Exploring Academic Integrity!

Hello GRAD 5104!

Introduction:
My name is Casey Bailey. I’m a graduate student in the Educational Psychology program. I’m currently the Graduate Assistant (GA) for VT-STEM as the Volunteer Coordinator and Web Master. My research interest is understanding how informal learning influences Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) engagement outreach opportunities for undergraduates in acquiring skills and knowledge for college success and/or career readiness. The primary focus is on undergraduates’ social and cognitive development within informal service learning environments.

Defining Academic Integrity:

• My initial impression of the VT Principles of Community statement is specific and measurable from an individual sense of duty and a group or community obligation/responsibility. The Principles of Community demonstrates a shared enterprise or ownership in maintaining the practice and success of the core values, principles, and respect for one another collectively as well as the Tech community and surrounding communities we reside. It serves as an outline that encourages collaboration from the Tech community as a whole as well as individually to learn and develop in a way that meets the need(s) of the principles and the populace it serves.
• Principles verses laws, beliefs, and facts, are principles entail a collective unit formation of a standard(s) that can be altered according to the need(s) of the populace within the community, verses laws, beliefs, and facts are established by a sole authoritative entity in a community and imposed on the populace and serve as a complete truth with rigid alterations.
• In reading the acknowledgment that the university includes, in part, “a legacy that reflected bias and exclusion” suggest that past discretions of marginalization and bias toward groups based on race, gender, and sexual orientation is recognized, but no longer considered legitimate. [I’m not sure of the specific significance or meaning, so this is purely an assumption.]
• The statement might reveal a university’s integrity in being moral and ethically responsible in divulging historical beliefs and inheritance. In some degree this builds trust within the university and encourages the sharing of ideas that is essential to scholarship, learning, and growth.
• The principle most intriguing is “the value of diversity because it enriches our lives and the University”. This principle resonated the most, because it insinuates the varied collaborations to knowledge and the construction of knowledge as a whole and an individual contribution to the University as well as the lives being encountered.

Side Note:
We are preparing for our Kindergarten-2-College (K2C) college and career pathways program for children from across Virginia! As part of my role, we’re recruiting Volunteer Leaders to assist with leading groups of 5th grade students from STEM academic experiences to the Spirit of Tech experience, sharing insight about the college experience including academics, student life, living learning communities, and extracurricular activities. So, if you know of anyone interested in volunteering in the Blacksburg area, please have him or her contact me directly for more information.

Please feel free to share the Volunteer Leader flyer widely!
Download flyer here!

I look forward to interacting with everyone! Have a great week & stay warm!

Cheers,

Casey B.