Graduate Students
Aimee Rickman
- B.A. in Communications from Marquette University
- M.Ed. in Educational Psychology – Quantitative and Evaluative Methodologies
(QUERIES) division – from University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign - Currently working on my PhD in Human & Community Development:
Adolescent Development concentration
Professional/Research Interests:
My early research has explored the processes adolescents go through to find career direction as members of youth programs. Current research investigates how participation in online technosocial environments informs and shapes adolescent development. Areas of interest include the sociopolitical construction of the period of adolescence, youth-computer interaction, informatics, new media and social media communications, psychosocial contributors to engagement, identity formation, and the developmental implications of young people seeking direction through social technologies. I am particularly fond of grounded theory, symbolic interactionism, play theory, critical race theory, queer theory, communication theory, and the social justice youth development perspective.
Honors and Awards:
- 2008-2009 Center on Democracy in a Multiracial Society Graduate Fellow.
- Spring 2008 First prize award in the SPCM496 Informatics design competition: "Outstanding Design of a Playful Technology.”
- Spring 2008 UIUC List of Teachers Rated as Excellent, with “outstanding” distinction (HDFS405).
- Spring 2008 Graduate College Conference Travel Award recipient.
- 2007-2008 Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities (IPRH) reading group funding award.
- 2006-2007 Clareta A. Walker Graduate Fellow.
- 2002 State Treasurer Judy Barr Topinka’s Women to Women: Making a Difference in Illinois Trailblazer Award recipient.
Spring 2008 & 2009 Teaching Assistant
Adolescent Development - HDFS 405
Dr. Reed Larson
Fall 2007 – present Research Assistant
Department of Human Development and Family Studies
Dr. Reed Larson
Fall 2007- Summer 2008 Graduate Supervisor
Family Resiliency Resource Center Internship - HDFS 294
Dr. Aaron Ebata
As a graduate student in HDFS
I have been able to learn from talented faculty members in the department and across campus who encourage critical thinking on issues related to youth and development. As a research assistant, I have had the chance to take part in data collection, quantitative and qualitative analysis, journal writing and editing, IRB and grant proposal drafting, and other aspects of academic research. I have gained experience teaching my primary area of study to groups of bright undergraduates. And I have benefited from being able to work with my advisor on a number of youth development-related studies and articles.
What I like best about Illinois
Spring. The ability to walk everywhere. The people. Availability of vegan food and farmer's markets and many locally-run businesses. Meadowbrook and Carle Park. Buses that take bikes. Easy access to academic talks. Also, depending on where you go, you can make CU a big town where you know no one, or you can make it a small town filled with familiar faces. I like that.
I am involved in
Society for Research on Adolescence
Project on Public Policy and Advanced Communication Technology (PACT) Lab
East Central Illinois Safe Schools Alliance
The Graduate Employee's Organization (GEO)
Proyecto C.H.E.
WRFU Community Radio
The Champaign-Urbana Independent Media Center (IMC)
UIUC College of Engineering's Girls' Adventures in Math, Science, and Engineering (GAMES) Camps
Local Matters Art
I have co-authored the following works:
Larson, R. W., Rickman, A. N., Gibbons, C. M. & Walker, K. C. (in press). Practitioner expertise: Creating quality within the daily tumble of events in youth settings. In R. Granger, K. Pittman, & N. Yohalem (Eds). New Directions in Youth Development. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Larson, R., Wilson, S., & Rickman, A. (2009). Adolescence across place and time: Globalization and the changing pathways to adulthood. In R. Lerner & L. Steinberg (Eds.), Handbook of Adolescent Psychology. (2nd edition). New York: Wiley.
Rickman, A. (1995). Mr. Smitt of grades 7-8: Searching for new ideas. In R. Stake (Ed.), Restructuring: Teacher Professional Development in Chicago School Reform. Urbana, IL: CIRCE.
Presentations:
Rickman, A. (2009). The strength to resist: The media's impact on women and girls. Panelist for the Channing-Murray Foundation's Social Justice Film & Panel Discussion, Urbana, IL.
Rickman, A., Alcantara, M., Larson, S. (2008). Increased retention seen in female engineering undergraduates acting as counselors and instructors in a middle school engineering camp. Paper presented at the 4th Annual National Symposium on Student Retention, Little Rock, Arkansas.
Rickman, A. & Browning, C. C. (2008). Cyberbullying in "dangerous" conversations: Online student newspaper as virtual town hall. Paper presented at the Conference on Race, Diversity, and Campus Climate at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL.
Rickman, A. N. & Larson, R. A. (2008). Pathways: Adolescents' development of career direction through youth programs. Poster presented at the annual conference of the Society for Research on Adolescence, Chicago, IL.
Rickman, A.N & Salmond, K. (2006). Using authentic assessment to look beyond recidivism in evaluating programs for incarcerated female youth: How to measure outcomes when it’s safer in the “big house” than in her house. Paper presented at the annual conference of the American Evaluation Association, Portland, OR.
Rickman, A. N. (chair), Salmond, K., Riedel, J.A. (2006). Measuring outcomes in three different criminal justice programs for girls. Paper presented at the annual conference of the American Evaluation Association, Portland, OR.
Salmond, K. & Rickman, A. N. (2006). Ensuring evaluation utility by aligning evaluation and program design within institutional transformation: Capturing the cycle of influence. Poster presented at the annual conference of the American Evaluation Association, Portland, OR.
Hometowns:
Chicago & Urbana.
Hobbies:
I like playing and teaching guitar & tennis. I also enjoy reading, walking, growing things in the garden, siestas, surfing, riding my bike fast, swimming, Galaga, learning Spanish, and writing.
Fun Fact:
Mary Sheridan-Rabideau's (2008) Girls, feminism, and grassroots literacies: Activism in the GirlZone was written based on the youth program I co-founded and ran in Champaign-Urbana. Also, I can cure hiccups.