Clark University - Clarknews winter 2004
Making the connection between research and real-world problems
Alumna Mary Walsh exemplifies Clark’s commitment to creating positive change in the world
By Judith Jaeger
Mary Walsh M.A. ’67, Ph.D. ’74 knows the value of bringing academia out of the Ivory Tower and into the community.
"The university’s major job is thinking, and the community’s major job is doing. Only when the thinking and doing connect can we create lasting social change," says Walsh, a professor in the Department of Counseling, Developmental and Educational Psychology at Boston College since 1989.
Walsh is also a faculty member in the Lynch School of Education and director of the Center for Child, Family and Community Partnerships at Boston College, where she leads initiatives that engage faculty and students in collaborating with urban public-school staff to address non-academic barriers to learning. In recognition of this work and her cutting-edge scholarship on the effects of poverty on children and families, Walsh was recently named to the Daniel E. Kearns Chair in Education and Innovative Leadership at Boston College. She is the first to hold the Kearns Chair.
Helping children learn
Walsh has been involved with Boston-area public schools since 1990, after conducting studies of the effects of homelessness on children and of children’s ideas about AIDS. Both projects brought her into a public elementary school to interview and test children. At the end of these studies, the principal challenged Walsh to get Boston College involved in the school and community. Walsh was interested in such a collaboration and gathered faculty from such areas as social work, law and nursing to join the effort.
Walsh describes their first discussion with educators as a "very humbling experience. As university faculty, we thought we had a good grasp of the issues. Three hours later, they were still turning flip charts, helping us learn."
With grant support and two years of planning, Walsh and her colleagues developed and implemented a coordinated, comprehensive system of supports in the Thomas Gardner Elementary School in Allston, Mass. This approach, she explains, focuses on nonacademic barriers to learning, such as unsafe communities, substance abuse and homelessness—all of which are related to poverty and hinder learning. Walsh notes that while 40 to 60 percent of the achievement gap in urban public schools can be closed through better teaching, "the rest can be accounted for by the nonacademic barriers to learning that challenge many children."
For Walsh, the key to overcoming these barriers is a focus on prevention, in addition to intervention. "While it is important to provide services to children and youth," Walsh says, "it is equally necessary to offer positive youth development opportunities that help them develop."
A two-year planning grant enabled Walsh and her colleagues to take the Gardner School model across 10 Boston Public Schools in the Allston-Brighton and Mission Hill neighborhoods of the city. The $3 million student-services program, called Boston CONNECTS, is an educational partnership among the Boston Public Schools, Boston College and the YMCA of Greater Boston. It focuses on enhancing the delivery of support services within schools, increasing the links between schools and community agencies, and implementing family support systems in the community. Boston CONNECTS currently serves more than 5,000 children in 11 schools and has just expanded to Catholic schools in Allston-Brighton. The impact of the program is being assessed by formal evaluation, as well as an intensive research effort led by Walsh.
Roots at Clark
Walsh traces her work at Boston College back to Clark and the University’s emphasis on pursuing scholarship beyond conventional boundaries. At Clark, Walsh combined her strong interest in clinical psychology with the University’s emphasis on developmental psychology. Walsh also credits Clark with engaging her "in the world of action," encouraging her to apply clinical psychology in different settings in Worcester.
Walsh worked with the Worcester Public Schools, for example, and Worcester State Hospital. After an internship at Boston Children’s Hospital, psychology Professor Roger Bibace encouraged her to get involved with family medicine. Walsh and Bibace worked with residents in family medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester and developed a special rotation in pediatric psychology for the residents. They also conducted groundbreaking research on children’s conception of illness, which was published in both medical and psychology journals.
"Clark faculty are always working at the boundaries, finding new ways to make psychology meaningful," Walsh says.
While at Clark, Walsh also got involved with the Worcester community, tutoring children at a nearby church and working with a neighborhood action group. She says joining Boston College, where the psychology department is closely linked to education, was a logical transition from her work at Clark.
"I was again able to connect my knowledge in psychology to my interests in children, families and schools."
The Clark impact
Walsh has just finished a book about her study of the relationship between health and learning. She is also a participant in an American Psychological Association project, "The Other 3 R’s," that is examining how psychology can be helpful to teachers. All of this in addition to her teaching responsibilities in a doctoral training program in psychology. In discussing her work, Walsh continues to return to her years at Clark.
"Clark didn’t spend a lot of time telling students ‘what’ to think, but rather ‘how’ to think about the issues and challenges confronting a psychologist. That’s what I try to do in my teaching," she says. "I value my education at Clark, and it’s impacted every day of my life since."
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