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Archives for September 2021

Bringing new volume to Latina voices

September 27, 2021 by Strategic Communication

Helping a student find his or her own voice is one of the most important things a teacher can do.  

Dr. Daisy Collins, a faculty member in the school of social work, is motivated by her personal journey to help her students learn to speak up. 

Collins moved to the United States from Mexico in her early 20s to continue her education. She faced many challenges on her journey through academia before eventually reaching her role as a teacher at Missouri State University.  

“I moved here not speaking any English,” Collins said. “There were not many women like me – bilingual, non-native English speaker, first generation – who were working in higher education.” 

Collins was inspired to find more women like her so they could help each other, share their stories and inspire one another.  

Advocating with a scholarly voice 

Collins was pursuing her doctorate in educational leadership and policy analysis when she began to look for ways to advocate for Hispanic women in higher education.  

Her dissertation advisor encouraged her to turn her concern into a research question. Specifically, what are the experiences of Hispanic women in higher education, and what can we learn from them?  

Finding Hispanic women in higher education was not an easy task.  

“I ended up with 25 participants from five different universities,” Collins said. “Which sounds like a great pool, but it’s actually pretty small.”  

Yet Collins turned the small sample size into a full account of the 25 women’s experiences. This became her dissertation, “The Brown Glass Ceiling? A Qualitative Study of Hispanic Women/Latinas Leaders in Higher Education.”  

The dissertation was one of the first works giving a scholarly voice to the stories of Latinas in higher education. 

“Sometimes you see people in high positions, but you don’t know their journey,” Collins said. “For me, it was so powerful to be able to give a voice to these Latina women’s experiences. It’s worth recognizing the barriers they had to overcome and the roles they reached, such as those of department heads or leaders of overseas programs.” 

Expanding her work  

Collins used her passion for advocacy to begin the work of creating a new textbook for EDC 345 Introduction to Multicultural Education and Diversity, a course she taught in the College of Education.  

“It has been the most humbling experience to work with my colleagues,” Collins said. “Our collaboration has allowed us to share the voices of preservice teachers and help guide those interested in multicultural education and diversity.” 

At the end of Collins’s email signature is a tagline that she strives to live by: “communicate respectfully, humanize and create positive environments around you.” 

 She hopes that her work – in the classroom and beyond – will do just that.   

“Sometimes we take for granted what people do. That’s why I feel like advocacy is my calling,” Collins said. “I want Latina women in higher education to know they’re not alone. We are here to join hands and go through the journey of making our voices heard together.” 

Read more about Collins’s recent publications  

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Associate professor, alumna lead nonprofit dedicated to increasing literacy

September 23, 2021 by Web Strategy and Development

If you’re able to read this, that means someone taught you the basics of language and literacy.

You learned the alphabet, and probably drew cute little letters (maybe with some parts backwards). You repeated the sounds each letter makes.

You moved into reading comprehension. That’s the ability to understand what letters mean when they make words, and what words mean when they make sentences.

You learned grammar and how to understand stories. You increased your vocabulary.

You probably don’t remember learning all of this. Now, you just read and write without thinking about it. You can easily interact with language as you move through the world. You may even read for fun.

That’s the feeling of empowered literacy.

It’s the feeling the MSU instructors, alumni and students behind Ujima Language and Literacy want to instill in children.

Growing from a poorly attended literacy fair to part of a community

Ujima Language and Literacy was conceived in 2014 by Dr. Shurita Thomas-Tate, MSU associate professor of communication sciences and disorders.

Ujima is a Swahili word that means “collective work and responsibility.” It’s one of the principals of the Kwanzaa holiday.

Ujima Language and Literacy seeks to increase skills in children ages birth to 11.

Support Ujima

“It began as an effort to provide my MSU graduate students an opportunity to gain practical experiences, working with students from diverse backgrounds,” she said.

Thomas-Tate came to Springfield in 2011 as an assistant professor who specialized in school-age language and literacy, as well as cultural and linguistic diversity.

Dr. Shurita Thomas-Tate, founder of Ujima Language and Literacy.

“I have always been interested in increasing literacy among the African-American population,” she said. “Children who read well have larger vocabularies, and children with larger vocabularies perform better on standardized tests.”

She was thinking about how to engage her MSU students in this arena.

“I teach school-age language and literacy to speech-language pathology graduate students,” she said. “They need 400 clinical hours for their degrees. They can get those at a clinic on campus, and off-site. But there were not many opportunities for them to engage with diverse populations.”

Those opportunities are important, she said.

“We want to send professionals out into the world who can work with children with many cultural and language backgrounds. We want our graduates to celebrate differences, not see them as disorders.”

In 2015, she, her students and community partners held a literacy fair at the Bartley-Decatur Neighborhood Center. It’s a property with a long history of serving Springfield’s Black community.

“We went door-to-door with fliers, and told people there would be pizza, ice cream and games,” she said. “We only had five kids turn up! But those five got a lot of student attention. And my students loved it.”

Seeing the small turnout, she knew she needed a deeper relationship with the community.

“We had to commit to this neighborhood long-term,” she said.

Attendees participate in a lesson at Ujima Language and Literacy camp.

In 2016, Ujima started a free literacy camp for children.

Next, they started family literacy nights, in which caregivers could eat with children, participate in language activities and take home a new book.

“Ujima means to build and maintain our community together. We make our brothers’ and sisters’ problems our problems, and solve them together. That’s why it’s essential to get the whole family involved,” she said.

For its first two years, Ujima was a half-day event held at the Bartley-Decatur Neighborhood Center.

In the third year, Springfield Public Schools partnered with Ujima to make it a full-day summer program at Weller Elementary.

“We started thinking about becoming an organization, rather than just a program,” Thomas-Tate said.

The free literacy camp moved to north Springfield’s Turning Point Church, a partner to the program. The camp is now held for 15 days in July — three weeks of Monday through Friday.

The literacy programs originally targeted historically under-resourced and underserved students, and primarily low-income African-American students.

“That has now expanded to anyone, and any child,” Thomas-Tate said.

Ujima has an infant program that teaches caregivers how to maximize play time and verbal interactions with babies, including reading to them. Ujima also offers toddler and preschool activities.

In 2019, Ujima officially became a 501(c)(3), a nonprofit organization.

“That opened up new sources of funding, relationships with new stakeholders and more. The growth has been great.”

Alumna with a history of community involvement is now the board chair

With nonprofit status came the chance to have a board of directors. Alumna Monica Horton, ’15, is the board’s chair.

Horton’s family moved to Springfield in 2013 when her husband, Leonard B. Horton III, joined MSU’s department of media, journalism and film.

Five or six years ago, their daughter, Ari’el, attended Ujima’s camp.

“I always wanted her to have a love of reading. She got to choose her own books, with characters that reflected her,” Horton said. “She would dramatize them and read them out loud. It became a focal point of our family time at home.”

Ujima also felt like “an affinity space for families of color,” Horton said.

When Ujima transitioned to a nonprofit, Horton knew she could use her skills to help the group flourish.

Monica Horton, ’15, is the chair of Ujima’s board of directors.

She has a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Tuskegee University, a master’s degree in music therapy from Florida State University and a Master of Public Administration degree from Missouri State.

She owns her own business, Lenica Consulting Group.

She taught music therapy courses at Drury University for four years, and now teaches Foundations in Equity and Inclusion there.

Her MSU master’s thesis looked at Springfield Public Schools’ leading indicators of student success, as well as achievement gaps.

“Merging higher education with community involvement has always been a focus for me,” Horton said.

“I am interested in telling stories with data. Numbers can show you disparities, risk factors and information about quality of life. How can you help organizations and leaders set priorities? You need baseline data and measurable goals to show where you want to go. The cherry on top of this research is that we are serving the community.”

Phonics, food and fun: What happens at Ujima Summer Experience

Early on a Monday morning, caregivers filled the parking lot of Turning Point Church.

They held the hands of children, many still blinking the sleep out of their eyes.

The children were kissed goodbye in a large basement room full of round tables.

The first order of business: Food. A table held cereal, yogurt, cheese sticks, fruit, milk and juice.

“Everyone at Ujima gets breakfast, lunch and snacks every day,” Thomas-Tate said.

After that, children broke into groups according to age.

Attendees participate in a lesson at Ujima Language and Literacy camp.

The free camp currently has room for 40 students to register, and, on average, 26 children attend each day.

Each group’s activities are led by MSU speech-language pathology graduate clinicians.

The MSU students are supervised by alumna Taylor Shields, ’17. She’s a speech-language pathologist who volunteered at the first Ujima literacy camps while she was earning her master’s degree.

“I loved it. I told Dr. Thomas-Tate I wanted to do my research project here,” Shields said. “After graduate school, I took what I learned at Ujima and applied it to my own practice.”

Learn more about the SLP graduate program

She works during the school year at Republic Elementary, and in the summer at Ujima.

“I help the MSU students plan their sessions — which books to read, which vocab to work on. During camp, I observe and give them feedback.”

Shields said Ujima is important to future professionals.

“This is the only time some of the MSU students work with children not one-on-one, and so they learn group dynamics here,” she said.

Each age range has different needs.

The youngest children focus on kindergarten readiness. They draw letters, make sounds and identify words.

They also learn skills such as sitting, taking turns, following directions and making friends. They practice breathing to calm down, and using their words if they need a break or want to take a walk around the room.

“Imagine how much more confident they are if they start school with these skills,” Thomas-Tate said.

On the day Missouri State magazine visited, every student drew a “g” on a chalkboard.

Attendees participate in a lesson at Ujima Language and Literacy camp.

“Good job, Alyssa! That looks great,” their graduate clinician said.

One student ran to Thomas-Tate.

“MY STOMACH DOESN’T HURT!” he told her.

That seemed to be good news, so we moved on to the 1st to 3rd grade classroom.

That group was focused on story elements, such as character, plot, setting and conflict resolution.

Graduate clinician Abi Felter was reading to the class. “Where does the story take place?” she asked.

“In the middle of a scorching hot desert!” a student told her.

That was why it was hard to grow crops, they agreed.

The oldest group ranges from some advanced 3rd graders to 5th graders. They were talking about vocabulary and grammar.

The conversation in the room was largely between the students, rather than the class monitors: “That’s a suffix, right?” “It has a prefix AND a suffix!”

After morning learning, it’s lunch time.

Next, members of the Springfield Regional Arts Council come in to do arts and crafts with the children for the rest of the day. Then, it’s time for snacks and pick-up.

“Art is another way of growing their interests and knowledge,” Thomas-Tate said. “It’s camp, and not school — we do everything we can to make it fun!”

What’s next for Ujima? Securing the future and hiring their first staff

Thomas-Tate and the board want to sustain and expand their start-up.

They are applying for grants and other sources of funding that would let them do more long-range planning.

Ujima recently earned a multiyear grant from the Musgrave Foundation’s Change for Children program, which supports charities in southwest Missouri.

They hope to hire an executive director, and then a program director.

The literacy camp will likely stay at Turning Point Church, which has the space to accommodate more children if the camp can offer more slots.

“We see so many opportunities to grow,” Thomas-Tate said. “Literacy is for everybody.”

 

Filed Under: Communication Sciences and Disorders, MCHHS Alumni, Spotlights Tagged With: Communication Sciences and Disorders, Shurita Thomas-Tate, speech-language pathology

Protecting cattle from tickborne illnesses

September 21, 2021 by Strategic Communication

Tracking the spread of contagions has proven to be crucial to preserving health. This extends to protecting cattle.

A Missouri State University research team recently discovered a species of tick in southwest Missouri that is harmful to cattle.

The team was led by Drs. David Claborn and Kip Thompson, faculty members in the master of public health program at Missouri State.

They were searching for the Asian longhorned tick, which can spread a deadly disease. Claborn notes it harms mainly cattle, not humans.

“Although the risk posed by the Asian Longhorned tick in the U.S. is primarily to cattle, the tick is a known vector of human diseases as well” said Claborn.

“It has a disease called theileria, which is like malaria, though malaria only infects red blood cells,” Claborn said. “Theileria affects all blood cells in all ages and can be very devastating to cattle.”

After being located on the East Coast four years ago, there was an Asian longhorned tick spotted in northwest Arkansas two years ago.

The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services asked if the Missouri State research team could find this tick in Missouri. In 2021, the department awarded the team a grant of $17,000 to conduct this survey.

The results

Research began in 2019, but halted in 2020 due to COVID. It resumed this year.

“In 2021, we focused on the southwest corner of the state and that is where we found them,” Claborn said.

By dragging through conservation sites and using baited traps, the team members collected 4,ooo samples of ticks. Out of that sampling, they were able to identify five Asian longhorned ticks.

What farmers need to know

Thompson asserts the best way for farmers to prevent harm from these ticks is to regularly check cattle and make sure they have repellent on.

The Missouri Department of Agriculture encourages farmers to keep grass and weeds trimmed and check their livestock regularly.

The team plans to continue conducting surveillance in conservation sites.  It’s hopeful to learn more about this species of tick.

Read more about Dr. Claborn’s reseach in Mind’s Eye

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Going viral: Surveying the risk of transmitting disease

September 20, 2021 by Strategic Communication

Filed Under: Public health and sports medicine Tagged With: David Claborn, Mind's Eye

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