ESAA Digital Resources for the Public: Virtual Community Engagement and its Impact
Congratulations to Ms. Madeline Hernández and Mr. José Jiménez who have been awarded the prestigious Engaged Scholar & Artists Award by UTRGV for their project Digital Resources for the Public: Virtual Community Engagement and its Impact. They will be working on this project during 2020-2021, and it's a great fit for our current situation.
The purpose of this research is bifold: 1) to create digital materials/resources based on the research of the CoBiVa for the local community and to distribute these resources within the community 2) to analyze the impact of these digital resources and the piloted virtual community engagement. Our question is: How do digital resources created for the public impact access, visibility and understanding about the community’s linguistic resources? First, we will work to create digital resources (Youtube videos, infographs, etc) and distribute those to local media outlets. Secondly, we will analyze and track viewership and access to the website, videos, and other digital resources along with any comments within/around those resources or media releases/interviews. Finally, we will create and distribute an open-ended survey to community members as well as students about how these materials impact their understanding of language in the Rio Grande Valley.
Congrats, Maddie and Freddy! We'll post their progress here on the CoBiVa blog!
Madeline Hernandez (Maddie) is an undergraduate English major with a concentration in Linguistics. She is currently in her last year and plans to graduate Spring 2021 and continue to a master’s program at UTRGV. She plans to continue her education and research in the field of Linguistics.
Jose A. Jimenez, aka Freddy, is an undergraduate senior attaining his BA in Political Science with a concentration in Theory along with a Minor in Mexican American Studies. He has worked as an editor for newspaper publications and as an organizer for non-profit civic engagement interest groups. He hopes to attain his master’s degree and teach community college in the future.