Springfield College Doctoral Students Impacting the Community
A group of Springfield College doctoral students, Hunter Bernard ’24, Grace Messina, and Kelsey Moeller, found a way to give back to our community during the spring semester.
By: Damon Markiewicz
A group of Springfield College doctoral students, Hunter Bernard ’24, Grace Messina, and Kelsey Moeller, found a way to give back to our community during the spring semester as they paired with the Elias Brookings School to help create a unique social emotional learning intervention model. As a result of the idea being successfully reviewed by administration at the Brookings School, it is now being considered for approval to be utilized within the entire Springfield Public Schools system.
Bernard, Messina, and Moeller were part of Psychology Professor Sally M. Hage’s, PhD, LP, community service and social justice course titled, “Counseling Psychology in Diverse Contexts.”
“I think it’s important for our students and our local community to work together to help children in our neighborhoods,” explained Hage. “I am so proud of the work our students were able to accomplish.”
The trio of doctoral students created a poster for educators to use at Brookings that allows youngsters an opportunity to express their feelings by circling their emotions on the poster, followed by highlighting the strategy they want to use to address their feelings. Next, they can circle how they are feeling after utilizing one of the strategies, concluded by having them express their next actions after utilizing one of the intervention options.
“Our intervention idea has four steps for the students to follow, and our goal was to make something that is very user friendly for the participants,” explained Messina. “We really wanted to find something that would help that elementary school demographic.”
As members of the Psy.D. program with a focus in Counseling Psychology, Bernard, Messina, and Moeller worked with the staff at Brookings to confirm if their idea would benefit the students.
“We met with the school counselors and the crisis team at Brookings, and used their feedback,” explained Bernard. “We were able to pilot our idea at Brookings, and it was met with some very positive feedback from the kids participating, the teachers, and counselors.”
For Bernard, Messina, and Moeller, their experience in creating this new social emotional learning intervention was so rewarding because it tied into their own personal values, as well as the mission of Springfield College.
“It was a great experience to work within the school and collaborate with the teachers, and try and help their students,” explained Moeller. “We really tried to personalize our idea to the school. It was a very rewarding class to take part in because it’s important to help our community. I was proud to be part of this class with my peers.”
