How would you like to work with one of Syracuse University’s most experienced academic and professional writing instructors on a project to practice invaluable college-ready and professional-world communication and research skills? Would you like it even better if the work you were doing would go on to immediately benefit underrepresented children in of one of America’s largest cities? In this 6-week online course, students will partner with instructor Emily Workman Luther and the 501c3 nonprofit Yoga 4 Philly to design research metrics that will help underrepresented children in Philadelphia city schools to experience daily, direct in-person instruction from a diverse team of locally-renowned yoga teachers. Teachers often talk about primary and secondary research, and once you enter college, qualitative and quantitative research. It is important as a young scholar to know the difference between these tools. In this class, students will learn the distinctions between different types of research by conducting hands-on research that will be useful for our non-profit partners. Students will interview, communicate with diverse professional partners across the USA, engage with scholarly databases and sources, conduct their own academic research, and finally, design research metrics as a final deliverable for our partner organization. Students will be introduced to the world of scholarly research, library tools, research planning methods, and how to design metrics for carrying out primary research. Students will be engaged with our non-profit partners through virtual meetings, email, and video content; and they will be expected to consider this engagement a professional internship-like environment, working to deadlines, practicing business etiquette in their writing, and speaking with partners: all with the constant warm support and guidance of our Syracuse University instructor. Yoga 4 Philly is a diverse, dynamic, cutting-edge organization challenging norms and taking progressive actions that serve as a model for the wellness industry as a whole. These actions include a staunchly anti-racist, inclusive, anti-classist commitment to making yoga and meditation accessible to all, as well as a progressive labor ethic driven by founder Steven Brice. Yoga 4 Philly is battling the barriers of classism, race, ableism, ageism, and mental health stigma that prevent many groups of people from having access to powerful wellness tools. Yoga 4 Philly believes that “Yoga and meditation should accessible to everybody, Period.” Yoga 4 Philly has grown exponentially amid and despite the pandemic, providing free yoga to children in city schools, the elderly, people with addiction, people involved in sex-trafficking, expecting mothers, and people suffering from Parkinson’s Disease. This course focuses on Yoga 4 The World’s Yoga 4 Kids program at Elkin Elementary, a school in the Kensington area of Philadelphia which experiences high drug and alcohol addiction, housing and food insecurity, and effects of gun violence. 100% of the children are considered economically disadvantaged, which as studies show, can have an impact on mental, emotional, and academic well-being. Yoga 4 Philly offers daily yoga and mediation classes to these students. In this class, we will explore all modalities of research alongside Y4P to help their expansion into many more Philadelphia city schools. At present, Y4P has been contracted to expand its programming from one Philadelphia school to eleven other schools in the city. With the staff at the ready, Y4P will be thrilled to have student partners sharing in this process as valuable resource-workers who can help Y4P spread their message using quality data from research. Course Objectives - Students will be able to differentiate between primary, secondary, qualitative and quantitative research methods, and determine which types of research are appropriate for particular audiences and projects. - Students will be able to locate, read, and understand scholarly articles, scientific research, educational research, and quantitative and qualitative research across multiple disciplines. - Students will develop sound, reliable primary research aims, methods, and modalities and implement these in a hands-on study. - Students will practice digital, written, and verbal professional communication skills through engaging with diverse constituents in various professional partner organizations across multiple platforms such as virtual meetings, emails, phone calls, and letters. - Students will encounter current issues related to youth health, social-emotional learning in schools, and the mental, physical, and social benefits of yoga and meditation among children and educators.