Students get experience serving the nonprofit sector at CCSR

Students gain real-world experience volunteering at WSU Center for Community Support and Research on a variety of projects in the fall semester.

Four students are from the Emory Lindquist Honors Program:

Victoria Eck at her desk

• Victoria Eck, a junior majoring in Pre-law and Political Science/History,  researched sources of resilience to help in building a model of trauma healing for CCSR’s work on Trauma-Informed Care.
• Emily Lancaster, a sophomore majoring in pre-medicine, created a logo and handouts to help people with mental illness keep track of their medical information so they can advocate for their own medical treatment.
• Janet Nghiem Phy, a freshman with an undeclared major, assisted leadership evaluation activities and reviewed literature related to leadership development and leadership programs.
• Shahla Pourkaram, a junior majoring in Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering and Pre-medicine, made phone calls for a survey for the Kansas Department on Aging and conducted a phone survey of daycare providers for the Riley County Early Head Start program.

About her experiences at CCSR, Shahla says, “Medical school is very competitive and to have undergraduate research experience is very beneficial. I have been able to gain skills such as survey administration and database construction at CCSR.” Pourkaram is also president of Wichita State Society of Women Engineers.

Three graduate students are expanding their career opportunities at CCSR:

• Kaitlin Boger is a second year Master’s Social Work student who designed and facilitated leadership development sessions, supported a trauma-informed organizational process for a community partner in Topeka, and researched trauma-informed care models.
• Jennifer Comes is in her first year of the MSW program, contributing to CCSR’s mental health consumer initiative by creating a media kit for Self-Help Group services and writing the history of consumer run organizations in Kansas.
• Bailey Blair has earned a bachelor’s degree in Psychology and a Teacher’s License in English Literature and Psychology. She plans to pursue a Master’s of Social Work. Bailey is preparing a proposal to create a comprehensive network of care for transition age youth.

About her work at CCSR, Bailey says, “What I’m working on at CCSR is the same type of work as the other incredibly talented staff here. The work I’m doing now is what I plan to build my career on.” Jennifer adds, “Working at CCSR has been a terrific learning opportunity for me. Students here are encouraged to contribute in a variety of ways that I've been surprised to discover are actually closely related to our coursework. CCSR staff enjoys working with students and though most of them have advanced degrees, they seek out our opinions and consider us peers in an ongoing process of community building that we are engaged in together.”

Based in downtown Wichita, WSU Center for Community Support and Research is proud to be a place where WSU students can immerse themselves in learning about and serving the nonprofit and public sectors while building their professional contacts and career opportunities.