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The Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Graduate School has presented Jeremy Jewell, PhD, with the 2016-2018 Hoppe Research Professor Award. Jewell, a professor of psychology in the SIUE School of Education, Health and Human Behavior, is being recognized for his contributions to his field of study.

Jewell’s project, “Investigating the Effectiveness of Compassion Meditation with Behaviorally Disruptive Youth,” will work to understand the impact of a compassion meditation (CM) program on the emotional, social and psychological functioning of behaviorally disruptive youth in a public school setting.

“There’s a critical lack of research looking at the effects of compassion meditation in schools, and we especially don’t know much about how this type of meditation may reduce kids’ misbehavior,” Jewell said. “Because a great deal of every teacher’s day is spent handling misbehavior, this type of research is especially important.”

“The Hoppe Research Professor is awarded to a faculty member whose work shows potential for making a significant contribution to their field of study,” said Jerry Weinberg, PhD, associate provost for research and dean of the Graduate School. “It is one of SIUE’s major research awards, providing two years of support for the faculty member’s work.

“Past award winners have raised SIUE’s reputation as a premier teacher-scholar institution by publishing significant results, publishing books and being awarded grants from federal funding agencies. Dr. Jewell’s research shows great promise not only to contributing to his area of scholarship, but also of providing important practical support to school children’s mental well-being.”

According to Jewell, his project will be the second study to ever investigate the effects of meditation on behaviorally disruptive youth in schools. It will be the first to examine the effectiveness of CM on improving psychological outcomes in youth.

Mindfulness-based therapy practices have become more common and researched over the past two decades. However, research on CM, a practice that uses traditional meditation techniques to specifically build empathy and compassion toward others and the self, is quite limited.

“Not only do we expect to see kids who graduate the program report lower levels of stress and anger, but we also expect the program to increase desirable character traits like the ability to forgive others and express gratitude.”

A loan fund was established in 1976 through the SIUE Foundation by Joseph W. Hoppe, because he believed in SIUE's mission and the value of faculty research. Four years later, the Hoppe endowment became the basis for the Hoppe Research Faculty Award. In 1999, the award was transformed with the help of SIUE academic deans into the current Hoppe Research Professor award program.

Photo: Dr. Jeremy Jewell, professor of psychology in the SIUE School of Education, Health and Human Behavior.