OXFORD, Miss. – A team of University of Mississippi students and faculty recently traveled to Belize to learn more about the correlation between food insecurity and delinquency.

Under the leadership of Linda Keena, interim chair of legal studies, and Martha Bass, associate professor of health, exercise science, and recreation management, graduate students from the Department of Legal Studies went to the Central American nation to study the relationship between food insecurity and delinquency in youth.

Previous research indicated that delinquent behaviors are used as a coping strategy to increase household resources such as food.

“To our knowledge, this is the first study to examine food insecurity and delinquent behaviors in Belize,” said David H. Holben, resident food security expert, professor of nutrition and hospitality management, and contributor to the study. “Individuals and households cope with food insecurity in a variety of ways.

“This study underscores that having poor access to enough food for an active, healthy life may lead to or be caused by delinquent behaviors.”

To conduct the study, the team visited Belize City, the country’s largest city, which suffers from high rates of violence and poverty. Many of the city’s young adults are victims of these harsh conditions.

Ole Miss faculty and student researchers worked with the Conscious Youth Development Program, an organization within the Belize Police Department that specializes in gang intervention, to find participants for their study. Funding for the work came from the UM Office of Research and Sponsored Programs.

Emma Burleson, a recent Master of Criminal Justice graduate, was among those who helped carry out the research abroad.

“I gained valuable experience as a researcher and experienced a new culture in a unique way,” Burleson said. “The research we conducted brought us in direct contact with the citizens of Belize City, and we were interacting with them in their communities, sometimes literally in their backyard.

“I will forever be thankful for the chance to participate in such an enriching research opportunity.”

The study looked at 139 participants, who were primarily Creole/black African and averaged 23 years old. The study examined participants’ grit, or perseverance and passion for long-term goals; food insecurities; trust in police fairness and effectiveness; past illegal activity and interest in gangs; and possession of a firearm.

The results indicated that almost 75 percent of respondents suffered very low food security. Additionally, when asked about criminal activity in the past 12 months, 56 percent of respondents indicated they had stolen something and 70 percent had used drugs.

Evidence from the study suggests that food insecurity is positively associated with delinquent behaviors, so developing interventions in Belize City that address food security should be warranted.

“The cycle of food insecurity and its relationship to delinquent behaviors, including gang membership, has been something we have observed in past study abroad visits to Belize,” Bass said. “It was exciting to see the legal studies graduate students interact with the Belizian participants and validate our supposition.”

Students become better global citizens by studying societal problems in different communities around the world, Keena said.

“Increasing their knowledge about food insecurity and delinquency in the Belizean culture and learning how to interact and work with people of different cultural backgrounds was an invaluable educational experience,” she said.

Members of the research collaboration, including graduate student Marta Dees, presented “Food insecurity and delinquency among adults in Belize City, Belize” at the recent Food and Nutrition Conference and Expo in Washington, D.C. The study’s poster, titled “Wellness and Public Health,” was one of seven from the Office of Food and Nutrition Security presented at the conference.

“This was my first trip to FNCE,” Dees said. “I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and hope to get the chance to present work from the University of Mississippi again.

“It was a fulfilling experience connecting with others who have interest in the same subject area and to be able to speak to them in person. I was honored in the amount of interest shown in, not only our research, but the University of Mississippi as well.”

For more information about the departments involved in the study, visit http://sas.olemiss.edu/ or call 662-915-7900.

OXFORD, Miss. – Three University of Mississippi faculty members have earned a national award from Online Learning Consortium for advancing student success through adoption of digital courseware. Their work is having an impact across introductory writing courses and producing direct cost savings for students.

Karen Forgette, Andrew Davis and Guy Krueger won the OLC Digital Learning Innovation Award for their project, “Addressing Access, Assessment and College Readiness Gaps in First-Year Composition: Personalized Open Educational Resources Courseware Modules at the University of Mississippi.” The honor includes a $10,000 stipend.

The UM team, in collaboration with Lumen Learning, applied principles of OER to develop and implement customized, low-cost, modular courseware in first-year writing curricula. The courseware addresses student preparation gaps in foundational content knowledge and rhetorical skills, areas often under-assessed in writing classes.

“We have worked together on adaptive/personalized courseware for six years, and it was very satisfying to see such a payoff after this time,” said Krueger, core lecturer and Writing 101 curriculum chair. “More importantly to us, though, was that it was fulfilling to know that the work we do for our students is recognized as valuable.”

To overcome the limitations of generalized, pre-packaged course material restricted by traditional copyright, the trio adapted open content to their own institutional context. This approach produced courseware that’s relevant, engaging and connected to the needs and experience of Ole Miss faculty and students.

Survey results following the fall 2017 pilot of roughly 1,000 students revealed that 68.5 percent felt the courseware contributed to their success on major writing projects. Data also revealed that students used the courseware in various ways without being prompted, indicating the platform is versatile enough to accommodate individual student needs.

“We feel that we are out in front of our field in a lot of ways since adaptive/personalized learning isn’t used much in writing courses,” Krueger said. “So to be able to help our students and save them money is rewarding on its own. But to receive a national award for this work – we couldn’t be happier.”

The open courseware has substantially reduced textbooks costs for students. After the team’s success with the pilot, the courseware has been implemented programwide for the fall 2018 semester and is being used by at least two other schools.

“Andrew Davis, Karen Forgette and Guy Krueger are innovative teachers who think first and foremost about their students,” said Stephen Monroe, chair of the Department of Writing and Rhetoric. “With the support of PLATO, a UM program funded by the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, this incredible team has developed low-cost digital modules that personalize learning for UM students.

“These tools are making an enormous impact across our introductory writing courses. The University of Mississippi is a national leader on this front because of Andrew, Karen and Guy.”

The trio was presented the award and recognized at a ceremony Nov. 13 in Orlando, Florida.

“The OLC Award for Digital Learning Innovation by a faculty team is a testament to the successful combination of collaborative course revision for multiple sections, low cost/high impact digital learning tools and a department-level commitment to continual improvement,” said Patti O’Sullivan, PLATO program director.

“The PLATO Program provided the First Year Writing course directors financial and organizational support, but Guy, Karen and Andrew put in hundreds of hours to create learning and practice modules. I am so pleased to see them recognized nationally for their work.”

Lee Cohen, dean of the university’s College of Liberal Arts, agreed.

“Our faculty team in the Department of Writing and Rhetoric spent many months developing innovative online modules to complement proven, traditional teaching methods,” Cohen said. “We are very proud of what we are doing on our campus in this regard and are grateful to the OLC for recognizing the outstanding work of our faculty as a national best practice.”

OXFORD, Miss. – Jarrett Simmons was obsessed with cars from an early age, and as a University of Mississippi sophomore, he found himself working at Tesla Motors, which has shaken up the automotive world with its luxury electric vehicles that boast ludicrously quick acceleration times.

Simmons, a senior mechanical engineering major with an emphasis in manufacturing, is a student at the UM Haley Barbour Center for Manufacturing Excellence. He was among the less-than-1 percent of applicants who received an internship with Tesla, not once, but twice. He aggressively pursued opportunities, which he credits for landing the sought-after gig at Tesla.

“It’s very cliche, but anything really is possible,” said Simmons, of San Diego. “Going to one of the harder companies to get into for an internship and being able to thrive in it is a very rewarding thing.

“I’m much more confident after learning to apply everywhere for different positions. Getting told ‘no’ is a lot better than not applying at all. A lot of doors open when you do that.”

Tesla, which builds electric cars and “infinitely scalable clean energy generation and storage products,” is headquartered in Fremont, California.

“It’s kind of like Disneyland, in a way,” Simmons said. “It’s so clean. It’s so big. It’s unlike any manufacturing center that I’ve ever been to with the CME.

“There’s also a lot of security, so it’s kind of cool that you get to see it and a lot of people don’t.”

Elon Musk, a South African-born entrepreneur and businessman who has been called “tech’s most enigmatic CEO,” started online bank X.com in 1999, which later became PayPal. He founded SpaceX in 2002 and Tesla Motors in 2003.

At the Fremont facility, Simmons bumped into Musk a few times. The maverick was very visible, but always busy working on ideas about private space exploration, Mars colonization, electric and self-driving cars, solar energy and artificial intelligence.

“He was working on higher-level problems than I was,” Simmons said with a laugh.

Simmons has a relative who is a car collector, which allowed him to go to many car shows, and once, he met Lincoln’s design director. He learned about how the company builds all its prototypes, and that ignited an excitement about automotive engineering and production in Simmons. 

Years later, he found himself as an Ole Miss sophomore working in Tesla’s powertrain group with the rotor team during his first internship with the company. He worked on the main engine drive unit in the Tesla Model S.

During his most recent internship, he worked in the new product unit on everything from the control screens in the cars to the battery packs that power the Model 3. 

His time in the “real world” came with many lessons, beyond organizing his time and finding his meals. He learned the importance of social skills in the workplace. 

“Something I thought going in was that I needed to have a lot of technical knowledge,” Simmons said. “But the most important part was the social aspect of work. That surprised me quite a bit.

“You need to be able to communicate quite a bit with others. Reaching out to the right people can help you go a long way.”

Getting an opportunity to work for such a groundbreaking company as an undergraduate was special, Simmons said. 

“Tesla has a very different approach,” he said. “The cars work. They’re fast. They’re efficient. They are better than most gas cars that you can buy.

“Beyond that, just as a company, it is just so untraditional. It doesn’t really have a marketing team; there’s no advertising, plus they’re manufacturing in the Bay area. It just has a lot of elements that make it different.”

Simmons credits much of his success to the skills he’s learned at the CME, which was one of the reasons the California kid came to Ole Miss, besides the strong sense of school spirit at the university. The CME is something other universities he considered didn’t have going for them.

The CME teaches its students fundamental and innovative practices that are crucial in modern manufacturing. Its mission is to cultivate future leaders by immersing students in unique experiences that are instrumental in a variety of different career paths.

The center serves as a professional resource to aid the state’s economic growth.

Students have secured some impressive internships in addition to the one Simmons landed at Tesla, said Scott Kilpatrick, associate director of internal operations at the CME. They’ve worked for Ingalls Shipbuilding, Toyota, Nissan, BMW, Lockheed Martin, Exxon and others.

The internship concept is central to the CME’s mission of training students, he said. 

“We don’t require them to do an internship, but the expectation is certainly laid out that we want them to do this,” Kilpatrick said. “We try to provide as many resources as we can either to connect with partners we have, or be prepared to go out and search on your own.”

Simmons has excelled partially because of his determination to find opportunities, Kilpatrick said. 

“We’re very proud of what he’s done, but we’re also really excited to see what he’s going to do in the future,” he said

OXFORD, Miss. – Well known for providing health and wellness research and services to Ole Miss athletes, the University of Mississippi’s Center for Health and Sport Performance is extending its services to the community and settling into its new centralized offices at the South Oxford Center.

With more space and the addition of new staff and more graduate students, the center will offer more testing and consultative services, including concussion testing, to constituents across the region and state.

“The space was much-needed,” said Melinda Valliant, associate professor of nutrition and hospitality management and the co-director of the Center for Health and Sport Performance, or CHSP. “It’s really giving us the opportunity to do things that we were all spread out doing.”

Launched in October 2013, the center is a partnership between the School of Applied Sciences and Department of Intercollegiate Athletics and is co-directed by Valliant and Shannon Singletary, senior associate athletics director for health and sports performance and adjunct clinical instructor in health, exercise science and recreation management.

“I believe that our goal is to help expose the community to a more comprehensive approach to health and sport performance by linking together various aspects in one common place that the individual can go to,” said Heather Landry Shirley, assistant athletics director of sports medicine and adjunct instructor in health, exercise science and recreation management. “The new location will allow us to provide a more neutral and user-friendly environment that will be more easily accessible to the community.”

The center recently was featured in statewide news for helping Rebel football players fuel properly for maximum athletic performance. With more space in its SOC location and expanded staffing, the center is poised to offer more resources to more people.

One of the main projects that the center is working on is studying concussions in high school athletes, combining both research and service learning.

“By law in the state of Mississippi, an appropriate health care provider must approve and order the return to play of an athlete that has had a concussion,” Singletary said. “The center is working to provide objective information to the provider that can be used along with other medical information to allow the professional to return the athlete to competition safely.”

The center is implementing ImPACT Testing to test the effects of concussions on Oxford High School athletes.

“The ImPACT is not a stand-alone diagnostic tool, but rather, it is one piece to the puzzle that allows health care professionals to properly diagnose and manage a concussion or TBI (traumatic brain injury),” Shirley said.

“(When) taken at a time prior to injury, (it) gives the trained clinician a caption of the brain’s normal neurocognitive function and, in turn, can be used for comparison to that of the injured brain, allowing us to determine whether or not the injured individual’s brain has returned to a level of neurocognitive function that is in line with their normal range. A properly trained health care professional can then make a more sound decision in the overall recovery of the individual.”

The center’s staff is collecting baseline data and will work with an analytics team from the Health and Sport Analytics Laboratory, led by Minsoo Kang, professor and chair of health, exercise science and recreation management, Valliant said.

In the future, the center plans to offer different educational courses, different types of testing and nutritional counseling throughout the community.

“We feel that across the country, there is a need for objective information to be given to coaches that will allow more of an evidence-based approach to health and sports performance,” Singletary said. “We will be providing education and best practices to the community that will ensure proper standards are being met, whether it being in sports training programs, proper nutrition or other injury-prevention strategies.”

Students have opportunities to study sports nutrition as an emphasis in master’s and doctoral programs housed in the Department of Nutrition and Hospitality Management.

They also can choose from master’s and doctoral programs in the areas of sport and recreation administration, health promotion, exercise science and health behavior. Enrollees in these programs may apply to conduct research with the CHSP.

For more information about the Center for Health and Sport Performance, contact Valliant at valliant@olemiss.edu or visit the center’s website. Learn more about the academic departments that work with the CHSP at http://www.sas.olemiss.edu.