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Program Overview
The C.A.M.P. Gator program is part of a three-credit College of Education course offered at both the undergraduate and graduate level that incorporates both leadership training and mentoring.
Leadership
Students are selected from a variety of academic majors and granted admission into the program based on their leadership activities, a successful interview, and a proven record of academic and personal achievement. Students participating in the program include UF students, members of the Minority Student Education Guild and LEAD (Leadership in Educational Administration Doctorate) graduate students. The leadership curriculum includes comprehensive training focusing on:
1. Personal Mission and Vision
2. Goal Planning
3. Service Leadership
4. Financial Planning
5. Public Speaking Strategies
6. Traits of Effective Leadership
7. Leading Positive Change
To enrich the leadership training, interactive workshops are offered and guest speakers are invited to give presentations on a variety of topics including:
The Power of Vision in Achieving Your Goals
Joe Cirulli, Founder of Gainesville Health and Fitness
Effective Public Speaking Techniques and Strategies
Dr. Kim McCall, Director of the Public Speaking Anxiety Lab
The Traits of Effective Leadership
Dr. Phillip Clark, UF Faculty Emeritus, Educational Leadership
Personal Financial Success
Christopher Coogan, Associate Director of Institute of Higher Education
Leading Positive Change
Dr. David Quinn, Lastinger Center for Learning
Strategies for Effective Mentoring
Dr. Holly Lane, College of Education
Mentoring
Student leaders are paired with elementary and middle-school boys and girls from high poverty schools in the Gainesville community. One-on-one leadership mentoring takes place weekly throughout the semester in local schools and on the University of Florida campus. The course encourages UF students to coordinate on-campus activities for their mentees including classroom visits, student organizations, and athletic team practices. The campus visits are essential because they give K-12 students an introduction to college life and an understanding that higher education is attainable through hard work and a belief that one can succeed.
New Areas Of Focus
Building upon the tremendous success of our program to date, plans are underway to extend our curriculum to include two new areas of focus: anti-bullying strategies and fitness and obesity prevention.
Anti-Bullying Strategies
According to Department of Education statistics, student bullying is one of the most frequently reported discipline problems at school with 21% of elementary schools, 43% of middle schools, and 22% of high schools reporting problems with bullying. A report published by the Department of Justice in 2009 cites a national survey of students in grades 6 to 10 that showed 10% reported being bullied, 13% reported bullying others and 6% being both bullies and victims.
Bullying has long lasting harmful effects for both victims and bullies. Students who are bullied can become withdrawn and depressed, feel anxious and insecure and find it difficult to concentrate in school. In extreme cases, students who are bullied may feel compelled to seek violent revenge or even consider suicide. Bullying also has long-term consequences, as research has shown that adults who were bullied as students have higher rates of depression, low self esteem and require more mental health services throughout life. Students (particularly boys) who bully are more likely to engage in other antisocial/delinquent behavior such as vandalism, shoplifting, truancy, and drug use into adulthood. In fact, 60 percent of students characterized as bullies in grades 6-9 will have at least one criminal conviction by age 24.
To address this issue, C.A.M.P. Gator has developed an anti-bullying curriculum in partnership with the College of Health and Human Performance. Research has shown that students involved in a mentoring program not only experienced an increase in school attendance and GPA, they were also one-third less likely to participate in violent activities. This project will be supervised by C.A.M.P. Gator Associate Director, Dr. Russell Froman, who is a representative for a regional bullying commission as well as a member of the Florida DOE Safe and Drug Free Schools Panel and Northeast Florida Education Consortium (NEFEC) Safe and Drug Free School Advisory Council.
Our curriculum will help C.A.M.P. Gator mentors define, identify and describe the different types of bullying. Mentors will also learn about the three components of the bullying triangle (bully, victim and bystander) and how these individuals behave in school. Class discussion will focus on why individuals participate in their assigned bullying role, and the identification of strategies to assist with both stopping and preventing bullying in schools. Our mentors will utilize this information to initiate role playing conversations with their mentees and encourage them to become “upstanders” rather than just bystanders.
Fitness and Obesity Prevention
Based on information provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the prevalence of obesity among children age 6 to 11 has more than doubled in the past 20 years from 6.5% in 1980 to 17% in 2006. Children who are obese are at greater risk for bone and joint problems, sleep apnea, and social and psychological problems such as stigmatization and poor self-esteem. Obese young people are more likely than children of normal weight to become overweight or obese adults and have a greater risk of developing health problems such as heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, stroke, several types of cancer, and osteoarthritis. Many obese children are showing evidence of disease conditions that in the past have always been associated with adulthood. Locally, one out of every three public school students in Alachua County (which includes Gainesville) is overweight or obese.
The C.A.M.P. Gator Fitness and Obesity Prevention project will be a joint effort between our program and the University Athletic Association. University of Florida students have the support of an amazing team of strength and fitness coaches as well as full-time dietitians. This partnership will allow our program access to this team of experts to help inform our elementary and middle-school mentees about the importance of health, fitness, and diet. Modules within the curriculum and mentoring sessions will incorporate these three elements.
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