Fresno State was awarded a $10,000 grant on “The Hope Intervention: Well-Being Research Project,” which will aid students to reach their academic goals.

The grant was awarded to the university by the Bringing Theory to Practice Foundation, which funds and supports campus projects involving learning, well-being and civic development of students.

Christian Wandeler, assistant professor in research methods and statistics, said that the purpose of the Hope Intervention is to help students reach their academic and personal goals.

“Our students are particularly underserved and first-generation college students, so it’s important that they can understand they can reach their goals and feel that they belong,” said Wandeler.

The Bringing Theory to Practice Project was founded by the Wells Fargo foundation.

“What Wells Fargo thought Fresno State was uniquely positioned to do was to study economic impact of the drought underemployment and unemployment of farm labor,” said Gillisann Harootunian, certified research administrator director.

Fresno State Provost Lynnette Zelezny said,“This project will help us fill critical needs in offering our students hope and helping them ­connect to the university community in a way that boosts educational success.”

Zelezny also stated Fresno State is committed to providing students with the resources and support they need to succeed. ­

“Our experience has shown us that it is not enough to help our students, particularly our first-generation, low-income students, only deal with academic and financial obstacles. We also need to address those students’ doubts, fears and sense of belonging because doubts about belonging often become self-fulfilling prophecies,” Zelezny said.

The Hope Intervention project will be delivered online through the DISCOVERe tablet initiative at Fresno State, all in a fraction of the amount of time that it traditionally has taken.

“It’ll be less than 50 minutes compared to sessions of several hours,” Wandeler said.

There will be two interventions that will be implemented by the university. One targets hope and the other targets the sense of belonging.

Wandeler said the grant money will go toward wages for researchers, helping to pay for infrastructure of the university, incentives for study participants, travel for conferences and dissemination of results.