TRIO offers individuals one-on-one and group academic advising, tutoring, financial counseling, cultural excursions, professional mentoring, career exploration, workshops and more. The initiative also works with pre-college students and provides summer programming, college tours and college application assistance.

This year, during Kentucky TRIO Day in February, UofL TRIO provided two days of workshops, speakers and academic competitions. TRIO Day was established in 1986 by Congress to commemorate the annual achievements of the federal TRIO programs in communities across the country.

UofL News sat down with Laila Shell, a beneficiary of the program and a sophomore in the College of ������Ƶ and Human Development studying middle and secondary education.

UofL News: How did you discover TRIO’s student support services?

Shell:
I was in middle school — I think 7th grade, and I can’t really tell you how it came about or how I found out about it. But I just know a lot of my friends were like, “Oh, there’s this program called TRIO,” and we just all signed up together. We knew that it would allow us to visit colleges, and it was a good opportunity to explore and meet new people.

UofL News:��What was the most beneficial support that TRIO provided you?

Shell:
Definitely the tours, visiting campuses and college readiness. They helped us make sure that we were studying for tests like the ACT, really making sure that we were on track to graduate and have a future in a college or whatever else.

UofL News: What would you say to students who are curious about the support services?

Shell:
I would say try it, you could only gain from it. I feel like the dedication and the warm guidance that they give you is one-of-a-kind; they put their all into making sure that you’re on the right track to graduate and just have a good future.

It’s something you should definitely look into if you have the time for it — go to the sessions, attend the trips. Most of it is very low cost or free, so you really have nothing to lose, all to gain. You make the connections, the network and it’s a good opportunity to make sure that you get yourself out there and prepared for college.

UofL News: How has TRIO Student Support Services impacted your experience at UofL?

Shell:
The study areas that we have and the communal vibe. First-generation students and students who fewer financial resources just all getting together and sharing that space for growth. The resources are there. You can’t say, “I don’t have someone or people to confide in,” they’re all going through the same things you’re going through. It’s just a space to be yourself and get the guidance and resources you need to succeed.

UofL News: How has TRIO impacted your experience? Beyond UofL, do you see your future being impacted by the services that TRIO provided?

Shell:
I think it’s really the connections for me. I feel like we’re all individuals who want the best for ourselves. I feel like the connections that I make within this group is long-term, it’s fulfilling to see people that look like me and that want to be successful in the future. The connections and the networking that goes along within the program are probably some of the most beneficial things for me. Stepping outside of academics, social life on campus is really important to make sure that you’re motivated to keep going and have people to depend on. So, I feel like the networking aspect of it has helped me a lot. I am a better person as far as communicating and making myself known and putting myself out there to try new things and be involved with other aspects of campus.

UofL News: What obstacles would you have faced to your education without TRIO services?

Shell:
I wouldn’t be as open-minded as I am. The barriers that you face as a first-generation student can sometimes limit your beliefs and your expectations for your future. This has provided me more knowledge about the resources that I have on campus. They provide it and they give it to you and it’s just easy to grasp information and resources here. So, without them, I don’t know if I would be able to succeed in college or even be the best version of me.

UofL News: Like envisioning your potential?

Shell:
Yeah, I probably would feel the odds are set against me, you know? But here I feel seen, and I feel valued. That allows me to be the best version of me.

Honeybees have always been a part of��Robinson’s��life��as she��first learned about beekeeping from family members who’ve cared for beehives through generations, starting with her��grandfather,��and��then her father.��Beehives bring nostalgic scents and sounds to��Robinson, whose earliest memories include following her grandfather around their family hives in Meade County, Ky., harvesting honey for their��“Bee Happy Farms”��honey jars.

“My grandfather had this big garden and orchard with apple trees, so he had the bees to pollinate them,”��Robinson said. “I��just��remember playing around the garden and being close to the bees. They��weren’t��ever interested in me because I��wasn’t��bothering them, so that fear��kind of��got eliminated when I was pretty young.”

After the death of Robinson’s��grandfather, her family kept a hive on his property to support the orchard. She and her father now tend to the inherited bees. “It’s��crazy that��it’s��a family tradition that can carry��on,��beyond someone like that,”��Robinson reflected.

The UofL’s beekeeping internship, too, has brought Robinson closer to her��father who she��now asks for advice when dealing with new obstacles facing��UofL’s��beehives. His insights keep a heritage of beekeeping knowledge from disappearing.

Everything about beekeeping can be done��in��a variety of��ways, from how the hive is��built and how to handle the bees to the protective clothing worn by beekeepers.��

“It’s��like��a dance to specifically move with the bees and see which frame��they’re��mostly on and which one I should touch and which one I��shouldn’t,”��Robinson said.

As a beekeeper, Robinson has developed her own style under the guidance of her father and the UofL Sustainability mentorship.��

“I��read somewhere that bees can remember their��beekeeper’s��face, so I always try��to��talk to them when I get in the hive and just see how��they’re��doing,”��Robinson said.��“There are old folktales about the��‘telling of the��bees,’ so��there’s��a strong connection between beekeepers and their bees.”

A Spring Sting

Beekeeping��isn’t��always comfortable,��even��for a legacy beekeeper.

“I��have gotten stung a few times, but after��the second��time��it’s��no big deal,”��Robinson said.��“And��every time I do��get stung, I never blame the bees.��It’s��not their fault that��they’re��stinging, they��just��think��I’m��like a bear trying to get their honey.”

Bees often face a fear from people, much like snakes or bats, and many believe that their presence always means potential danger. However, bees are defensive, not aggressive, so their sting is a last resort. Like other animals, bees fear humans more than people fear them and prefer keeping to themselves.��

According to Robinson, even with wasps and hive beetles, honeybees defend the hive by surrounding the pests to block them from an area or to overheat them with their wing movements.��

But keeping bees also��comes with its rewards and pleasures. To extract honey from the hive, Robinson first determines how much honey needs to��be left behind��for the bees. The frames are then removed,��and��the bees��are brushed��into an empty super box/hive box. Finally, the beeswax on the frames is uncapped with a blade to release the honey and the frames are placed in a spinner to remove, filter and jar the honey. Beeswax is often collected during the filtering process and can also��be used for various products like lip balm.

“One of my favorite things about beekeeping is just the smell of the��beehives,��it’s��this��really sweet��aroma. I think��it’s��really special��and really cool to introduce new people to that, and the sound of the buzzing from the hives,”��Robinson said.��“It can��definitely��be intimidating, but��I’ve��found it to be a��little��bit more soothing because I know bees are in there and that��they’re��happy.”

As��UofL’s��beekeeping intern, Robinson cares for the beehives year-round. Before the winter, Robinson adds entrance reducers and hay bales around the hive to reduce wind-chill. Throughout the early spring, she visits the hives a couple of times a month to monitor the bees’ behavior, add pollen patties, remove any pests and add more hive frames��which��are��used��by the bees to build honeycombs.

After the bees become more active in the spring, honey can��start to��be harvested��through the summer.��Robinson dresses in a beekeeping suit that covers her legs, arms and face in one sealed garment to protect her from her buzzing friends.��She also burns natural wood shavings to calm the bees down if��she’s��in the hives��for a��longer��amount of time��than��normal.��Robinson uses a brush to gently guide the bees out from any tight spots or crevices to keep��the bees��safe��as she��carefully removes frames and places them on a rack to check the��honeycomb’s��structure and��honey��production.��

“You really count on every bee to help your hive survive,”��Robinson said. “So,��it’s��a very gentle process.”

Last year, one UofL hive produced about 12-pint jars of honey and grew enough to create a second hive.��

Robinson says there’s��no negative aspect in harvesting the bees’ honey when done��properly.

Tending to the hives functions like a symbiotic relationship where the keeper protects the hives from pests, cold, moisture and hunger while harvesting honey for consumption. Seeing the hive thrive and overcome obstacles is as rewarding for Robinson as collecting honey.

“Seeing how much everybody likes the honey is really cool. Not that I made it, but it feels like I helped at least jar it,”��Robinson said.��“It’s��cool to see the different tastes of what this honey is like compared to a different��hive’s��honey.”

Supporting the Hive

Caring for bees��not only��ties Robinson to her community and family, but it also��fulfills a called duty to the environment and sustainability.��

“The responsibility as UofL’s beekeeping intern to me is to show kindness and consideration toward ecology, urban agriculture and every little pollinator that comes my way,” Robinson said. “To help our bees is an honor because I’m also helping our local and community gardens, wildlife and student outreach on sustainable, eco-friendly practices.”

Honeybees are��an important��keystone species as pollinators��and��their success could��be directly tied��to the success of future generations. Keeping beehives helps secure a sustainable future and protects��an important��species from eradication. In trade, beekeepers can harvest honey and beeswax from hives��to use��for various purposes.

“It’s��just important for everybody to know that you can absolutely be a beekeeper wherever as long as you have a yard and some plants nearby,”��Robinson said.��“You just have to know some pretty basic things about bees��and��how to use the equipment.”

Justin Mog, assistant to the provost for sustainability��initiatives,��created the beekeeping internship to help connect student learning with sustainable agriculture and nature stewardship.��Mog works closely with Robinson to manage��the��hives and honey harvesting��at UofL.��The two also participate in programming on-and-off campus to better connect the Louisville community with honeybee conservation.

“Anyone who cares about sustainability needs an intimate understanding of how nature works, and I find��there’s��no better way to do that than to crack open a beehive and observe��what’s��going on,”��Mog said.��“I learn so much from my bees!”

After graduation, Robinson hopes to continue beekeeping��either through��volunteering or keeping her own hives.��“I would love to have some beehives of my own one day as��kind of��a family tradition, help my dad still take care of his bees and hopefully get more involved with the����

KSBA offers resources, workshops and programs to help create new beekeepers and share knowledge.

Interested in becoming��UofL’s��next beekeeping intern? Contact��.

“About 40,000 Americans die and 85,000 others are injured each year from firearm-related causes, and the incidence of firearm-related morbidity and mortality has increased over the past decade,” Safeek said. “This is a very important public health issue. My classmates, colleagues and I believe that physicians have a role in counseling patients related to their health and we have an opportunity through those interactions to help reduce the number of firearm-related deaths and injuries.”

In September, Safeek and her colleagues wrote and presented a resolution that was adopted by the Kentucky Medical Association (KMA) to support training in Kentucky’s medical schools to reduce firearm-related morbidity and mortality in their curriculum. She presented a similar resolution at the American Medical Association conference in November, which was adopted by the American Medical Association Medical Student Section.

The resolution calls for all future physicians to have training to counsel patients in safe firearm use and storage, to know how to screen patients for suicide risk and to learn trauma-related first response techniques.

At UofL, Safeek presented a curriculum plan she coauthored with faculty members Suzanne McGee, MD, and Charles Kodner, MD, and Susan Sawning, MSSW, to the School of Medicine’s ������Ƶal Program Committee, which voted to include it in the school’s curriculum beginning with the 2020-2021 academic year.

To jump-start the training effort, Safeek and other students and faculty have partnered with to organize a week-long series of optional events to educate UofL medical students, faculty and residents on firearm violence prevention, scheduled for February.

“Our hope is that more medical schools will incorporate this type of training into their programs and doctors will be able to help make a difference in this health crisis,” Safeek said.

The team took down four other teams in the 5 Across finals, each with five minutes to pitch their big idea. That earned Pascal , plus the $500 earned for winning a preliminary round in February.

Pascal Tags is led by engineering student Brandon Young, and recent grad Haley Pfeiffer. The company is based on a that can help track inventory, which Young invented with UofL’s Dr. Thad Druffel.

“This prize money will help us get our pilot programs started faster and really accelerate our growth,” Pfeiffer said. “The competition also allowed us to gain some great connections and tell more people about our innovation.”��

She said Pascal hopes to begin its first pilot programs within the next three to six months. The team also is working to better understand their customers, and continuing its research and development.

The team worked with UofL to protect and commercialize the technology, and participated in UofL’s entrepreneurship training and the��NSF ��(I-Corps) site program��for translational research.��

Since then, they’ve gone on to and Young competed .��

Pfeiffer also has recently been accepted into the����at UofL, aimed at helping women and underrepresented entrepreneurs submit more competitive applications for SBIR and STTR grant funding.

“We are so excited to see the community supporting and believing in Pascal Tags,” Pfeiffer said. “We can’t wait to see what the future holds.”��

Spiller’s essay on the topic won the Physician-in-Training/Student category in the eighth annual Richard Spear, MD, Memorial Essay Contest, sponsored by the Greater Louisville Medical Society. This year’s theme was: “What Drives you Crazy in Health Care?”

In her essay, Spiller calls attention to discrimination shown by health care professionals toward patients with mental health disorders. Spiller opens her piece by describing a situation in which a woman arrives alone in an emergency room with incoherent speech and disheveled appearance, along with a history of drug abuse and mental illness. While the physician-narrator assumes her symptoms were due to drugs or mental illness, it turns out the woman is suffering from a stroke. The patient dies.

“While our society is making its way to de-stigmatize the diagnosis of mental health disorders, we in the medical community have a long way to go in creating comprehensive medical care for those suffering from ‘invisible illness,’” Spiller wrote.

For the winning essay, published in the , Spiller received a plaque and $750 award at the 2017 GLMS Presidents’ Celebration in May.

The awards are named for Richard Spear, a respected Louisville general surgeon who also served on the faculty of the UofL School of Medicine. When he died in 2007, Spear left GLMS a bequest to fund the annual essay contest. Spear wished to support high quality writing about the practice of medicine.