Taylor is the 2024-2025 Engagement Fellow for JMU’s Empowerment3. Empowerment3 brings together students from all majors and different backgrounds to empower individuals and their families, professionals, communities using physical activity, mentorship, and social connection. Empowerment3 implements physical activity programming, nutrition education, research and training, and health promotion. She has spent a lot of her time working with Empowerment3 because of the change they make in the community and the connections they get to build with families. Taylor is from Richmond, Virginia, and graduated from JMU in May 2024 with a Bachelor of Science in Health Sciences and Kinesiology, Exercise Science concentration. Outside of her time at Empowerment3 she works for Campus View Apartments and visit local hospitals and clinics for shadowing options. She enjoys learning about new ways to grow and enhance the field of healthcare and how we view it. She is also interested in finding opportunities for individuals and students to get involved and informed on the different opportunities we have within Empowerment3. 

Position Overview

Empowerment3 (E3) is the Center for Physical Activity and Wellness for the Underserved. Our center's programming, research, training, and support services empower individuals and their families, professionals (pre-service and in-service), and communities through physical activity, nutrition, one-on-one mentorship, and social connection. E3's efforts engage, educate, equip, and empower two populations through authentic learning opportunities: underserved populations in our community and JMU students seeking purpose and career readiness opportunities. E3 provides specialized and inclusive interventions for children and adults with disabilities, older adults, English language learners, refugees, and at-risk youth. E3 serves the JMU community by providing weekly one-on-one mentorship and program co-lead opportunities for over 200 students each semester.

Authentic academic and professional growth are at the heart of E3’s mission as we provide service learning, training, and often career awareness opportunities for current Dukes. The Presidential Fellow will serve as Empowerment3's Director of Outreach and Holistic Health, and empowerment3's director of training and impact will supervise the fellow. The engagement fellow will support several student and community engagement initiatives.

Mission, Vision, and Values Statement
Engaged Learning: Empowerment3 (E3) mission aligns with the university's mission of engaged learning. E3 provides purposeful learning opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students from 25 academic programs across campus who serve as one-on-one mentors and program leaders each semester. These experiences allow students to apply their acquired knowledge as they engage alongside and support participants from underserved populations. These service learning and leadership roles require students to reflect on their current knowledge or skill gaps that may lead to the unmet needs of participants. In their position, the fellow will determine the ideal attributes, knowledge, and skill sets students should have to be successful as a 1:1 mentor for participants from underserved populations. This reflection will challenge E3 to evaluate our training and support model.

Additionally, E3 has recently received funding to conduct our community-based interventions statewide and nationally, which triples the number of mentors and program leads we will need each semester. The fellow will be vital in recruiting students and getting them excited about the engaged learning opportunities, both within or outside their discipline or interests.

Community Engagement: The E3 center has used a community engagement model since being founded in 2012. The fellow will engage with existing community partners and play a key role in recruiting new partners. E3 seeks community partners who can expand our reach into underserved communities or implementation partners who want to offer inclusive programming. Partner engagement will help the fellow understand and appreciate the challenges facing underserved populations and their families, challenges facing community wellness instructors and organizations, or the challenges JMU students face early in their academic journey. The fellow will learn about E3’s Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) which provides a voice for our underserved populations, their families, caregivers, 1:1 mentors, instructors, and advocates. Each stakeholder is a member of the research team and shares input throughout the research process. For example, E3’s interventions seek to improve physical and emotional health and quality of life for participants, caregivers, and mentors. The fellow will play a key role in collecting our pre, weekly, and post-data to see firsthand how our interventions mutually benefit participants, JMU students, and the communities. These experiences will help the fellow connect their learning to societal challenges. (e.g., understanding how social determinants of health impact an individual’s ability to enroll and regularly participate in a community-based program as a participant or mentor. Secondly, how does their participation or lack thereof impact their health, employment, career readiness, and overall quality of life)?

Diversity: E3 values diversity as we seek access, opportunity, and a place to belong for all community members and JMU students. E3 joins the university in valuing all members and. their perspectives. By including students from majors across campus, each member naturally brings their professional lens into each mentorship, programming, and research experience. By embracing the diversity of thought, program leads, mentors, and supervisors must consider the whole person when attempting to meet their needs. The fellow will understand what inclusion means for each stakeholder through outreach and engagement activities. Secondly, the fellow will see how learning translates to practice. The fellow and director of training and impact will gather and review all perspectives and use the collected data to inform training, research, program planning, implementation, and impact evaluation.

Innovation: Creativity, Collaboration, Knowledge creation, and excellence
The fellow will co-design, launch, and lead E3’s Difference Maker in Training (DMT) Program, built around JMU's fundamental values of innovation, collaboration, and knowledge creation. In cross-disciplinary teams of four, DMTs will select a complex problem discovered through E3’s research and work collaboratively to develop innovative solutions. The fellow will lead a weekly learning community, connect teams to community partners and experts, and mentor each team in their pursuit of excellence. By the end of the semester, each team will present their problem and the innovative solution they have developed or tested.

Student Focus: Challenge and Support Students
E3’s 10-week physical activity and nutrition mentorship interventions could not be possible without JMU students serving as one-on-one mentors and program co-leads. These placements challenge students personally and professionally as addressing the needs of underserved populations is not easy but is very rewarding. E3's research indicates that our impact opportunities improve emotional health for 95% of actively involved students. These efforts align with the university's values to challenge and support students.

In support of Empowerment3’s goals, we expect the Engagement Fellow to work toward achieving the following outcomes alongside our E3 team and student directors:

• Through outreach and engagement efforts, we recruit at least 50 first-year students, 50 second-year students, 25 transfer students, and 75 students in general education courses each semester.

• 75% of JMU students demonstrate an improvement in at least one physical or emotional health indicator because of their involvement as a 1:1 mentor or program lead.

• Engage with at least two new student groups to broaden their impact while enhancing E3’s DEI efforts

• Defining specific impact outcomes from our initial cohort of Difference Makers in Training (DMT) versus students who engage as service learners or volunteer in E3.

• Work with three new community organizations to enhance their inclusive programming or increase the number of participants from underserved populations enrolled.

• Recruit at least 50 individuals or caregivers minimum to use E3's Connected Wellness app to improve physical and emotional health outcomes.