Exemplary Interdisciplinary Collaboration Award

Collaborators: Janelle Gardiner, Julie Rhodes, Julie Gee, Kristine Bouwhuis

Making connections and providing healthcare services, a group of 32 students and community members participated in the Dumke College of Health Professions International Healthcare Project. The group traveled through Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam, working to improve healthcare processes in the communities that asked for help.

Led by health professions faculty Janelle Gardiner, Julie Rhodes, Julie Gee and Kristine Bouwhuis, the group was honored with the 2018 Exemplary Collaboration Award.

In Thailand, group members spent time at an orphanage focused on rescuing children from trafficking. In Vietnam, they studied the difference in nursing education from that of the U.S. In Cambodia, group members provided well-child checkups for 350 children. They also taught neonatal resuscitation and other emergency procedures to healthcare employees.

“This trip will forever impact my professional life,” said Jackson Pohlman, a senior in nursing. “Nursing instructors, BSNs, RNs, LPNs, CNAs and non-medical professionals came together and helped teach a critical skill that will help the future generations in Cambodia. This trip was one that I will never forget. Thank you to the nursing instructors, donors and the group of students who helped make this experience happen.”

The Annie Taylor Dee School of Nursing and the Dr. Ezekiel R. Dumke College of Health Professions helped sponsor the event. Organizers plan to take groups each year to determine how their teaching was implemented and what follow up is needed.

Article from WSU Today - March 18, 2015

Child and Family Studies Chair Paul Schvaneveldt leads the Weber State Family Literacy Program and Healthy Relationship Project. The programs, housed in the Jerry & Vickie Moyes College of Education, have extensive collaborations with 16 agencies and groups that serve lower-income and ethnically diverse individuals and families in Weber and Davis counties.

Together, the programs empower families to support and prepare children to be successful students and citizens, which helps break the cycle of poverty. The specific goals of the WSU Family Literacy Program are to mentor and train Ogden-Weber Head Start parents to be more engaged in their children's literacy activities and to teach discipline and child guidance skills.

”Thanks to the concerted efforts of Dr. Schvaneveldt and the Family Literacy Program, children leave our program (Head Start) ready for kindergarten, and our parents improve their skills interacting and engaging with their children,” wrote Shawnell Howard, Head Start program manager, in a nomination letter. “Dr. Schvaneveldt has demonstrated his commitment to the children and families in our community.”

The Healthy Relationship Project fosters communication and relationship skills for individuals and couples to prevent unhealthy or abusive relationships. Evaluations of the relationship project reveal increased communication and conflict resolution skills, healthy views of safe relationships and more positive family interactions.

Each semester, Weber State students actively participate in the program home visits, classroom teaching and evaluation. Together, the programs serve more than 500 families annually. Some partnering community organizations include the Ogden-Weber Community Action Partnership, United Way of Northern Utah, Your Community Connection and Catholic Community Services of Utah.

Several foundations provide funding and supplies, including the Utah Department of Human Services, the Glasmann Foundation, UBS Optimus Foundation, George S. and Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation and Deseret Industries.

Collaborators: Lauren Fowler, Jim Hutchins, Matthew Schmolesky, Barbara Trask

Weber State’s neuroscience program received the 2014 Exemplary Collaboration Award in recognition of the teamwork of three colleges that created a neuroscience minor and a passion for studying the brain. The executive committee included professors from the College of Social & Behavioral Sciences, the Dumke College of Health Professions, and the College of Science. The collaborators designed a neuroscience minor that began in 2010 with two courses and a lab. In three years, the list of program course offerings has expanded to seven. The minor claims 75 students and 25 graduates. Numerous students have presented their research at regional and national conferences. The program also has made its mark in service to the larger community, with its faculty and students making presentations on the brain to more than 1,000 public school students annually.