Regis students serve the local community through partnership with The Blue Bench

This past fall, Regis Psychology students had the opportunity to extend their learning outside of the classroom through engaging in tangible research, vocational education and community service.

The students of Professor Julie Sriken, Ph.D.’s class, Research Methods and Behavioral Statistics II, partnered with The Blue Bench, a Denver metro-based non-profit that provides sexual assault prevention education and a local survivor support center.

Sriken, a seasoned community researcher, strived to create an opportunity for Regis students to serve their community. Meeting with The Blue Bench at a vocational discernment event, she connected her own experience with the needs of the organization, leading to the partnership.

“I have experience working with survivors of intimate partner violence and sexual assault, so there was overlap in our fields,” said Sriken. “There were some basic research projects theyneeded that would really disrupt their work in other areas. And I said, ‘well, if it's basic enough, then I could lead the students through running that research for you.’”

Ultimately, Sriken's class was tasked with supplying The Blue Bench with data to guide their grant-writing process. This grant will enable The Blue Bench to launch sexual assault prevention education programs for mandatory reporters in Denver Public Schools.

Students were instructed to conduct a systematic literature review, a type of specialized qualitative study which attempts to collect, analyze and present all data regarding a specific research question. In this case, students gathered the data on the best practices for mandatory reporters.

Mariah Bradley, a Psychology major in her senior year, worked together with her seventeen classmates to share in the research project. Bradley described how the review was then broken down into smaller parts for smaller groups of students to digest and present to each other, which then would be recomposed into the larger presentation for The Blue Bench.

“What I took the most from this course was learning to collaboratively research,” said Bradley. “Sriken took so many different minds that had so many different ways of thinking and really gave us positions where she knew that we would be strong.” 

When gathering prior research for their project, Mariah described how “it was really fascinating to find out the lack of it.” As someone who has experience working directly with children, Bradley instantly connected with the research. Creating resources for child-facing mandatory reporters aligned with her own personal goals of developing safe child-care resources for her community.

Bradley’s experience reflects the practice of vocational discernment. A hands-on experience with real qualitative research provides Regis students with the opportunity to actualize their future careers.

“The more we know about how realistic these tasks are, the better sense we get of whether or not we want to do this in our career going forward.” Sriken continued, “it's very valuable to get a more realistic sense of what research is.”

By the end of the semester, the students had prepared a presentation and report for The Blue Bench, bringing together each facet of their research. As of now, Sriken and her research assistants plan to refine the research report into a fully realized document for The Blue Bench’s grant proposal. 

Though for most students, the project is now complete, the impact of the research project continues to be valuable.

“There's something very special about knowing that you did some small part using your psychological training to bring about well-being in your community.” Sriken concluded, “and I wanted them to have some sort of sense of ownership over that too.”