The University's YOUTH-NEX Center collaborated with American pop singer Lady Gaga's Born This Way Foundation last month to prevent youth bullying.
Dewey Cornell, Education Prof. and YOUTH-NEX Program Director, attended the Foundation's launch event and symposium Feb. 29 at Harvard University. He said the event was a way for the Foundation to gain "input from experts in this field to help them formulate their Foundation goals and priorities."
YOUTH-NEX is the Curry School's Center to Promote Effective Youth Development, and it encourages healthy youth development through research, training and service, according to the Center's website.
The Foundation aims to foster a safe community by helping adolescents develop the skills necessary to create a "braver, kinder world," according to the Foundation website. Gaga and Cynthia Germanotta, the singer's mother, lead The Born This Way Foundation, a name derived from Gaga's song "Born This Way."
Experts at the symposium and launch discussed methods of encouraging bravery and tolerance using classroom curricula.
"We [wanted] to identify the cutting-edge next steps to take in addressing the problem of bullying," Cornell said.
Other major topics addressed at the launch last month included anti-bullying legislation, the use of television and social media to empower \nindividuals, and the promotion of a healthy culture in schools.
Cornell, who has been studying youth violence and school safety for more than 25 years, said he hopes to use his and YOUTH-NEX's research to collaborate with the Foundation.
"We are interested in ways to empower youth to take an active role in directing their development and influencing their peers in positive ways," Cornell said.
In a video recording of the launch event, Gaga said she hopes the Foundation will help young people create the safe environments they need to thrive as individuals.
"I want everyone to feel safe in their community," Gaga said. "The three pillars are SSO - Safety, Skills, and Opportunity... Once you feel safe in your environment and you acquire the skills to be a loving and accepting person, the opportunities for you are endless to become a great, functioning human in society."
Gaga said the Foundation will also encourage young people to face challenges bravely and to help one another.
"This is about transformative change and culture," she said. "This is not an anti-bullying foundation - this is a youth empowerment foundation."
Education School spokesperson Ellen Daniels said YOUTH-NEX and the Foundation have similar goals and viewpoints.
"As the U.Va. Center for Effective Youth Development, YOUTH-NEX focuses on the
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