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President's Blog: From the Heart

A Sign of Hope

By Eric F. Spina

When Professor Roger Reeb’s students help the homeless learn American Sign Language or harvest tomatoes and zucchini at a shelter’s urban farm, it is not just about the new language skills or the vegetables, and the students are not just volunteers.

They’re research assistants involved in a multi-year, interdisciplinary study at St. Vincent de Paul aimed at providing hope and opportunities to the homeless — and it’s transforming their own lives.

The way senior psychology major Jenna Zicka articulated the value of her experience in a presentation to the Board of Trustees’ Research Committee this fall both inspired me and demonstrated once again the power of community-engaged research, teaching, and learning.

Dr. Reeb, a licensed clinical psychologist, brings between 20 and 30 students from different majors to St. Vincent de Paul’s two centers every semester as part of the courses he teaches, such as “Engaged Scholarship for Homelessness: A Service-Learning Course.”

But the project doesn’t end after the final exams. It goes year-round, with some students, like Jenna, now involved over multiple semesters as she continues her research on the efficacy and benefit of teaching American Sign Language at homeless shelters for her independent senior capstone study — work partly supported by the Dean’s Summer Fellowship Program in the College of Arts and Sciences.

But that’s not all on Jenna’s plate. She also is assisting Katey Gibbins, one of Dr. Reeb’s clinical psychology graduate students, who’s writing a thesis on the therapeutic benefits for the homeless when they work alongside students harvesting produce on an urban farm, part of a collaboration with The Ohio State University Extension. The 1,700 pounds of produce reaped thus far go straight to the shelters’ kitchens.

“These experiences have definitely changed my life,” said Jenna, who aspires to become an audiologist after teaching sessions in American Sign Language for the shelter guests. “Working in the shelter increased my awareness of my privilege more than anything else. I literally didn’t even know all I took for granted — from a home to privacy. It’s a major myth that people at homeless shelters don’t work or have an education. I now look at the homeless as people who have been through a tough time and need some help.”

With undergraduate and graduate students as co-authors, Dr. Reeb and colleague Dr. Greg Elvers have presented their results about “behavioral activation in homeless shelters” at local, national, and international conferences. The idea is a simple, but effective, one: when shelter guests are exposed to positive-reinforcing activities like computer training, job searching, résumé building, stress management, art and music therapy, acquisition of new language skills (such as ASL), small-group conversations, or social support, they gain a boost of self-confidence. It’s empowering.

For students, it’s eye-opening. They no longer look at homelessness as a social stigma and become more self-aware about their own privilege. Dr. Reeb, who recently completed a term as Roesch Endowed Chair in the Social Sciences, writes about that phenomenon in a book he co-authored, Service Learning in Psychology: Enhancing Undergraduate Education for the Public Good, published by the American Psychological Association.

“This is research with and for the community. This coincides with UD’s mission,” he said.

Indeed. Over the years, Dr. Reeb has deeply engaged about 300 young researchers in learning about homelessness from the homeless. Call it experiential learning. Call it civic engagement. These are lessons students can’t absorb solely through a textbook or lecture.

Just ask Jenna Zicka, a remarkable young scholar who stepped outside her comfort zone — and discovered her vocation.

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