VT Engage Faculty Fellowships expand opportunities for community-engaged learning
(From left) Rachael Budowle, Eunju Hwang, Aparna Shah, and Jessica Baty-McMillan confer in the VT Engage offices. Photo by Max Catalano for Virginia Tech.Learning with a Purpose
Aparna Shah, collegiate assistant professor of neuroscience in the College of Science, said the peer support within the Fellowship has enabled her to envision how her Neuroscience of Drug Addiction students could reach more community partners.
“Last summer, I had probably one or two ideas for partnerships,” she said, while her students’ current service projects show how her vision for community partnerships has grown during her first community-based teaching experience:
- Expanding campus opioid overdose preparedness with Hokie Wellness
- Demonstrating to regional fifth graders through the Center for Educational Networking and Impacts’ Hokie for a Day expo how MRI and EEG can be used to study neurological impacts of substance use
- Training peer educators for the Just Say Know harm reduction program through collaboration with Sam Margherio, assistant professor of psychology
- Supporting individuals in recovery through Recovery Ally training
- Inviting students outside neuroscience to explore through book club discussions a neuroscientist’s personal insights into addiction
- Creating educational science comics about addiction, with the guidance of science comic author and graphic novelist Jay Hosler
- Presenting evidence about the neuroscience of addiction to Students for Sensible Drug Policy