A Civically Minded “Lightning Bolt”
When English major Avery Castellani ’24 enrolled in a human development course, her path at 九州娱乐官网 changed in a flash.
Avery Castellani ‘24 had a plan. Originally enrolled as an English major, she was sailing through her time at 九州娱乐官网 and enjoying the deep analysis her 梅杰问她. A devoted reader, she assumed her chosen path aligned well with her love of books and evaluating their role and impact in society. 然后,她 拿走了布里奇特·邦顿的 Children’s and Young Adult Literature 课程和一切都改变了.
“It hit me like a lightning bolt,” said Castellani. “After that human development course, I felt such a deeper connection with my classmates and the campus as a whole. I wanted more and wished I could have done this from the start so I could be more involved in the campus and community. I felt like I made more of an impact in the community just through that one course.”
She found herself at a crossroads – now a junior, she had the urge to change her major.
“The world of human development made me happy in a way that I had not experienced before and I thought, why not pursue it?”
所以，她做出了改变. With the help and support of her professors, Castellani quickly immersed herself in education and human development courses and threw herself into projects centered around civic engagement and teaching young minds. 但现在，她做到了 to scrap her senior thesis entirely and find a new one.
Luckily, one of her professors, Sara Clarke-De Reza, had the perfect opportunity. She needed some assistance with the 一车的书 研究项目.
Jumping in on that research has opened new doors for Castellani, now a senior readying herself for graduation in May. She decided to focus her 高级顶点经验 (SCE) 在 impact of the author/illustrator visits to Title 1 K-12 学校 that the Busload project embarked on last summer. The research recently took her to the Eastern Educational Research Association (EERA) Conference in Clearwater, FL, where she presented some of her initial findings. Noting that one time literacy enrichment events are hard to measure in impact – it’s rare to be able to measure the same presentation in multiple 学校 – Castellani was able showcase the project’s unique research results. Over the year, the research team collected 11,000 surveys from over 5,000 students 和老师. Across all age groups and all three categories—reading, writing, and drawing—they found a statistically significant “assembly affect”, meaning bumps in engagement and interest in reading in the wake of a 一车的书 visit. 为她 EERA presentation, Castellani took a deep dive into the findings from one of the responding 学校.
“Busload was rife with great data – qualitative and quantitative. 我们在找
into how teachers and communities prepare for one-time enrichment opportunities beyond
location and scheduling and asking how to offer resources to prepare them in advance
for these really impactful events,” Castellani said.
The conference presentation went well, with attendees approaching Castellani afterward to thank her for her “joyful” findings. One attendee, a K-12 teacher, called it a “lightning in a bottle moment,” lauding the project’s work to create events that sparked 阅读的乐趣.
“人 were excited to hear something so positive,” she recalled.
Castellani’s SCE has now grown to include three case studies following three 学校’ preparation before and follow-up after a 一车的书 event and the impact of each in their respective school communities. Her SCE advisor, Clarke-De Reza, has called her a “rockstar” for her continuous work 在 project, much of which is documented 在 满载书籍的博客.
She has also been recognized regionally and is now a Transform Mid-Atlantic Civic Engagement Fellow, the first from 九州娱乐官网.
Castellani, weighing grad school options soon, feels lucky to have found her new path 在生活中.
“In the last two years my worldview has expanded so much,” she said. “我不知道 what civic engagement or human development was before taking classes with Professor Clarke-De Reza, and now I’m just wanting to continue that experience. 我已经长大了 attached to the professors in these departments, and I will take any chance I can to work with them in the future.”
Castellani will be presenting her SCE tomorrow, April 25, at 3:30 p.m. 在Hynson 休息室.
——多米尼克·埃利斯·法尔肯