In PSY 255, Psychology of the Exceptional Individual, students participated in a project that focused on applied disability advocacy. The purpose of this project was to explore the lived experiences of individuals with disabilities and to promote greater awareness, inclusion, and accessibility within communities. As part of this project, students researched the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and examined how this law supports the educational rights and services provided to students with disabilities in public schools.

The project focused on understanding the purpose of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), a federal law that protects the educational rights of students with disabilities. Students examined the support IDEA provides in public schools and the potential consequences of defunding the legislation. As part of the advocacy component of the project, students used their research to communicate with state legislative representatives, emphasizing the importance of continued funding and protection of IDEA to ensure that students with disabilities receive necessary services, accommodations, and educational support.

This topic highlights how disability advocacy often depends on individuals being willing to speak up and raise awareness. The project in PSY 255 emphasized that advocacy does not only happen through large organizations or policymakers; everyday individuals can, and should, play a role in advocating for accessibility, inclusion, and the protection of rights for people with disabilities.

keywords:  Disability Advocacy, Accessibility, Inclusivity

Sometimes things just don’t go as planned. For students, learning to pivot gracefully can be a career-building superpower. While community-engaged projects offer tremendous opportunities to learn about the complexities of professional work, they can also involve risk, uncertainty, and disappointment. In this panel, students from four majors (Ethical Data Science; Technology, AI & Society; Business, AI & Innovation; Digital Marketing Strategy) will discuss how they rallied through positivity, resilience, and unexpected new skill development to redefine their experiential learning projects mid-semester when things didn’t go quite as expected.

keywords:  Community-Engaged Learning; Pivot; Professional Development

Students will share their final projects from LST 301 that weave together aspects of language, literacy, and culture, with the lived experiences of interviewees. This year's partners were Spanish speaking Education students from the Universidad Católica de Valencia. Students worked in small groups to create video projects.

keywords:  Culture, Language, Stereotypes

The CYD 480 Senior Capstone course (Spring 2026) engages Community Development students in a semester-long collaboration with the Rochester Mayor’s Youth Council and Youth Voice One Vision (YVOV). This community-based learning initiative promotes youth engagement, shared leadership, and community capacity building while addressing a timely and relevant issue: ""Social Media Awareness"".

Participants will be organized into three interdisciplinary groups composed of CYD students and YVOV youth members. Throughout the semester, these groups will collaboratively design and facilitate interactive, workshop-style presentations focused on social media awareness. The workshops will emphasize hands-on learning, critical reflection, and practical strategies related to digital responsibility, online safety, identity development, and positive social media engagement.

This capstone experience integrates community development theory with applied practice by centering youth voice, fostering reciprocal learning, and strengthening partnerships between academic and community institutions. Students will develop skills in collaboration, facilitation, communication, and ""FUN WITH A PURPOSE""!

keywords:  Engaging, hands-on, FUN with a purpose, collaborative, awareness

Our literature classes participated in 3 different modes of collaboration with incarcerated peers at 3 different correctional facilities, contributing to our learning in the classes in various ways that we will share. In the class ""Crime and Punishment in the USA"" we had book group style discussions with peers in person at Monroe County Jail and by video call with peers at a Colorado prison. In the class ""Hitting the Road: Fictions of American Mobility"" we added a remote collaboration with students at a prison in Attica, NY, who are enrolled in the class and following the same syllabus, involving exchanging reading journals for written feedback and producing collaborative research projects.

keywords:  Incarceration, literature, prison, social mobility

In one of Nazareth University's Equitable Spaces classes, Resilience in Rochester, we explored the protective factors that support and empower youth across the City of Rochester. Guided by Dr. Shawn Ginwright’s The Four Pivots, we examined how our perspectives shape our noticings about urban youth, and why a shift to an asset-based viewpoint matters for how we see, think and communicate about the youth in Rochester. The goal of this class aims at exploring and raising awareness for the community resources available to youth in Rochester that serve as protective factors for relationship building, safety and belonging, recreation, life readiness, and overall wellbeing. Students visited five community sites - The Center for Youth’s Learn2Earn and Community Schools programs, Rochester Public Libraries, TeenEmpowerment, and the Maplewood YMCA. After creating an observation tool tailored to each site, students collected data and documented observations about routines, interactions, relationships and environmental factors that help young people thrive. Through our CARS presentation, we will raise awareness about community resources available to the youth in the City of Rochester, highlighting the importance of protective factors, and maintaining an asset-based perspective. We hope that our presentation invites visitors to incorporate this knowledge into their lives to help shift the narrative about Rochester’s youth.

keywords:  Community Resources, Rochester Youth, Protective Factors, Relationships, Safety and Belonging