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An Innocence‐Centered View of New Jersey’s Post‐Conviction Jurisprudence: A Symposium - The History of New Jersey’s State Constitutional Guarantee Against Suspension of State Habeas Corpus and Its Unconstitutional Suspension in 2009
Get PDFHolistic Support and Development: Collaboration Between Residence Life and Faculty on Short-Term Education Abroad Programs
No full textShort-term education abroad programs are designed to increase students’ intercultural competencies, expose them to new cultures and languages, prepare them for future employability, and further their academic development (Castiello-Gutiérrez & Gozik, 2022; Yao, 2021). While education abroad programs may result in strong benefits for students, they are not without their challenges when it comes to facilitating and managing them. Both the faculty who lead these programs and the students who participate in them face challenges respective to their experiences abroad. Many researchers emphasize collaboration between student affairs and academic affairs to alleviate these challenges, but no one office is identified as being the ideal office to collaborate with (Barr, 2013; Madden et al., 2019; Rhodes et al., 2012; Roberts et al., 2022). While there are many student affairs offices that could support the student experience, residence life professionals are in a unique position to influence students’ development and holistic growth (Burke et al., 2014; Kunk-Czaplicki & Wilson, 2023).
To understand the challenges that students and faculty face when participating and leading short-term education abroad programs and how the work of residence life professionals might align with these challenges, a phenomenological study was conducted across three small to mid-sized Catholic higher education institutions. Twenty-two semi-structured interviews were performed with three participant groups: students, faculty, and residence life professionals. Along with these interviews, the data was supplemented with observations at one education abroad site; I used my residence life background to provide support to students and faculty while on the trip and it was documented through journal reflections.
The findings highlighted the variety of challenges that faculty and students faced while abroad. Students reported dealing with stress, guilt, imposter syndrome, and anxiety, with some struggling to process the difficult program content they were encountering firsthand and requiring additional support to work through those emotions. Beyond their emotional health, students also experienced illness, difficulties with medical accommodation, concerns about physical safety, and navigating peer conflict. While faculty were generally able to address these challenges, they spoke about the weight of the responsibility of providing 24/7 student support in these areas and the toll it took on their own mental health. In contrast, the professional preparation of residence life staff closely aligned with many of the issues faculty and students encountered abroad, including responding to mental health crises, mediating roommate conflicts, enforcing policies, and addressing physical health concerns. Moreover, residence life professionals shared that they are trained to holistically support and develop students in residential environments, fostering safe and inclusive communities where students can thrive. Ultimately, the findings suggest that residence life professionals could serve as valuable collaborators for faculty on short-term education abroad programs by filling gaps in student support. By providing students with more holistic support, they can contribute to creating a more comfortable and engaging environment for students to lean into the transformational learning of these programs
A Novel Rheumatoid Arthritis 3D Bone-Cartilage Interface for Discovering New Therapeutics
No full textRheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune disease characterized by synovial inflammation, cartilage degradation, and bone erosion. Fibroblast-like synoviocytes (FLS) play a critical role in RA joint destruction. Despite advances in therapy, current treatments do not fully address the fibroblast-driven pathology, and relevant in vitro models are not capable of capturing this aspect of disease. To address this gap, we developed and validated a novel three-dimensional (3D) Fibrotic RA bone-cartilage interface (BCI) model that integrates osteoblasts, osteoclasts, chondrocytes, peripheral immune cells, and RA-FLS in a single organoid. The model was first established using mouse-derived cell lines and subsequently adapted to incorporate primary human mesenchymal stem cell-derived osteoblasts, peripheral blood mononuclear cell-derived osteoclasts and lymphocytes, immortalized human chondrocyte spheroids, and SW982 RA-FLS. RA-like conditions were induced using a cytokine cocktail of TNF-α, IL-1β, and TGF-β, resulting in upregulation of inflammatory mediators, matrix-degrading enzymes, and fibrotic gene expression, accompanied by increased calcium deposition, visible bone degradation, and immune cell and RA-FLS infiltration.
Therapeutic testing reveals that methotrexate, etanercept, and tofacitinib reduced certain pro-inflammatory mediators but had limited impact on fibrotic remodeling, consistent with clinical limitations of these agents. In contrast, antifibrotic agents nintedanib and pirfenidone significantly reduced fibrotic gene expression and FLS proliferation, highlighting their potential to complement current anti-inflammatory therapies. The Fibrotic RA BCI model provides a physiologically relevant, modular, and adaptable platform for studying disease mechanisms and evaluating candidate therapeutics that target both immune-mediated inflammation and fibroblast-induced joint damage. This system has the potential to improve translational relevance in preclinical drug discovery and may be adapted for other joint disorders, including osteoarthritis and ankylosing spondylitis, thereby broadening its utility in preclinical research
