2019 Incentive Grants Award Winners

The Outreach and Engagement Incentive Grants Program serves to address significant community challenges by aligning interdisciplinary faculty, their expertise, their students, and their research. The incentive grants connect NCSU faculty to applied scholarship opportunities in communities, stimulating interdisciplinary proposals to compete for funding that will foster innovation between faculty, staff, students, and community partners and help kickstart potential future research and programming.

The 2019 Incentive Grants Awarded proposals will receive $10,000 each to support work through June 2020. The seven Incentive Grants Awardees are listed below with a brief description of their proposals.

Dr. Kimberly Allen, Utilizing Coaching to Enhance Resiliency, Economic Self-Efficacy, and Social Wellbeing in Wake County’s Middle Class Express Program – Dr. Kimberly Allen will be expanding upon the preexisting program Middle Class Express, created by Wake County Human Capital Development in 2008, to evolve research and promising practices related to adverse child experiences and protective factors. Dr. Allen’s project aims to (1) train staff in Family Life Coaching techniques and protective factors, (2) provide recommendations for program model to include emphasis on protective factors, (3) create messaging for the public to educate them on family coaching, and (4) collect qualitative data via focus groups from community members for input on program development.

Dr. Qiana Cryer-Coupet and Dr. Angela Wiseman, Trauma Informed Parenting Support for Recovery: Collaboration Across Preservice Teachers and Social Workers – Drs. Cryer-Coupet and Wiseman will implement this program to (1) develop collaborative professional development sessions for preservice social workers and preservice teachers and host discussion groups for students, (2) design a family room at their community partnership site, equipped with books and furniture, where fathers can have a child-friendly space for their children to visit, and (3) plan and deliver a webinar for inservice social workers and teachers in Wake County to utilize the TIPS 4 Recovery Model to address the needs of children who are experiencing adverse child experiences.

Dr. Pamela Gilchrist, Imhotep Academy: Virtual Reality and Robotics STEM Program Outreach – Dr. Pamela Gilchrist (and Dr. Karen Chen) will be implementing Imhotep Academy, a virtual reality and STEM focused outreach program. The program will engage underrepresented middle school aged students in interactive, hands-on experience with future technologies, including but not limited to virtual reality and robotics. This summer program will consist of two components: physical world experience and immersive world experiences. The program aims to (1) develop a robotics and immersive virtual learning curriculum, (2) increase students exposure to STEM and potential STEM careers, particularly in computer science and computer engineering, (3) assess the viability of using virtual reality as student learning spaces, and (4) increase student affinity for STEM and potential STEM careers.

Dr. Frederik Laleicke, The Decision for Wood Waste Reuse and Recycling – Dr. Frederik Laleicke will be conducting a project to stimulate and foster the implementation of innovative, value creating wood waste recycling practices among stakeholders in North Carolina. This project will assess two common scenarios: (1) the demolition of a residential home and this disposal of wood based materials, and (2) the disposal of furniture in a residential setting. The results will be assessed and combined to commence the development of a decision matrix that will aid stakeholders in the decision for best wood reuse and recycling practices.

Dr. Crystal Chen Lee, Literacy and Community Initiative – Dr. Crystal Chen Lee will be implementing the Literacy and Community Initiative, a collaboration between the department of Teacher Education and Learning Sciences (TELS) in the College of Education, the Friday Institute for Educational Innovation, and three community-based youth serving organizations (Bull City YouthBuild, Juntos NC, and Corral Riding Academy). This project will address the following questions: (1) What are the narratives and educational experiences of underserved youth in CBOs?, (2) How does the narrative writing process empower underserved youth to improve literacy learning and engage with multiple stakeholders in their community?, and (3) How does publishing their narratives enable youth to lead and advocate for themselves and their communities?

Dr. Jamie Pearson, Getting CONECTed – Dr. Jamie Pearson will be implementing the CONECTed program – College Opportunities for Networking Exposure, Collaboration and Training in Special Education, which will provide students at Wake Tech an opportunity to accomplish the following: (1) gain exposure to a 4-year institution, (2) develop an understanding of the expectations of undergraduate level work in the College of Education, (3) learn about professional practices and strategies for success at NC State, and (4) participate in special education research at NC State.

Dr. Carrie Pickworth, Expanding Animal Science Related Career Exploration through the Livestock Science Camp Diversity Scholarship Program – Dr. Carrie Pickworth aims to recruit and engage young adults from diverse backgrounds into the livestock sciences, which will promote a future of innovative approaches to solving concerns with sustainable food production and distribution for future generations. The scholarship’s objectives are to: (1) create a culture of engagement and support for prospective students from under-represented populations within agriculture and animal science, (2) build community collaborations and awareness between the animal industries and consumers, and (3) expand the capacity of youth participants and counselors to become vectors of change within the agriculture and animal science industries/ communities. Through the creation of the Outreach Diversity Scholarship Program, the Livestock Science Camp will be able to expand and diversify the pool of camper applications.