by Claire Miller
Robin Ennis, doctoral student and clinical instructor in the College of Education’s Department of Educational Psychology and Special Education, received a $2,000 scholarship from the Midwest Symposium for Leadership in Behavior Disorders (MSLBD) to support her doctoral research on students with emotional and behavioral disorders.
MSLBD, a professional organization for all educators, psychologists, child care workers and researchers who work with children with behavior and learning disabilities, offers scholarships annually to undergraduates, graduate students and doctoral students to support their research and training.
Ennis found out in January that she’d received the $2,000 scholarship that will go toward her doctoral research this year. Her research interests fall into two areas: Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS), which takes a preventative approach to reach kids before they have problems in the classroom, and small group interventions to target students’ academic shortfalls.
This summer, Ennis plans to pilot a research project on small group interventions and collect data in the fall to learn more about helping students with emotional and behavioral disorders perform academically.
“So often, with students with emotional and behavioral challenges we focus on getting them to behave well and don’t always address their academic needs,” she explained. “We have to look at both sides.”
For more information about the Behavior-Learning Disabilities program, visit http://education.gsu.edu/EPSE/4622.html. For more information about MSLBD, visit http://www.mslbd.org.
