Curriculum and Instruction faculty Cassandra Scharber and Cynthia Lewis received a $599,905, three-year grant from the William T. Grant Foundation for the study “Bright Stars: Technology-Mediated Settings for Urban Youth as Pathways for Engaged Learning.” It examines the complex features of schools, libraries, and community-based urban settings that successfully engage students by positioning youth as knowledge producers, meaning-makers, and creators of their own learning through the use of digital technologies.

Family Social Science assistant professor Lindsey Weiler is part of a team researching “Mentor Families: A Setting-level Component to Improve Mentoring Outcomes for At-risk Youth,” which received a William T. Grant Foundation research grant in social settings. The project investigates “mentor families,” a relatively low-cost innovation to improve youth mentoring programs involving the groupings of four mentor–mentee pairs into a “family” that experiences a mentoring program together. The project will be awarded $599,784 over the course of three years.