On May 10th, PRYDE celebrated the graduation of the second cohort of PRYDE Scholars and welcomed the new 2019-2020 cohort. Dr. Anthony Burrow, director of PRYDE, said a few words to commemorate the event, while the graduating seniors spoke about their two-year journey through the program.

This year, the seniors worked with New York State 4-H issue leader, Melanie Forstrom from Ulster County, to design an evaluative tool that would help assess the efficacy of the 4-H Public Presentations program. The 4-H Public Presentations event is designed to provide 4-H youth opportunities to practice public speaking and gain a diverse set of communications skills.

In their reflections during the ceremony, the seniors relayed that the PRYDE Scholars program gave them the chance to actually conduct translational research through off-site data collection in SUNY Ulster and by working directly with a 4-H youth practitioner to develop measurement tools that could actually be used by 4-H programs in the future.

Newly-welcomed scholars heard what their own program experiences may be like through the advice and musings of the seniors. The graduates encouraged newcomers to maintain strong relationships with their cohort peers, take initiative in research under the guidance of their faculty mentors, and have an open mind when translating research into practice for the community.