Beyond Auburn Magazine

Speaking to the heart of Auburn University’s outreach mission, faculty engagement with the GEAR UP Achieve initiative is transforming how students, particularly those from marginalized communities, prepare for and thrive in higher education. Two standout contributors to this effort are Danielle Wadsworth and Jesús Tirado, whose work in mindfulness and citizenship education brought depth and innovation to the program’s second annual summer residential camp held in Auburn this past June.

Wadsworth, a professor in the College of Education’s School of Kinesiology, focuses her research on exercise behavior and the psychological supports that sustain it. Her involvement with GEAR UP Achieve began over two years ago, when she joined the grant team and participated in hiring school liaisons. But her most visible contribution has been the integration of SPACE mindfulness activities into the GEAR UP Achieve summer camp experience. The SPACE program, which stands for Stillness, Presence, Awareness, Choice and Empowerment, is a reflective journey for 7th to 12th-grade students to explore foundational wellness.

“Mindfulness was originally introduced as a stress management class in kinesiology,” Wadsworth explained. “We saw that students lacked the skills to cope with college stressors, so we developed a program to provide self-regulatory capacities with tools to help them manage the world they live in.”

The SPACE curriculum is supported by a digital platform called Creating SPACE, hosted by Auburn University. The site offers podcasts, comic-style activity pages and short exercises that teachers can easily integrate into their classrooms.

Wadsworth asked GEAR UP Achieve summer campers to consider building “SPACE” into their routines by introducing movement-based mindfulness exercises, which she believes are especially effective for younger participants. “We did more active mindfulness this year – think active breathing exercises and movement components. The kids were more engaged, and I think that’s because we met them where they are developmentally,” Wadsworth said.

Wadsworth emphasized the importance of thoughtful self-regulation in helping students learn to pause and choose their responses rather than react impulsively. “At 14, the amygdala, which is a part of the brain structure involved in processing emotions, is highly active and may drive impulsive emotional reactions. Our program aims to help them create space between thoughts, feelings and actions, and to feel empowered to choose how they respond, rather than controlled by their first emotional response,” she said. “Even something as simple as a breath can be a powerful tool.”

Complementing Wadsworth’s work is Jesús Tirado, assistant professor in the Department of Curriculum and Teaching in the College of Education. Tirado’s research focuses on citizenship education and how students learn to engage in discussions and deliberations. His session during the GEAR UP Achieve camp, co-led with associate professor Sara Demoiny, also from the Department of Curriculum and Teaching, invited students to explore global access to clean water through inquiry and structured academic controversy.

“We led a short inquiry about how to approach solving the problem of safe access to clean water across the world,” Tirado said. “Students deliberated across different solutions to see how they would approach building solutions to the problem.”

Tirado was impressed by the campers’ enthusiasm and curiosity. “I always enjoy the energy and vigor that secondary students bring to activities like this. They make everything so exciting with their approach and curiosity,” he said. He hopes that students walked away with a deeper appreciation for complexity and the confidence to engage with challenging issues.

Programs like GEAR UP Achieve, Tirado believes, are essential to student success. “One of the best ways to get students ready for college is to see themselves there, and GEAR UP Achieve brings students on campus, year-round, and helps them see what they can do once they are here,” Tirado said.

As Auburn Outreach and the College of Education continue to collaborate on GEAR UP Achieve, both Wadsworth and Tirado see the partnership as a model for how higher education can serve communities. “Outreach merges multiple disciplines to reach individuals who wouldn’t otherwise have access. It’s our duty in higher education to test theories and put science into action right where people live, work and play,” Wadsworth said.