hands-on educational content through personalization or anchoring of research topics in current affairs, e.g. one of our recent studies incorporating NY Times' popular game Wordle, and (3) pathways to STEM-related professional trajectories through  participation in professional conferences.

K-CORE's proposed outcomes are as follows:

1. Create a community of undergraduate student researchers: the program has already established a supportive community for students through collaborative work on joint projects, but also across projects by providing peer feedback, exchanging ideas, commenting on each other’s work, and sharing resources on various media, such as the What's App and LinkedIn groups we have been maintaining. Notably, students have traveled in pairs or groups to present their posters at domestic conferences (in San Diego, CA, Nashville TN, Chicago IL, Denver CO, and NYC). Despite substantial overlap with the Covid-19 lockdown, K-CORE students initiated regular Zoom meetings, joined the LinkedIn and What’s App closed groups where they often socialized, and later pursued in-person social activities together. To further deepen the sense of community, I am developing a central support website (CUNY Academic Commons) bringing together past and current K-CORE participants. As an exciting new development, employing physical space (shared with colleagues) on our campus (i.e. the COMM department's Speech Lab) will further strengthen the students' sense of belonging and the number of collaborations stemming from participation in the program.

2. Train students in a well-defined set of skills, resulting in a more STEM literate undergraduate student body: upon completion of the program, students will have learned how to develop a research question, formulate a hypothesis, identify primary sources to support their work, conduct a research protocol, analyze data, visualize research data in a form commonly used in science, create a research poster and present their findings at a professional conference.

3. Produce a quantifiable number of student-led research projects presented at local/international conferences (TARGET: 3-5 presentations/year, engaging 12-15 students). 

Students from any major are welcome to participate, as long as their projects address a speech/language-related topic. Engaging in research that can make students excited about the discovery process plays a crucial part in their decision to major in or pursue graduate degrees in a STEM field.There is agreement in the literature that college students who receive mentoring have improved success in terms of their grades, retention, satisfaction with college and social integration into academic settings. Furthermore, students learn more rapidly, retain knowledge longer, and develop more sophisticated critical thinking skills when they are actively engaged in the learning process, particularly in the process of “discovery guided by mentoring”. 

Participation in the first cycles of K-CORE resulted in a significant perceived increase in research and collaborative skills (F(1,64) = 92.3, p < .001). I will continue to evaluate the success of this educational activity in four ways: (1) employ subjective measures such as entry and exit questionnaires; (2) administer performance-based assessments such as pre- and post-program knowledge and skill tests; (3) track the number of presentations to domestic and international student and professional conferences delivered during each cycle; (4) keep records of the rates of student retention and transfer to senior colleges, overall GPA, number of fellowships, internships, graduate school admissions, and the time taken to enroll in a graduate program or start professional employment in students' field of specialization, comparing their likelihood to be retained in a STEM discipline or to graduate with a STEM degree to that of non-participating peers.

The program has had several iterations since 2019, funded with generous support from our Provost, the Coordinated Undergraduate Education initiative, an enhanced PSC-CUNY grant awarded to the PI, funds from the CUNY Research Scholars Program and most recently, the CUNY Kingsborough Fostering Excellence in Teaching Award. As program director, I continuously and proactively seek funding for K-CORE every year and also teach my students to follow this model by applying for various awards and travel funds for their conference expenses (with many successful such applications to date). These efforts will continue in the foreseeable future. Please note I am also in the process of preparing an NSF grant proposal for "IUSE: Innovation in Two-Year College STEM Education" which, if awarded, would provide ample opportunity for K-CORE to become established and self-sustaining. 

Surgical Technology Outreach Program for New York City High Schools ( Surgical Technologist Futures)

Principal(s):
Beata Monsanto 
Awilda Montes
Dana Donovan 
Samantha Vecca
Senior ST student 

The proposed program, titled "Surgical Technologist Futures," is a new project designed to educate high school students in Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, Bronx, and Manhattan about the surgical technology program at Kingsborough Community College. By offering informative sessions and mentorship opportunities, we aim to bridge the gap between high school education and advanced surgical technology training. In addition to help graduate students with job placement in NYU Langone Health, Northwell ,Mount Sinai, Memorial Sloan, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, HSS after completing the program at KCC.  

The "Surgical Tech Futures" program will:

1. Host interactive workshops and information sessions in high schools, introducing students to the field of surgical technology and the educational opportunities available at KCC.

2. Facilitate mentorship programs, connecting high school students with experienced surgical technologists and professors to guide them throughout their academic journey.

3. Arrange transportation for students to visit KCC's modern surgical technology lab, offering hands-on experience with the latest surgical technologies.

**Stated Impact:**
This program primarily serves a younger generation of students who intend to attend college and are interested in pursuing a career in allied health, specifically surgical technology. The impact of this program is twofold:

1. Increased awareness and interest in the surgical technology program at KCC among high school students, potentially leading to a more diverse and motivated applicant pool.

2. Educating students about the surgical technologist program in allied health, thus aiding in their career exploration and decision-making process.

**Proposed Outcomes:**

The "Surgical Tech Futures" program will:

1. Host interactive workshops and information sessions in high schools, introducing students to the field of surgical technology and the educational opportunities available at KCC.

2. Facilitate mentorship programs, connecting high school students with experienced surgical technologists and professors to guide them throughout their academic journey.

3. Arrange transportation for students to visit KCC's modern surgical technology facilities, offering hands-on experience with the latest surgical technologies.

**Stated Impact:**
This program primarily serves a younger generation of students who intend to attend college and are interested in pursuing a career in allied health, specifically surgical technology. The impact of this program is twofold.

We will evaluate the program's effectiveness through:

1. Pre- and post-event surveys to assess changes in students' knowledge and interest in surgical technology.

2. Feedback from participating high school teachers and administrators.

3. Collection of participant names and emplids for follow-up and assessment of program retention and engagement.

Digital Family Oral History Project 

Principal(s): Lili Shi 

I'm preparing for a digital oral history project for my new course "Family Communication" that contribute to the Tenement Museum's digital exhibit/archive "Your Story Our Story". Students will do research and interview a senior family/community member around a piece of family history or a family object, and present a narrative story digitally, engaging concepts we learn from class. The key readings that frame this project highlight themes of immigration, transnationalism, multi-racial and LGBTQ families. The objective of this project is to invite students who are not from traditional American heteronormative middle-class families to become historians of their own family experiences from a communication perspective, and to make it visible that their stories and belonging matter to New York City and American History. I already registered a group page for my course at the "Your Story Our Story" project site of the Tenement Museum ready to students' entries. 

Kingsborough is a gateway community for many immigrant students as well as non-traditional students of diverse family structures and backgrounds. It is our OWN space of rich stories of New York and American family histories that deserved to be developed into a meaningful pedagogical and archival space. To create a digital exhibit of Kingsborough family histories at the Tenement Museum’s digital archive is to recognize and celebrate students’ belonging and cultural citizenry to the city. 

References:
Tenement Museum's digital exhibit/archive "Your Story Our Story": 
https://yourstory.tenement.org/

Kingsborough SPE19 Family Communication Group Page at “Your Story Our Story”: https://yourstory.tenement.org/groups/kcc-cuny-family-comm-project

By exhibiting students' family histories in a digital space, this project will help provide recognition and belonging for students who are not from traditional American heteronormative middle-class families. Kingsborough students from immigrant, transnational, multi-racial and LGBTQ families become historians of their own family experiences and draw connections to the larger framework of New York City and American Histories. 

Students' digital oral family histories will be available at my course's group page of the "Your Story Our Story" project site of the Tenement Museum. (All identifiers will be removed.) https://yourstory.tenement.org/groups/kcc-cuny-family-comm-project.

Once the course is established and known to students. I won't worry about enrollment and will use previous KCC students' digital oral stories from the Tenement Museum archive to run the course and solicit more stories. 

 

KCC Library Silent Book Club

Principal(s):

Julie Turley
Caroline Jedlicka.

Two KCC faculty librarians propose hosting a Silent Book Club event for students.  A silent book club is an event where attendees gather, bringing their own book or reading material.  Attendees spend an hour reading together silently, and then have the option to socialize and/or participate in an informal discussion about what they’re reading.  Silent Book Clubs are spaces for low pressure engagement, socialization, and relaxation. Attendees have no obligation to prepare; their reading presence is the central component of a Silent Book Club Community. 

The KCC Library Silent Book Club would include a visually-appealing book cart of books selected from the KCC Library’s Leisure Collection.  The Kibbee Library has a robust Leisure Collection that’s continually being updated and has been carefully curated to include new books, best sellers, and diverse voices and perspectives. These mobile book carts will be brought to a designated space within the library determined to be appropriate for and conducive to the goals of silent reading. Care would be taken to set up a comfortable place for students to be and read: a priority of the event is relaxation and low stakes social exchange. Librarians would facilitate the event.  Snacks and drinks would be offered.  

The KCC Library has traditional seating for studying and computer carrells. However, the KCC Librarians hope to enhance the book club space to ensure that students feel that the library is welcoming and comfortable–a space where they feel that they belong. Scholarly literature has indicated that many first-generation college students find academic libraries to be somewhat intimidating and anxiety-inducing spaces.  The KCC Library is exploring ways in which the library could be reimagined as a more comfortable space addressing a range of student needs.  Anecdotal student data indicates that one of these needs is rest and relaxation, which is part and parcel of student wellness.  In light of this, the Kibbee Library has a need for more comfortable seating and spaces where students can relax and reflect.  The Kibbee Library envisions that a Silent Book Club could be part of a bigger vision of making our KCC Library spaces as welcoming as possible to students.

The event would be promoted via the KCC Library’s social media outlets and flyers hung around the college.  The promotional materials would include a QR code that students could scan to RSVP for the event.  Students would also have the option to suggest book titles or genres of books that the library could purchase (if they’re not already in the collection) to have on-hand for reading at the event. Students would be welcome to provide their own book or choose a book from the library’s collection. 

Following the reading session, students would have the option to discuss what they’re reading and socialize.

The Silent Book Club will provide a welcoming and comfortable space for students where they can read, snack, and socialize.

The event will convey that librarians are friendly and accessible to students.

The event will make students aware of the library collection and convey that the library welcomes student feedback on the collection.

The event would be open to all KCC students who wish to attend.  Targeted populations include: students who enjoy reading; students who might not see themselves as leisure readers or book group participants, but are curious about the event; students who are looking for community; library users; and students who are introverted or enjoy social events without a lot of social pressure.

The librarians envision the Silent Book Club as an early step in the process of intentional community building in the library.  This event will present the library as a welcoming space where students feel like they belong.  To maintain contact with attendees, librarians will keep track of the students who attend and send them invitations to future related library events and new additions to the collection.  Librarians will make students aware of library social media outlets where students can also stay in the loop on what’s new in the library.

Librarian facilitators will employ varying modalities to gather student feedback.  Immediately following the event, librarian facilitators will seek out verbal feedback from student attendees.  Librarians will also provide a QR code to a brief survey where students can provide feedback and indicate whether they’d like to attend future events.  From student email on the event sign-in sheet, librarians can email the survey and keep students informed of future Silent Book Club and related events, as well as new book acquisitions.  In addition to gathering feedback and assessment date, librarian facilitators will use the modalities to build an intentional community around the Silent Book Club.

The librarians would like to continue hosting Silent Book Club events, if students express interest in attending future clubs.  The Bean Bag Chairs could be used for future book club events, as well as other student-facing events.  For future book clubs, the library would likely have some limited funds in the budget for snacks and drinks.

 

Novice Nursing Student Identity Formation Bootcamp

Principal(s): Karen Colombo 

Kingsborough nursing program is a rigorous academic program. Once the program prerequisites are completed the student is accepted and begins their journey to become a registered nurse.  I have identified a gap in the student’s knowledge base regarding the role of the professional nurse in todays’ health care settings. This two day program will introduce the student to the world of contemporary nursing and the interdisciplinary teams in a variety of settings, while modeling the role of the professional nurse and allowing students to get to know their peers in a enjoyable interactive setting. The students will begin to form friendships and bonding, promoting a sense of belonging both to the profession and to each other. 

This bootcamp program will lay the foundation for establishing a sense of belonging and a community of nursing scholars.  The newly accepted nursing student will be introduced  to contemporary nursing practice, learn teamwork and collaboration with each other and the interdisciplinary team, and begin forming their identity as professional nurses. 

This program will benefit the newly accepted nursing student after successful completion of their prerequisites.  Many of our students come from challenging backgrounds and have multiple responsibilities outside of their academic lives. This program will facilitate the formation of a scholarly community and strengthen peer bonding for lasting positive effects through the nursing program. 

Evaluation of the proposed program will take place through student evaluations and surveys, as well as the successful progression and retention in the nursing program through graduation. 

Ideally this would be a continuing program to be offered each semester (Fall and Spring) to incoming accepted nursing students. 

Once a KCC Student, Always a KCC Alumni

Principal(s):
Nancy Sanchez Badillo
Aba Agolli,
Maria Patestas

The “Always an Alumni” workshop will feature KCC alumni that represent our diverse student body. We plan to have three speakers, and they will be providing their experience of going to KCC, graduating, and then ending up where they are today. They will also provide information on the skills necessary to succeed beyond Kingsborough. This workshop will also provide professional headshots done by our very own Multimedia Specialist. Additionally, we will be providing food and refreshments for this event. A KCC portfolio will be provided to students that sign in and complete the workshop series.

Institutional Advancement is looking to build a sense of community and continuity through the cohort model of this program.   We are looking to cultivate the next generation of alumni.    The program will provide structure for students to build comradery through a workshop with insight on post-graduation as well as professional resources. College can be intimidating, and especially at commuter institutions, student engagement is an ongoing challenge to navigate. While traditionally Alumni’s are only brought into the fold post-graduation, we are utilizing the concept of “Always an Alumni”, where students are going to be brought into the collective while they are an active student. The “Always an Alumni” workshop will enable students to feel as part of a contingency, and will ultimately disperse feelings of loneliness or being left out. 

This workshop will serve any and all KCC students. One of the major areas where KCC students request support is career/professional advice and we will be providing access to that information.  Participants will also receive a portfolio holder which will provide a professional edge to wherever they may need to use it. Equally important, attendees will gain insight onto the potential of previous students just like them, while also gaining the first-hand experiences on how to navigate the world after Kingsborough. Students will be obtaining invaluable professional insight from previous KCC graduates while also creating connections with other students, again eliminating the notion that they are alone in their respective academic or professional journeys. 

Participants will complete a survey and submit a reflection at the end of the series to receive the completion certificate.

Banned Books and Art Making

Principal(s):
Ivana Espinet
Katherine Gordon
Chico Knight

We propose to host a banned books and art making event for education students, alumni, and other KCC students who are interested in working in fields related to education.
Across the nation, book bans that affect schools and libraries have escalated in tandem with the proliferation of legislative efforts to restrict teaching about topics such as race, gender, history, and LGBTQ+ identities.Overwhelmingly, book banners continue to target stories by and about people of color and LGBTQ+ individuals. (See report by Pen America , and NY Times article Florida at Center of Debate as School Book Bans Surge Nationally) 
These book bans have impacted what teachers are allowed to teach and the books that schools and libraries are able to share with students.  Many of the books that are on the banned list have characters that represent the intersectional identities of KCC students.  We believe that our students and their histories belong in children’s books that should be part of every classroom, so they can all experience what the scholar Rudine Sims Bishop calls the mirror and the window: they can see themselves reflected in the literature, while also learning about other cultures and peoples not present in their classroom.
Art making, printmaking in particular, has been essential in shaping and conveying messages for a variety of protest movements throughout history. German artist Käthe Kollwitz depicted the suffering of mothers losing their children in WWI as a form of protest, working in etchings and woodcuts in order to create multiples to share. American artist Faith Ringgold created posters advocating for the rights of women, and in defense of the Black Panthers. Beyond the capacity for multiple copies for dissemination, printmaking is also vital to bookmaking, meaning that we can also begin to create the books ourselves that we need in our classrooms to accurately and positively portray our rich and diverse cultures.
Our students learn to use children’s literature for pedagogical purposes in a variety of courses. This event would help bring awareness to an issue that will affect them as educators and provide a forum to learn and exercise advocacy thorough art making. 
For this event, student and alumni would:
·      Learn about the implications for educators of book bans across the country.  
·      Read and analyze some early childhood and childhood picture books that have been banned.
·      Create artwork in response to the book bans that would be displayed in the KCC education program wing (and perhaps the library?) and social media to bring awareness to this issue. 

This program will also support students’ understanding of their role as advocates within our KCC community and  the larger community of educators.
 
This event would help provide a sense of community between current and former students who are working in the field of education.

This program will serve students and KCC graduates of the education program and students from other programs who want to work or are working in education related fields (e.g. students from the liberal arts concentration, speech pathology, etc.).
 
The impact for this event is twofold: 
·      In working and collaborating with alumni, current students would learn about the experiences of former students in the field.
 
·      Students will be able to create art to collectively advocate for educational issues that affect them (in this case, the banning of books that reflect many of their communities and histories).

At the end of the event, we will distribute a survey to all the participants with questions about each activity. 

Building Inclusive Syllabi for Sense of Belonging in Freshman Writing

Principal(s): Hope Parisi

Offering an inclusive syllabi is a primary yet often overlooked means for establishing sense of belonging for entering college students. Freshman Composition, or ENG12 (and ENG24), is a course at Kingsborough with power to convey a great deal about student to instructor, and student to student, relationships, whether inclusive or off-putting, welcoming or distant. I request a Sense of Belonging grant that will coordinate and strengthen my role as Faculty Mentor of the English Department specifically to offer three part-time instructors a series of three 2-hour workshops in mainly Winter 2024 (and concluding in Spring 2024) on the syllabus as a means for fostering sense of belonging in Freshman Composition. The first two workshops, during the winter module, would discuss selected readings in syllabus design targeting inclusiveness and belonging; review sample syllabi that have been posted online as the outcomes of similar workshopping at other university teaching and learning centers; and provide assistance for participants to redesign their syllabi for inclusiveness in three specific goal-oriented ways they select. A third workshop would take place Spring 2024 at which participants will share their revised syllabi and discuss ways these impacted teaching and instruction during the semester.

Goal-oriented topics to be covered in the workshops will include: personalizing the syllabus; acknowledging and valuing diversity; validating resilience;  anticipating student needs; setting reachable and adaptable standards and expectations for learning and classroom discourse; widening the range and definition of participation; incorporating interest and choice; conveying accessible communication policies and practices; emphasizing the classroom as a space for community and community-building. 

The program will introduce three part-time faculty members to inclusive syllabus design in the interest of sense of belonging. Each participating part-time faculty member will commit to all three sessions.

Participants will revise their syllabus for three specific changes derived from the proposed list of goal-oriented workshop topics.

Participants will be able to articulate their choices for both short- and long-term goals for teaching.

Participants will use the new syllabus and take notes on changes and shifts in their teaching that emanate from the new syllabus.

Participants will express a new appreciation for sense of belonging and the importance of the syllabus to peer-participants in the concluding (third) session of Spring 2024.

Ultimately, this program will impact the students of the courses these faculty will teach in the spring, presumably three classrooms of ENG12 or ENG 24 students. These students will experience a sense of belonging as conveyed by the syllabus and the changes and shifts in teaching that follow from it. 

Plan for evaluation:

1. First workshop: What did you learn about sense of belonging and the syllabus? What three goals from among our goal-oriented topics for the workshop are you choosing to incorporate in your syllabus and why? (To be queried by Google Forms)

2. Second workshop: Think of the three main changes you’ve selected to incorporate in your syllabus. For each one, what does it mean to focus on that particular goal as per your syllabus? How is it impacting your thinking about the syllabus and your teaching? (To be queried by Google Forms)

3. Third workshop: Were you able to incorporate the changes to your syllabus that you selected based on our first workshop? For each one, how did that change impact your syllabus? How did it impact your teaching this semester? (To be queried by Google Forms)

The model for this workshop focus itself is replicable. I would like to think further on sustainable funding. Generally, workshops for part-time faculty in English are not offered in the winter through my Faculty Mentor role. This program would provide a link between winter planning and spring teaching that part-timers usually are not fortunate enough to experience as a KCC-ENG sponsored activity.