SPPAIS Stewart Family Serviceship Award

Past Winners

2023

Photo of Naomi Boldon, winner of the Stewart Family Service Award in 2023

2023 Stewart Family Service Award Winner Naomi Boldon

Project: Downtown Clinic Community Garden Project

Naomi Boldon, a Biomedical Sciences Ph.D. candidate at the University of Wyoming, is the 2023 recipient of the UW Stewart Family Serviceship Award. She will receive a $5000 award to complete her service project focusing on the Downtown Clinic Community Garden in Laramie.

Naomi Boldon’s Stewart Family Service Award Project is an outgrowth of her past work with Laramie’s Downtown Clinic as an AmeriCorps volunteer and her research work in the area of nutrition. Her project aims to find ways to encourage community members to improve their nutrition intake and empower them to make healthier lifestyle choices through nutrition education and food cultivation practices. It focuses on real world needs and alleviating health challenges. The gardens provide a gathering space, educational space, and healing space to contribute to the Laramie community by increasing awareness of healthy living, drawing the attention of those passing through, and adding to the community atmosphere of the city.

The Downtown Clinic (DTC) provides primary and specialty health care and pharmacy services to low-income, uninsured individuals in Albany County. During her past service as an AmeriCorps VISTA, the western half of the DTC parking lot was transformed into a fruit, vegetable, herb, and flower garden, with benches for gatherings and individual reflection. To address the nutritional and physical needs of the community, a total of five large vegetable and fruit beds, a rose garden, and a 5’ herb spiral (with cherry tree) were constructed and fortified with nutrient dense soil. Harvested food from the gardens is distributed to DTC clients, volunteers, and community members. Flowers are brought in to brighten the clinic and for clients to take home.

Now almost five years later, funding provided by the Stewart Family Serviceship Award will allow Boldon to spruce up and expand the DTC community garden.

Boldon notes, “Now in my third year of the Biomedical Sciences Ph.D. program at the University of Wyoming (UW), the community garden needs to be maintained to increase community engagement and to develop hands-on educational offerings. This opportunity also “provides the chance for me to pursue my passion of increasing the health of our most vulnerable and underrepresented populations while also contributing to the advancement of cutting-edge bioinformatics and computational biology at UW. My goal is to work at the interface between nutritional genomics and public health, and to bring this knowledge to the level of community usefulness.”

She hopes to accomplish three goals this summer:

Goal One: Our first goal will be to upgrade the DTC garden; including soil enrichments for the beds, new shade cloths, minor repairs, perennials divided and replenished, and this year’s biggest project: planting of a living privacy wall at the open end of the garden facing the alley for more privacy and enhancement of its healing atmosphere.

Goal Two: We will educate members of the community about home gardening as a way to enhance physical and mental health through gardening workshops and providing starter plants to begin gardening at home.

Goal Three: Provide education on how to eat more healthfully, such as incorporating herbs and spices for flavor instead of salt and sugar. Recipes, preparation methods, and many of the fresh foods needed to make them will be provided.

Boldon notes, “I am excited to take the DTC garden project to the next stage of development and are grateful for generous support provided by the Stewart Family Serviceship Award!”

Boldon is a non-traditional, first-generation college student, passionate about advancing equity in science and healthcare. After graduating with a B.S. in Nutritional Science and Certificate in Global Health from the University of Wisconsin-Madison she spent two terms as an AmeriCorps VISTA at the Downtown Clinic (DTC) in Laramie, Wyoming, working to alleviate poverty and expand the clinic’s capacity to improve the lives of its clients.

Dr. Jill Keith, Associate Professor in the Department of Family & Consumer Sciences, who is also Registered Dietitian/Nutritionist, works with Naomi as her major advisor and as an instructor in some of her coursework. Dr. Keith notes: “Naomi is pursuing her doctoral degree in Biomedical Sciences with a specialization in Human Nutrition in order to combine her knowledge, expertise, and passion for the role of nutrition in health. Naomi’s background, formal education journey, and academic successes while navigating many personal barriers to education as a first-generation college student speaks to her unparalleled commitment and resourcefulness for reaching her goals and serving others. Her service to public health and equity is highlighted through her work with the Downtown Clinic Community Garden Project. Her passion for nutrition, food security and equity, and promotion of health to contribute to making a large-scale difference in people’s lives through improving nutrition make her an ideal candidate for the Stewart Family Serviceship Award.”

Professor Jean Garrison, chair of the Stewart Award Committee, says Boldon’s project is precisely the kind of project the Stewart Award was created to support -- “namely, a project that addresses an important community need and real-world challenge.”

Impact Statement 2023:

The Clyde E. and Jerrine N. Stewart Family Student Enrichment Fund was used to provide a $5000 award to Naomi Boldon, a student in the Biomedical Sciences Ph.D. program, to support her service project to take Laramie’s Downtown Clinic (DTC) community garden project to the next stage of development across summer 2023. Her project focuses on the need to maintain the community garden to increase community engagement and to develop hands-on educational offerings. She has three specific goals with the her project: 1) to upgrade the DTC garden, including soil enrichments for the beds, repairs, and planting of a living privacy wall for more privacy and enhancement of its healing atmosphere; 2) to educate members of the community about home gardening as a way to enhance physical and mental health through gardening workshops; and 3) to provide education on how to eat more healthfully. The service award provides her with the opportunity to pursue her passion to increase the health of our most vulnerable and underrepresented populations while also contributing to the advancement of cutting-edge bioinformatics and computational biology at UW. A summary of the project's accomplishments this season be found here. 

After graduating with a B.S. in Nutritional Science and Certificate in Global Health from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Boldon moved to Laramie to spend two years as an AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer at the Downtown Clinic (DTC), working to alleviate poverty and expand the clinic’s capacity to improve the lives of its clients. The Steward Award has provided support for a project which advances her career goal to work at the interface between nutritional genomics and public health, and to bring this knowledge to the level of community usefulness. We thank the Stewart Family for making this award possible to advance the career goals of our students as it enhances projects in our communities. 

2022

sppais-stewart-dabrowski.jpg

2022 Stewart Family Award Winner Basia Dabrowski

Project: Intervention to Address Social Isolation among Older Wyoming Residents at Risk for Nursing Placement

Basia Dabrowski is a first-year doctoral student in the Clinical Psychology Ph.D. Program in the College of Arts and Sciences. Her project seeks to address social isolation and loneliness which are prominent public health issues commonly presented in late adulthood. Social isolation and loneliness are associated with increased health risks, including premature mortality, dementia, depression, heightened stress, and suicidality. These issues are even more common among older adults with chronic medical conditions. The Program of All-inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) is a care model providing adult day services that include medical, behavioral, and social services. Wyoming state budget cuts eliminated Medicaid funding for Wyoming’s only PACE program. The purpose of this service project is twofold. First, evaluate the impact of the PACE closure on social isolation, loneliness, and health and identify needs and preferences for interventions to address social isolation among clients who have experienced the closure of the PACE program. Second, to develop and pilot an intervention that addresses social isolation and loneliness. These interventions will be designed for older adults who live in the Wyoming community and are at elevated risk for nursing home placement. The former PACE members will be involved in the development of the program through community-based participatory research methods. Collaborating ideas with the participants and community partners will be important in establishing and implementing an effective intervention for this community. The findings of this project will help us identify needs and concerns relating to social isolation in older adults and provide direction in developing an effective intervention that promotes social engagement throughout Wyoming.

At UW, Basia Dabrowski works in the Health and Aging Lab overseen by Dr. Christine McKibbin, which focuses on improving health outcomes for older adults and families, as well as intervention development and testing. Her career goal is to be a clinician at a non-profit aging clinic, developing and leading community programs to address critical needs among older adults. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology from Colorado State University and hails from Colorado Springs, Colorado.

 

2021

SPPAIS stewart family student enrishment award past winners ratliff
SPPAIS stewart family student enrishment award past winners nirk

2021: Rachel Ratliff (left) and Tina Nirk (right)

Project-Checkpoint: Creating Effective Care Transitions and Safety Plans for Persons Vulnerable to Suicide

Tina Nirk and Rachel Ratliff are doctoral students in the Counselor Education and Supervision Ph.D. Program in the College of Education at UW. Their project addresses the “heavy mission” of preventing the loss of life to suicide -- a problem in which Wyoming ranks second in the nation. It focuses on filling the important gap following the period after a patient is discharged from the hospital and before follow-up with community aftercare. Nirk and Ratliff developed Project-Checkpoint to offer services to Albany County residents having difficulties in their lives. Nirk notes, “I have been forced to recognize that vulnerable people are all of us. The pandemic reinforced that for me, and I feel a responsibility to offer my humanity, having lived through personal difficulties. The project gives an extra bit of help to individuals who need it. Ratliff explains, “Sometimes we all need a little extra help, personally believing that every life is important, has value and purpose, and knowing that sometimes people in crisis need help between leaving the hospital and getting to their first appointment is a vital gap for some.”

2021

SPPAIS stewart family student enrichment award pilkerton

2021: Ashleigh Pilkerton, “COWGIRLS in STEM: Computational Outreach for Wyoming Girls in STEM.”

Ashleigh Pilkerton is a doctoral student in the Wyoming Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit in the Department of Zoology and Physiology. Her project addresses the ongoing challenge of women represented in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields, despite the high demand for talent in the STEM workforce. According to data, women hold only one of every four STEM jobs nationally. “With funding from the Stewart Family Serviceship Award, Pilkerton aspires to close the STEM gap in Wyoming by connecting STEM experiences to girls’ lives; promoting active, hands-on learning; and emphasizing ways STEM is collaborative and community-oriented.” Pilkerton worked with after-school programs in Sheridan County to set up a near-peer mentorship program, hosting COWGIRLS in STEM programs in collaboration with Big Brothers Big Sisters and the Tongue River Valley Community Center.  She also presented her project to the Full STEAM Ahead Conference for pre-service and in-service teachers.

 

Learn More!

See the UW press release for more information on these projects: https://www.uwyo.edu/news/2021/04/two-stewart-family-serviceship-awards-presented-at-uw.html