|
Since it began seven years ago, psychology professor Brad Smith's after-school Challenging Horizons Program has been helping public school students learn to sharpen their academic skills and self regulate their behavior.
 |
| Brad Smith |
Along the way, the program has become a model for service-based learning at Carolina and a training ground for scores of University psychology students who apply textbook principles to real life.
'Everything we see in the classroom [with the middle and high school students] is what we've learned in psychology courses," said Sam McQuillin, a graduate psychology student from Charleston. "Psychology 489 [community psychology] really comes to life if you're involved in Challenging Horizons."
Challenging Horizons got its start with internal seed funding from the University's Research and Health Sciences division. Subsequent funding from Richland District One launched the program at Hand and Crayton middle schools, and a grant from the federal Office of Minority Health funded a sister project in Bennettsville called the Youth Empowerment Program.
Challenging Horizons began with a focus on middle school students diagnosed with ADHD, but quickly expanded to include students with other behavioral issues.
"We have a range of students we work with," Smith said. "Some are impulsive, and some have been expelled. Some are a real handful, and you have to learn how to break up fights. Many of them have been identified as having the potential and aptitude for college but have underlying issues that need to be addressed."
To do that, Challenging Horizons and Youth Empowerment work from a straightforward premise--along with academic tutoring provide clear and consistent rules, be calm and caring, and reward positive behavior.
"Kids who get really aggressive need a role model who is emotionally controlled," said Gill Strait, a second-year psychology Ph.D. student who began working with Challenging Horizons as an undergraduate. "When they see you being consistent and fair, they respect that. That's why we discourage yelling or lecturing from all of our student volunteers."
The afterschool sessions put Carolina psychology students--both undergraduate and graduate--in the classroom with the public school students. Sessions alternate between behavioral goals and academic skills.
"The public school students benefit tremendously from these programs, but it's our students who benefit the most," Smith said. "They see a lot of improvement in their ability to deal with kids. It's like running a marathon--it's hard, but you feel good about doing it."
During the course of several semesters, the Carolina students invest a lot of time in the middle and high school students, creating certificates of achievement and hand-crafted plaques and prizes as milemarkers of the younger students' success.
"There is an aspect of big brother/big sister in terms of mentoring the students," Strait said. "We try to engrain in them a sense of self regulation so that they're conscious of what they're doing and know when to stop if it isn't positive behavior."
"You're motivated when, over the course of a year, you see how much they've improved," said John Terry, a senior psychology major and Challenging Horizons volunteer. "We had a seventh-grade student who had been kicked out of several schools--she was defiant and angry. Eventually, though, the program just clicked with her, and she went from the worst level to the best level and stayed there. You see that and just say, 'Wow!'"
10/7
|
