Towards a Zero-Waste University: Expanding UIW’s Compost Initiative

Project Director: Dr. Benjamin Miele

The UIW Compost Initiative is a student-centered enterprise steeped in the University's Mission values of communicating truth to students and the broader community, of using innovation to solve current climate-related problems, and using education to instill the value of faith and service in responding to global warming. The objective of the project is to complete the set-up and to increase its capacity to compost organic material produced by the main campus’s dining halls. We started this initiative in 2017 with Professor David Pryor and continued it since his retirement in 2018—collaborating with the Headwaters Sanctuary and local businesses to get frames for twelve compost bins. We have enjoyed the support of dedicated, passionate students and fellow faculty members in building the frames, but progress has been slowed by a lack of funding. Currently, one bin is ready for use, and twelve frames are waiting to be completed. With financial assistance, we could reach our goal of turning all the frames into fully operational compost bins.

Identifying Needs, Developing, Assessing Service-Learning Support, Pilot of Four-Year Longitudinal Study on Social Justice Transformation

Project Director: Sr. Martha Ann Kirk, Th.D, Dr. Gabriel Saxton-Ruiz

The goal is deeper social justice transformation among students than is being shown in current reflections for fulfilling community service hours. Faculty will be encouraged in the high impact teaching method of service learning, given consistent supportive services before, during, and after through the Ettling Center, and given methods for leading students to critical thinking and social justice analysis. Assessment of faculty satisfaction in regard to support and students’ deeper level thinking will be done. 

Alignment of Nurse Leader Strategies and the Multi-generational, Multi-Ethnic Workforce’s Expectations of Leadership to Improve Patient Outcomes and Achieve Nursing Excellence

Project Director: Dr. Monica Ramirez and Dr. Jean Dols

This research study is planned to examine the implications of a multi-generational, ethnically diverse nursing workforce and the alignment of strategies used by leadership with nursing staff as they navigate towards Magnet® recognition. Leadership, empowerment of nurses, and engagement of nurses is needed to improve nursing practice and patient care. Being there is no research specific to this topic, it is imperative to determine the type of leadership needed by each generation and ethnicity in order to facilitate all aspects of nursing excellence seen in Magnet® facilities.

An Economist Investigates: A Study of the Economic Impact of Refugees in the U.S.

Project Director: Dr. Nursen Zanca

The goals of this project is to draw a detailed map of refugee services (type of various services and its associated fiscal costs) across the refugee pockets in the U.S., and to examine whether the impact of current integration policy and the economic success of refugees are interrelated. This project aims to assess the economic impact of refugees from published peer-reviewed articles in academic journals.

Where is My Shangri-La Challenges and Successes of Bhutanese Refugee Resettlement in the United States

Project Director: Dr. Lopita Nath

This research focuses on the challenges of resettlement among the Bhutanese refugees. The Bhutanese refugees bring with them specific cultural and psychological vulnerabilities, which require careful approach for successful resettlement. The significance of this book is that it will bring together refugee testimonies from both sides of the globe. It will be an unbiased and analytical retelling of the entire story of the refugee resettlement. This book will add to the scholarship and the discourse on refugee resettlement, on how certain refugee communities assimilate better than the others to resettlement. It will evaluate the U.S. Refugee Resettlement policy and examine the impact of these policies on both refugees and American host society.

Rehabilitation Patterns and Clinician Preparedness when Treating Patients with Parkinson’s Disease in Rural Clinical Practice

Project Director: Jennifer Penn

The aims of the proposed study are to (1) investigate rehabilitation utilization patterns for individuals with Parkinson’s disease (PD) living in rural areas; (2) depict referral sources and primary impairments associated with referral for patients with PD living in rural areas; (3) understand clinician training and preparedness to develop a disease-specific, evidence-based plan of care when treating rural patients with PD; and (4) identify knowledge gaps that create barriers to the provision of informed physical therapy assessment and treatment in rural and underserved communities, where there is often a shortage of providers with expertise in neurological conditions.

Effects of Pregnancy-Specific Chronic Anxiety on Placental Inflammatory and Oxidative Stress Response and Birth Outcomes

Project Director: Dr. Karen Weis

The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between maternal prenatal anxiety and physiological response, specifically to determine:

• Associations of maternal anxiety to placental histological findings.
• Associations of maternal anxiety to placental immunological biomarkers.
• Associations of maternal anxiety to placental hormonal biomarkers.
• Associations between maternal anxiety on pathological and molecular changes to birth outcomes.

Implementing an Evidence-Based Protocol to Identify, Intervene and Refer Human Trafficking Victims in South Texas Emergency Departments: Nurse and Provider Experience and Perceptions

Project Director: Dr. Jean Dols

As project leaders, the researchers led a rural regional medical center emergency department to incorporate human trafficking screening into the ED flow for adult patients. Screening and referral processes were determined and materials were prepared in English and Spanish. The project leaders educated the clinical staff and providers and established an ongoing orientation program to the human trafficking screening and referral process. The protocol for screening included best practices when working with trafficked individuals, a Screening Flowchart, red flag recognition, methods of securing privacy for the patient, safety for the patient, and documentation. Data analysis is currently in process.

SA 24-Poets, Composers, Performers

Project Director: Dr. Ken Metz

SA24 is a collaborative venture between members of the Composers Alliance of San Antonio (CASA), a group of composers with connections to South and Central Texas and to San Antonio specifically, area poets, and area teachers of singing and their students. Working with local poets, composers in CASA have written and will continue to write new art songs (voice and piano) specifically intended for student-level performance. Local teachers of singing will have the opportunity to assign these new compositions to their students, who will perform on a concert called SA24, to be held at the Radius Center in downtown San Antonio on September 28, 2019. Once complete, the film telling the story of this unique project will be used to promote a model of community-based artistic collaboration at conference presentations and film festivals.

MiniGEMS and MegaGEMS

Project Director: Dr. Michael Fryer

During the miniGEMS and megaGEMS camps, the students learn about different types of engineers and scientists, they learn to program and code EV3s using MATLAB, the students learn about meteorology, and they learn about the importance of healthy living. Throughout the two weeks, the girls develop skills of teamwork and self-efficacy. Each day consists of various activities and group projects that are designed around the fields of STEAM. megaGEMS goes more in depth and has slightly different challenges incorporating subjects such as chemistry, mechanical engineering, and the programming language ‘Python’.

Mentors Offering Manual Support (M-O-M-S)

Project Director: Dr. Karen Weis

A prenatal program building maternal self-esteem, coping and resilience and decreasing depression

Community Health and Wellbeing at the center of Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Support

Project Director: Dr. Alfredo Ortiz Aragón and Dr. Arthur Hernandez

A pilot project at UIW to support design, testing and evaluation of action research approaches that increase participation and strengthen existing community health and wellbeing efforts with target groups. A prenatal program building maternal self-esteem, coping and resilience and decreasing depression

Interfaith Education: Formation of an informed empathy in relation to religion and spirituality

Project Director: Dr. Jean Dols

This grant is initiating an ongoing educational effort to expand the graduate nursing students’ understanding of faith traditions. The project will deepen the understanding and respect of Christian, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Sikhism, and Native Traditions. This project focused on the positive appreciation of cultural and religious diversity and the formation of an informed empathy in relation to religion and spirituality. Within the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals is the goal for all to attain access to quality essential healthcare services. This goal is central for our project. Nurses help individuals heal both physically and spiritually. Unless nurse leaders and nurse practitioners can lead the clinical teams to respond with openness and understanding to the uniqueness of spiritual needs and recognize the differences in patient support needed, the quality of healthcare suffers.