First, my oldest just got word that he's kind of a big deal, so I have to brag on him a little.
PRESS RELEASE
MSU Denver Student Nationally Honored as Major of the Year in Physical Education
RESTON, VA, March 25, 2022 ---SHAPE America–Society of Health and Physical Educators will honor Nick Roberts of MSU Denver as a Major of the Year during the organization’s 136th National Convention & Expo, April 26-30th, in New Orleans, Louisiana! The award celebrates outstanding undergraduate students in the health, physical education, recreation, and dance professions who are nominated by a faculty advisor or professor. Roberts will be recognized on Tuesday, April 26th during the Opening General Session.
“The outstanding achievements of future professionals like Nick is integral to the future of SHAPE America and our profession.” says SHAPE America President Terri Drain, the Founder and Coordinator of the Health and Physical Education Collaborative.
Nicks professors recognize his demonstrated leadership, innovative teaching, and a passion to learn a multitude of pedagogy skills. He has shown academic aptitude and ambition through his work which is creative, thorough, persuasive, timely and always well thought out and composed, He was an active member in our campus physical education club; first as a member, and then in short time he had taken on the responsibilities of our Physical Education Teacher Education Vice President and then president position. Due to COVID he has remained in the president role for 2 academic years. He has successfully navigated the grant procedure to bring in money to the PETE club.
A leader in the club, as well as in the classroom. He has taken on administrative roles with precise details and vision, as well as mentored other club officers and pushed them to give generously of their time. He was instrumental on numerous projects including getting members to our state association convention as well as the national convention, leading several fundraising events and participation in numerous club events.
About SHAPE America
Emerging science is putting the lie to American meritocracy
It's a long piece, and some of it gets pretty dense - here's my money quote:
The science of the biological effects of the stresses of poverty is in its early stages. Still, it has presented us with multiple mechanisms through which such effects could happen, and many of these admit an inheritable component. If a pregnant woman, for example, is exposed to the stresses of poverty, her fetus and that fetus’ gametes can both be affected, extending the effects of poverty to at least her grandchildren. And it could go further.
Studies of mice and fruit flies have shown that epigenetic traits similar to the ones Meaney proposed can be passed down, and last for dozens of generations. The effects of things like diet and prenatal parental stress have been observed to be inherited, not just through histone modifications, but also through DNA methylation and non-coding RNAs.7 In one 2014 study, the offspring of a mouse trained to fear a particular smell were observed to also fear that smell, even with no previous exposure to it. The effect lasted for two generations.8 In humans, inheritable effects of stress have been observed through at least three generations from parents who survived mass starvation (Dutch Hunger Winter),9 a fluctuating food supply (the Överkalix cohort)10 and the Holocaust. The effects of early paternal smoking and paternal betel quid chewing have been observed to be transmitted to children in a sex-specific manner, supporting biological epigenetic transmission in humans.11 According to a 2014 survey of the field, “the few human observational studies to date suggest (male line) transgenerational effects exist that cannot easily be attributed to cultural and/or genetic inheritance.”10
Even at this stage, then, we can take a few things away from the science. First, that the stresses of being poor have a biological effect that can last a lifetime. Second, that there is evidence suggesting that these effects may be inheritable, whether it is through impact on the fetus, epigenetic effects, cell subtype effects, or something else.
This science challenges us to re-evaluate a cornerstone of American mythology, and of our social policies for the poor: the bootstrap. The story of the self-made, inspirational individual transcending his or her circumstances by sweat and hard work. A pillar of the framework of meritocracy, where rewards are supposedly justly distributed to those who deserve them most.
What kind of a bootstrap or merit-based game can we be left with if poverty cripples the contestants? Especially if it has intergenerational effects? The uglier converse of the bootstrap hypothesis—that those who fail to transcend their circumstances deserve them—makes even less sense in the face of the grim biology of poverty. When the firing gun goes off, the poor are well behind the start line. Despite my success, I certainly was.
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