Northwestern Student Honored for Addressing Concussions Head-On
Northwestern Health Sciences University student Ben Jelinek will be a doctor of chiropractic soon, but he's wasting no time making his mark on the profession – and the health care arena in general. In February, Jelinek was honored at the Joint Commission on Sports Medicine and Science's Anaheim, Calif., convention for a poster about field testing for concussions.
The poster, based on reaction-time field tests conducted by Jelinek and other students, originally won first place at the American Chiropractic Association's Sports Council Symposium in the fall of 2015. Council leaders suggested Jelinek submit the poster to the JCSMS national competition, and the poster ended up winning second place.
A press release issued by Northwestern summarized the students' findings from the field tests. Dr. Elizabeth Moos, a sports chiropractor and clinical fellow at the university's Human Performance Center, constructed and supervised the study.
Stated the press release: "The testing found no significant differences in reaction times between those who had experienced a concussion or whiplash at some point in their lives and those who had not. But it did suggest that age and stress levels of the individuals tested had an effect and should be considered. It also suggested that the ruler test [a university administrator dropped a ruler and subjects tried to catch it as soon as they saw it move] is an effective and easy-to-administer diagnostic tool that could be used on the field, such as on the sidelines at sporting events, to determine whether participants had experienced a recent injury."
"It's a good measure of reaction time when you have a situation with no real time or place to do more detailed testing," said Jelinek. "As a student, this was a great opportunity to do research and present the results in a useful way that can help with concussion testing."
Northwestern Announces New CFO
In other Northwestern Health Sciences University news, the school recently named Kathy Panciera chief financial officer, responsible for all financial aspects of the university including reporting and compliance matters. Panciera has an extensive background in finance and comes to the university after serving in a similar role at the Mitchell Hamline School of Law in nearby St. Paul, Minn.
"The way I like to approach the work is to look at the financial aspect as a partnering role across the organization," Panciera said following her appointment. "It's important to me to learn and understand the needs in other areas of responsibility and then determine how I can help them succeed."
Life U. to Provide Unique Opportunity
What's The Chillon Project? It's a unique degree-granting program developed by Life University and the Georgia Department of Corrections that will provide educational opportunities for incarcerated students and correctional staff within the Georgia prison system. According to the university, The Chillon Project is "the only program of its kind offered by a college or university based in the state of Georgia since 1994."
The project initially will offer an Associate of Arts degree in Positive Human Development and Social Change, with the goal of expansion after three years to also offer a Bachelor of Arts degree in Positive Human Development and Social Change. (Life University students also will be able to pursue the bachelor's degree if desired.) In the first year, 15 incarcerated students at the Lee Arrendale State Prison in Alto, Ga., will be enrolled in the project, and 15 correctional staff at the prison (or their family members) also will receive scholarships.
The Chillon Project is named after "The Prisoner of Chillon," a Lord Byron poem frequently referenced by Dr. Sid Williams, Life founder and former president.
"Education in prisons transforms lives and communities by showing that incarcerated persons are first and foremost human beings with the same potential as anyone else to help themselves and others if only given the opportunity," said Brendan Ozawa-de Silva, PhD, program director of The Chillon Project and associate professor of psychology at Life. "Higher education is the only effective way to drastically reduce recidivism, and incarcerated persons who earn a Bachelor's degree while in prison have recidivism rates of less than 3 percent, compared to rates of up to 70 percent for the general population."
