Leaving messages during the 2024 iBelong at the G event.
The iBelong Committee, in conjunction with the Division of Student Affairs, is now accepting grant applications for projects to enhance student belonging during the 2025-26 academic year. Ideas that foster community and connections across campus are crucial for student success and retention.
Funding up to $500 is available. UNCG student groups, faculty, and staff are invited to submit proposals for new or expanded projects.
The submission deadline is Sept. 30. Proposals can be submitted here.
Read about previousiBelong projects and the ways they have positively impacted the UNCG community.
UNCG’s Chief Information Officer launched a newnewsletter to keep the campus community informed about technology projects, service updates, and upcoming initiatives. Read the first edition of the newsletter online.
iBelong’s Ongoing Commitment to Student Success and Wellbeing
Posted on September 15, 2025
A strong sense of belonging is vital to student success, both academically and personally. One of the ways that UNC Greensboro Student Affairs supports students from all backgrounds, and Student Affairs advances this mission through the iBelong Project grants. This initiative provides funding for campus events that cultivate meaningful connections across the University.
Each year, students, faculty, and staff are invited to apply for an iBelong grant to bring their ideas to life. This past year, the iBelong Committee reviewed more than 45 applications and awarded funding to over 25 projects focused on building student belonging in innovative and impactful ways. Some of the funded projects included:
Kinesiology representatives at the annual iBelong Day Celebration.Students work with Matt Fischer, the creator of the initiative “Thanks for Being a Good Human.”
The Heart of KIN: The Heart of KIN is a community-centered group bringing together Kinesiology students, faculty, and staff to celebrate identity, connection, and community through relationship-building experiences beyond the classroom. The group provides a relaxing and welcoming space for open dialogue, wellness activities, and engagement across all levels of the department. Their events foster a stronger sense of community by honoring others’ experiences, amplifying student voices, and promoting a culture where everyone feels seen, heard, and valued.
CVPA Peer Guides: This student-centered initiative from the College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA)’s Office of Student Success and Advising empowers CVPA Peer Guides to support new, incoming students by sharing academic insights, fostering community, and modeling adaptability, resilience, and professionalism. Peer Guides are accessible, relatable resources who engage students through social media, events, tutoring, and personalized outreach, building meaningful connections across academic and co-curricular settings. Through consistent communication and holistic support, the program helps students navigate CVPA and UNCG life, encouraging involvement, promoting growth, and ensuring they feel seen, supported, and connected.
To celebrate these efforts, Student Affairs and the iBelong Committee hosted its annual iBelong Day Celebration this spring, bringing together more than 200 students, faculty, and staff at the Elliott University Center for a day of connection and celebration. They enjoyed giveaways, food, and conversations with fellow community members and iBelong grant recipients.
As part of the celebration, attendees wrote letters to individuals on campus who have positively influenced their sense of belonging. Student Affairs staff delivered these letters throughout April, extending the spirit of appreciation and connection beyond the event itself.
Student Affairs is excited to continue this project and is seeking project grant proposals for the 2025-26 academic year. Those interested should visit the iBelong website for more information and the proposal submission form.
Sean MacInnes with Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration Bob Shea and AVC for Campus Enterprise Zach Smith.
The Betty Hardin Award for Excellence in Finance and Administration is presented annually to deserving active, regular full-time employees of the Finance and Administration Division of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. An awards committee, appointed by the Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration, reviews nominations to receive the award.
Congratulations to this years recipient, Sean MacInnes, our outstanding sustainability specialist in finance and administration, for being selected as this year’s recipient of the Betty Hardin Award for Excellence.
Sean’s dedication to sustainability, innovative thinking, and commitment to service excellence have made a lasting impact on our division and the broader UNCG community. This award is a testament to his hard work, leadership, and the positive energy he brings to every initiative.
We are proud to celebrate Sean’s achievements and grateful for his continued contributions to making UNCG a greener, more efficient, and forward-thinking institution
Well done, Sean!
Bob Shea Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration
UNCG Professors Bring Filmmaking to Elementary Arts Students
Posted on August 21, 2025
It’s a windy day on a playground at Morehead Elementary School, where a group of children cavort with a giant, colorful parachute. Each movement changes the colors that catch the light – fast, small ripples mix with big, deliberate waves against a soundtrack of joyful laughter.
It may have appeared to be a typical playground activity, but for these students, participants in a Dance for Camera after-school class at the expressive arts magnet school, the scene was cinematic.
“Their joy was palpable, yet they were learning,” observed Jenny Braswell, dance teacher at Morehead. “Exploring their creativity and learning by play.”
When “Under the Silk” was screened by the group in their last class together, the final product was a showcase of the raw creativity of elementary students, the unique mentorship of UNCG’s student interns, and two professors’ commitment to extending arts exposure and filmmaking technology to youth in our community.
Creative Collaboration Ignites
Encouraging students to see things from unique perspectives is at the core of instruction for media studies assistant professor, Jennida Chase, and Hassan Pitts, lecturer and technology coordinator. It was natural for them to lend their expertise to enhance the art-education curriculum at the magnet school their daughter attended, but when they tapped into UNCG’s Institute for Community and Economic Engagement, the benefits of the partnership far exceeded their expectations.
“Initially, we wanted to help bring in extra resources and people to support these students,” explained Pitts. “We hoped to show them something new that maybe they’d only seen on the big screen.”
Hassan Pitts, Jennida Chase, and Jenny Braswell collaborate on set.Morehead students excited to film on a professional set at UNCG.
Chase and Pitts began by volunteering in the Dance for Camera class offered to third through fifth grade students in Morehead’s after-school Arts Academy program. Braswell, who graduated from UNCG in 2009, teaches the free enrichment class, which draws students interested in dance and those with filmmaking interests.
The media studies instructors found themselves energized by the open minds and creativity of the young students. It inspired them to leverage grants to fund their partnership with Morehead, so the group could produce a short dance film. Braswell recalls helping Chase and Pitts write grants for camera equipment and time in the editing suite.
“The first grant was from the North Carolina Arts Council for $15,000 and then we applied for a matching grant from UNCG and got the P2 (Community Engaged Pathways and Partnerships) grant,” she explained. “It secured $16,000, which enabled us to pay Jennida, Hassan and two interns from UNCG, and buy all the camera equipment, props, and costumes we needed. There’s no way that we would’ve been able to do any of that without those funds.”
Chase is passionate about her responsibility, both as an academic instructor and a creative mind, to bring opportunities like this to the community: “It’s important for UNCG to take on projects like this so we can build a bridge between our majors and the greater community. This funding gives us support for our idea, so we can make a living, creative process with some very impressionable young people.”
Morehead’s Braswell echoed Chase’s passion: “My goal is to expose my students to as much as possible in these formative years. This partnership gives them exposure that I can’t. They wouldn’t have this opportunity at any other time or place. We got so lucky with all this!”
The Impact of an Idea
Dance intern, Grace Wiggins, directs choreography while media studies intern Evan Jean runs the camera.
With funding in place, it was time to unleash the creative potential of the young minds at Morehead. Chase and Pitts used a portion of the grants to hire a dance and a media studies intern. They helped to keep the students on task in their classes each Monday afternoon.
Grace Wiggins, a second-year dance major, helped with choreography. “The students spearheaded the whole creative process,” she said. “I was just assigned to take the movements and put them in different places, but it was really their minds and their bodies. The concept was all theirs.”
As they began filming dance sequences under the parachute, students like Khariya Farrell were surprised by what was captured. “When I looked at the video, I didn’t know it was going to look like that!” she gasped.
“That’s the light that I’m looking for,” Pitts acknowledged. “And when it appears in their eyes, you know that something’s clicking and they’re realizing, ‘It’s not just someone else who can do this, I can do this!’”
The film production allowed for experience in front of the camera and behind it. Evan Jean, a third-year media studies major, was tasked with teaching the kids how to use the slate and verbal commands to control the set as a director, and frame shots as a cameraman. He loved working with them and engaging his media studies skills in a mentorship role.
“It’s important for me to leave an impact,” he says. “This has been an amazing opportunity, especially working with the kids, but also with Jennida and Hassan. We’ve had great workflow as employees and as learners.”
Pitts was impressed by how the young filmmakers responded to the student interns, who thrived in the real-world experience of working on a creative team. “The complement of the two disciplines [dance and media studies] as distilled through our interns is really kind of a special blend,” said Pitts.
Technology Takes Center Stage
At the end of the school year, the class took a field trip to UNCG to film the final shots in Carmichael studios. There, the students worked on a professional set, using high-tech equipment including the Department of Media Studies‘ newest tool, an LED volume.
The LED volume is a high-resolution screen, or wall, used to create immersive backgrounds and environments. Thanks to Chase’s suggestion to leverage yet another UNCG partnership, the background in “Under the Silk” was designed by students at the Department of Cartoon and Animation at Baskent University in Ankara, Turkey. The scenes filmed in the studio transport the viewer from the playground to a dream sequence in a faraway land.
“I think that educational institutions specifically have a responsibility to make technology more accessible,” Pitts says. “Sharing resources and ideas is important. You could spend a lot of money on a lot of technology, and if only one person gets to play with it all, then what is that worth?”
Morehead Elementary students arrive for a day of filming at Carmichael Studios.Media studies’ new LED wall transported the dancers to a dream setting created by students from Baskent University in Turkey.On their field trip to UNCG, the Morehead students learned about film technology and the many production responsibilities of a professional set.
Students like fifth grader Gabby Davis soaked in the experience on the professional set, absorbing the mentorship of UNCG’s finest filmmakers. Throughout the production, Davis served as a dancer, cameraman, director, and choreographer: “Even on this small set, you need all these people because you have so many important roles.”
Introducing elementary students to the many career paths found in filmmaking was perhaps the greatest purpose of the partnership, which served Morehead Elementary, UNCG, and the Greensboro community at large.
“When you ask a kid what they want to be when they grow up, it’s usually based on whatever they’re aware of,” Chase says. “They don’t know that somebody who looks like me is a cinematographer. They don’t know that someone that looks like Hassan is a filmmaker. Or somebody that looks like them.”
“In this production, the class had grown-ups with art careers all around them. They saw that Mrs. Braswell and me and Hassan are all people who practice the arts. To me, that’s a healthy way to be a member of your community and celebrate the arts with them.”
Story by Becky Deakins, University Communications. Photography by Sean Norona, University Communications. Videography by David Rowe, University Communications, with additional footage provided by Department of Media Studies.
Students Learn About Public Health Access Overseas
Posted on August 27, 2025
A UNCG study abroad trip to Dominican Republic encouraged public health students to look at the need through an international lens. One of those students, A’myah Wilson, shares her key takeaways.
Aetna State Employees’ Insurance Now Accepted at Speech and Hearing Center
Posted on August 28, 2025
The UNCG Speech and Hearing Center is a non-profit, outpatient clinic open to the public. This insurance covers anyone in North Carolina with the state health plan who is in need of professional services for evaluation and treatment of speech, language, and hearing disorders.
The Janet B. Royster (JBR) Memorial Staff Scholarship Committee is pleased to announce the JBR Memorial Staff Scholarship Fund application is now open.
It runs from Aug. 15 to Sept. 30. Staff Senate asks employees to share this information with campus constituents and encourage them to apply. Attached you’ll find a flyer and template email for campus use.
This scholarship promotes staff development for permanent, full-time, non-faculty employees.
Applicants must be a permanent full-time non-faculty employee of the UNC System and submit a completed application. They must provide:
An essay (maximum of 500 words) describing your career, community and educational goals. Explain how participation in this course or training program will contribute to your achievement of these goals. Explain how you contribute to your community and demonstrate positive citizenship.
One letter of recommendation
Resume
Information about the professional development opportunity (examples may include the website, flyer, course description, etc.)
Since its creation, the JBR Memorial Staff Scholarship Fund has given out 186 scholarships, totaling over $130,000. It is named for Janet B. Royster, who was employed by PBS NC (formerly UNC TV) and served on the UNC System Staff Assembly as its first Parliamentarian until her death in June 2011.
Ashanti Evans '25 accepted a job with Reynolds Inc before her graduation. Her starting salary is more than her parents Demetrice and Roy Evans had ever earned.
A UNC Greensboro commencement ceremony is a celebration unlike those at other institutions.
Families don’t clap modestly at the accomplishments of the graduates. They stand up and cheer for opportunities that previous generations thought were out of reach, as the first college graduates in families from all over the state cross the stage to receive their diplomas.
It’s the celebration of a dream that many in attendance once thought might be too big for their families. And when it comes true, the diplomas come with hope for better lives ahead.
It Begins with a Parent’s Hope
On May 9, 2025, John Penn was in the audience to watch his fifth child, Jayden King Penn, cross the stage with an accounting degree from UNCG.
Jayden King Penn with his dad. (Photo courtesy of John Penn.)
The proud father remembers being an average student at South Stokes High School in the early 80’s when winning a state title in wrestling put him on the radar of colleges like Appalachian State and NC State.
“I’d never even thought about college,” Penn says. “I didn’t take school very seriously, and always assumed I’d finish high school and get a job. Then during my senior year, I saw all this opportunity come around. I decided right then that I would make sure my kids knew that college was a possibility from a really young age. I had a chance to go, but I wanted to make sure they were prepared to follow through.”
An employee for Reynolds Inc. in Winston-Salem, Penn has been fortunate with good jobs to support his large family while staying involved in their education, sports, and interests. Today his children are aged 42, 41, 40, 28 and 22. They hold certifications and degrees from Forsyth Technical College, East Carolina University, Chowan College, Western Carolina University, and now UNCG. They make good salaries in jobs they love and are thankful their parents encouraged them to go to college.
John Penn (center in red shirt) surrounded by his children and grandchildren. (Photo courtesy of John Penn.)
“I definitely think they live easier than I did because they chose to go on to college after high school,” Penn says. “And I’m thankful that schools like UNCG helped with financial aid. This made tuition manageable for us, so no one graduated with debt.”
Higher education circles have a term for Penn’s hope for a better life for his children: social mobility.
It refers to the higher salaries, better job opportunities, planned rather than settled-for careers, broadened world views, and easier lifestyles that come with a college education.
51% of all undergraduates self-identify as first-generation students
54% of students are people of color
57% of undergraduates receive Pell grants
No. 1 in the UNC System for total percentage of Hispanic/Latino student enrollment
When first-generation student Ashanti Evans ’25 graduated from UNCG, she honored relatives who had passed away in cameos that hung from her tassel. The top one is her grandpa who worked at Reynolds Inc. as a truck driver until he retired.
Before graduating, Evans accepted her first job at the same company that her grandpa worked for. Today she is a marketing analyst at Reynolds, earning a starting salary that is more than her family’s household income.
Maris Jones ‘22 (right) with her sister Georgie, an Appalachian State grad, and Lottie (middle) who graduated from Western Carolina.
In addition to accepting more first-generation students, University departments also tailor services to them. In 2025, UNCG was cited as the first in the UNC system for performance, thanks to high scores for graduation rates, credits earned, low student debt upon graduation, and funding received. Impactful financial-aid services, academic interventions, and strategic use of “rescue” funds for high-need students has created a culture of support, hard work and tenacity that breeds success at UNCG.
Maris Jones ‘22 is proud of her personal achievement as a first-gen student and how she was able to inspire her sisters to attend four-year institutions as well.
“Seeing and hearing about my experiences, and the opportunities that higher education gave me, motivated them to pursue their own college paths,” she says. “I am happy to say that both of them will be graduating this year.”
Today, Jones inspires even more prospective students in her chosen career as a digital marketing coordinator for Enrollment Management at UNCG.
What’s Good for Spartans is Good for North Carolina
Dr. Trey Bateman ’08
Chancellor Franklin D. Gilliam doesn’t miss an opportunity to cite the University’s service to first-gen students at every commencement and campus address. “We are proud of our efforts and appreciate the recognition that our strategic investments are bringing valuable returns for our students and our state,” he says.
UNCG’s ripples of impact uplift individual graduates and their families and in turn, boost the state of North Carolina. There are baby steps in social mobility and huge strides like Dr. Trey Bateman ‘08 made when he began commuting to UNCG for a biology degree.
“My mom had just lost her job at Pillowtex [formerly Fieldcrest Cannon],” he remembers. “We were struggling financially, so I had a Pell grant for my first two years. At UNCG, I found opportunities at a college that never felt overwhelming.”
He also found a calling that led him to medical school at UNC-Chapel Hill. Now, he’s a behavioral neurologist studying and treating adults with neurodegenerative causes of cognitive decline at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist.
Bateman’s specialty in treating dementia and diseases like Alzheimer’s is critical, especially in our state, where the population of adults aged 65 and up is expected to double over the next 20 years. He credits UNCG for giving him “the chance” to chase his dream and “the support to succeed.” You can bet Bateman’s family and the patients he has treated throughout the state would agree.
“Because of UNCG, not only am I able to give a better life to my wife and my children, but to my mom who sacrificed for me,” he explains. “We joke that I’m her retirement plan. She doesn’t have a 401K because she was too busy juggling credit cards to give me everything I needed and most of everything I wanted. But because of her sacrifice I am able to better support my family. It’s hard to measure the value of the way UNCG promotes social mobility for people, but it is something they are doing better than so many universities out there.”
Story by Becky Deakins, University Communications. Photos by Sean Norona, University Communications, unless otherwise noted.
Raise Your Family’s Social Mobility with a UNCG Degree
Is Screen Time Safe for Preschoolers? A UNCG Developmental Psychologist’s Take
Posted on July 17, 2025
Google “screen time for preschoolers,” and you will be hit with an onslaught of articles about behavioral problems, ADHD, or learning difficulties. Search a parenting forum for advice, and you will get an eyeful of anecdotes and admonitions. Parents may have read the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)’s recommended time limits, but in practice, it’s hard to pry that tablet out of their kid’s hands when it’s keeping them distracted as dinner needs to be made.
And as most Americans of all ages spend their whole day with a screen in their pocket, parents may feel it’s harder than ever to enforce good digital habits.
Jessica Caporaso, Ph.D.
The discussion interests people like UNC Greensboro’s Jessica Caporaso ’16 M.A. ’21 Ph.D. She sees it from many perspectives – as an academic professional assistant professor in the Department of Psychology, as a researcher studying how preschoolers develop self-regulatory skills and peer relationships, and as a mother.
“I have a 6-year-old and a 3-year-old,” she says. “We definitely have screen time at my house.”
Headlines only tell so much; Caporaso says many of the touted studies are far more limited in scope once you break down the data and research methods. “We might see a small effect that more screen time predicts a ‘negative’ outcome,” she explains. “But there’s always a ‘however.’ It may be an excessive amount of screen time, or without a balance of other activities, or the parents are not that involved, so on and so forth.”
She takes a deeper dive into how screens affect children’s mental health and how parents can make the right call.
Are kids really learning from what they see on screens?
That depends on the age, especially when it comes to language. “Any kid two years old or younger is not going to pick up language from screens,” says Caporaso. “Even if they’re sitting next to a cup, and Ms. Rachel says, ‘This is a cup,’ they’re not able to map the cup on the screen onto the cup next to them.”
That changes once they develop symbolic capacity by the age of three, she says. “Older research has looked at children learning vocabulary from ‘Sesame Street’ and similar TV shows. Those kids are able to map what they’re seeing on the screen to real life.”
Screen time may present an issue, according to Caporaso, if it replaces direct interaction with the parent. “We’re talking about excessive amounts of technology use,” she says. “An hour of screen time after school is not going to disrupt normal parent-child dynamics. But if kids are always on their tablets while parents are always on their phones, that could impact the amount of time parents talk with their kids.”
One thing to consider, she says, is that there are different types of screening: passive (watching a TV show or a movie) and active (playing games or puzzle activities). Headlines often lump those together, but watching a movie, using an activity app, and browsing social media engage children in different ways.
“We see with primary school-aged kids that certain games like Minecraft foster creativity or independent problem solving,” she says.
American Academy of Pediatrics’ Guidelines by Age
0-2 years: Avoid screen time except video chats with family or friends 3-5 years: 1 hour per day of high-quality programming 6+ years: Set consistent limits on hours and types of media consumed
Research into preschoolers’ screen use often overlaps with Caporaso’s field of developmental psychology. At that age, children are developing key psychological skills such as executive function, emotion regulation, and attention regulation. They need to make good life decisions and work well with others.
Caporaso is well aware of claims that screen time leads to behavioral problems. Many of those are mentioned in a 2022 meta-analysis of 87 studies on the longitudinal effect of screen time on kids. The meta-analysis shows that the effect itself is small, meaning that screen time has a limited contribution to later behavioral problems. Some of that research did not use controls to find whether the emotional problems originated with the screens, or whether the children already had issues.
“A screen might exacerbate a problem if parents use the screen as an emotion-regulation tool,” she says. “Other studies show that. If a 4-year-old has really explosive emotions, lots of tantrums, and the main way their parents or providers calm them down is putting them in front of a screen, then they’re not learning how to regulate those strong feelings without the screen.”
So, what about kids throwing tantrums when the screens are taken away? Caporaso points out that at this age, children are still developing self-regulation of their behavior; they haven’t yet learned how to step away from any activity that pleases them. Caregivers can foster these skills around the use of screens. “If your child has a really hard time putting it down, you can set a routine, use visual timers, and give reminders,” she suggests.
Finally, there is a difference between an immediate effect and a long-term effect. Parents may notice a dip in their child’s attention when they watch TV. But that does not mean they will develop ADHD or experience regulation difficulties later in life.
How can parents use screen time wisely?
As with most things in life, Caporaso says that moderation is key. “Part of learning regulation is to have it be part of a healthy lifestyle balanced with other activities.”
She offers a few nuggets of advice:
Do not allow unfettered access. Set time limits and house rules, such as asking permission before turning on the TV. Use parental controls to restrict what content the kids see. “Especially with YouTube,” she cautions. “Their algorithm can give kids some weird things.”
Watch with your kids. Caporaso says there are many positive effects for children seeing their caregivers react to the media alongside them. “For example, back to ‘Ms. Rachel,’ if your child is trying to learn vocabulary, you can repeat and reiterate what Ms. Rachel says and give praise if they repeat the word.”
Encourage active screen time. Parents can find learning apps with age-appropriate puzzles. “Just learning how to move their finger on the tablet to make something move onscreen,” says Caporaso. “We wouldn’t think of it as problem-solving, but it is for a 2-year-old.”
Sowing seeds for safe screen habits later in life
Screen time for youngsters is far from the only hurdle that parents will face when raising their kids. UNCG psychology researchers are at the forefront of studying the ramifications, from time spent on phones to mothers’ impact on body image.
Caporaso reminds parents that kids will be expected to use screens when they get older, and then new fears take hold: peer pressure on social media, online bullying, sedentary lifestyles, and online predators.
By building a healthy attitude around screens at an early age, parents lay the groundwork for positive habits once their kids become old enough to use technology without adult supervision.
As a mother, Caporaso understands that family life is busy and often chaotic. Using screens intentionally can help both the parent and child. “If you’re using technology as a babysitter, that’s not good,” she says. “But if the kids are off from school, or it’s a weekend, and you have a lot of stuff to get done around the house, and they watch a movie or two, that’s fine. Again, in moderation, parents shouldn’t feel guilty at all.”
Story by Janet Imrick, University Communications Photography courtesy of Adobe Stock and Jessica Caporaso, Department of Psychology
