The Purpose Science and Innovation Exchange (PSiX) has received a three-year, $3.5 million grant from the Bezos Family Foundation to launch two new fellowships – one for faculty and one for community members – aimed to help youth develop a sense of purpose.

A sense of purpose, or a life aim, helps young people feel more positive and resilient, according to research from Anthony Burrow, professor in the Department of Psychology and the director of PSiX. As they get older, people with a sense of purpose are less impulsive, less lonely and more satisfied with life, and they tend to earn more money over their careers, research has found. 

PsiX is part of the Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research (BCTR), which houses projects that have been conducting research in partnership with communities for decades.

The research fellowship targets early-career faculty, particularly those at smaller institutions that may lack the infrastructure to support community-engaged translational research. The community fellowship enables members of organizations serving youth, and young people themselves, to shape research questions and co-design research projects. They have unique insight into how youth are finding this sense of direction in their lives, but they haven’t traditionally had a way to connect with researchers. 

“Community partners are scientists too,” said TeRay Esquibel, executive director of Purpose Commons, a PSiX partner organization that connects researchers and practitioners. “They’re not collaborators, not sources, not stakeholders that are engaged. They’re scientists.”

The community fellows will identify purpose-focused projects and research questions they consider important. Then the two groups will work together to design and conduct a research project – with the community fellows piloting an intervention, while the research fellows develop evaluation protocols and frameworks, collect and analyze data, and prepare the research for publication.

In addition, research fellows will receive support to develop purpose science courses at their institutions and gauge interest in the topic among students. Outstanding community fellows from the current group will mentor the next year’s research fellows, offering their community perspective and guidance.

“We’re not just building a program, we’re truly building a community,” Burrow said. “Three years from now, we’ll have a network of researchers and community members working together to further youth purpose long after the grant ends.”

The first cohort of research fellows are:

• Carlisa Simon, Kennesaw State University;
• Melissa Fenton, Colorado State University;
• Lloyd Talley, Hampton University; and
• Elianny Edwards, College of the Holy Cross.

The fellows kicked off the program by attending the BCTR’s annual Translational Research Summer Institute, held June 29-30 at Cornell, which covers topics such as practical translational research skills, cultivating community partnerships, grant development and the importance of community-engaged research, while acknowledging the challenges researchers face when pursuing this work. 

Edwards said that the summer institute reminded her that translational research should be led by the communities with whom researchers work.

“It affirmed an approach I take in my own research – allowing community priorities and relationships to shape the questions we ask and the methods we employ, rather than asking communities to fit into preexisting research agendas,” she said.

The research fellows will complete their work at their home institutions and hold monthly virtual meetings through the academic year. They can also tap into the collective knowledge of PSiX researchers and the community fellows, who work with Purpose Commons. 

During her fellowship, Edwards plans to develop a literacy and leadership academy for high school students from urban, low-income backgrounds. The academy will use young adult novels to explore themes of identity, safety, agency and purpose, which are also themes of her research focus. She wants to examine how reading can help youth make sense of themselves and their contexts as they envision their future.

“I hope to extract lessons about how to create enriching learning environments that promote literacy while nurturing safety and wellness and maximizing the agency of some of our most vulnerable youth,” she said.

Juan Vazquez-Leddon is the communications director for the Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research.