Class of 2026 - Spatial Justice and Resiliency (Alton, IL)
National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) and Girls and Boys Club of Alton
This team is investigating how mentoring impacts students of color. CODES received a United Way grant to begin mentoring at the Boys and Girls Club of Alton. Their research is focused on graduation rates, discipline actions, and attendance in Alton middle school. According to Alton’s middle school report card from 2023, Black students have a 200% discipline action rate while white students have only a 46% discipline action rate. Through near-peer mentoring, middle school students gain a sense of belonging outside of a traditional classroom environment and can imagine possible futures for themselves. Each week, CODE Scholars connect with 20-25 students who attend the Boys and Girls Club. Students have used surveys and focus group materials to assess mentoring's impact. This team, with diverse skills, also engages in video production and photography to showcase their findings. Their overarching objective is to provide guidance and support to empower these students to pursue their aspirations and navigate their academic journey successfully.
National Great Rivers Research and Education Center (NGRREC)
This team is helping NGRREC make their current curriculum more accessible to Illinois residents. Riverwatch, one of NGRREC’s community science projects, focuses on using community science to monitor and determine the water quality of Illinois streams by counting macro invertebrates. The greatest issue that Riverwatch faces is making the program accessible to the public: it currently requires full online and in-person training sessions in addition to a day of monitoring at participants’ chosen streams. The team is collaborating with Riverwatch scientists to re-establish and revitalize NGRREC’s Stream Discovery program, a version of Riverwatch targeted towards a wider audience. The program will shift River Watch curriculum to Edpuzzle-based modules that will make the program easier for the community to understand. They will review existing materials, finalize new methods, and create user-friendly training materials for online and in-person workshops. They also plan to survey local schoolteachers to identify gaps in their environmental education programs. Their objective is to address these gaps through the creation of relevant materials and provide valuable support to the community of Alton.
Alton Middle School and YMCA of Southwestern Illinois
This team has been researching violent crime in Alton, Illinois, particularly among youth. Alton’s rate of violent crime is 44% higher than the national average, according to FBI statistics from 2021. To put their ideas for intervention into action, the team is working with twelve justice- and violence-impacted middle school students. Digital storytelling is a method for people to relate personal narratives using a variety of media and skills including web design, podcasting, oral history collection, video production, and digital visualization. The CODES students mentor the middle school students during nine one-hour sessions, training them on how to use video and audio equipment to tell stories about their experiences with youth violence. Together, they are planning a gallery of resulting videos to share with their school and the community.
