ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT
Helping Vets one click at a time Alum helps veterans express emotions, prevent suicides
Click. Robert Perez , a military veteran, takes a gorgeous photo of a river flanked with trees. Click. He takes another of the neat rows of a mid-summer cornfield. Click. And a photo of the faithful brown dog following him around, tongue hanging out. He’s participating in the PhotoVoice project, which encourages veterans to bond by capturing photo images that have meaning for them. Cari Stevenson, Ph.D., a 2017 graduate of NLU’s Community Psychology program, had obtained a “Making Connections” grant from the Movember Foundation, which primarily works to improve men’s health and well-being. Stevenson is a professor of psychology at Kankakee Community College and co-advisor of KCC’s veterans’ group. She also teaches I/O Psychology and Human Resources Management at NLU as an adjunct professor. One of the student veterans she taught at KCC, Pedro Santos, liked photography, and she introduced him to Movember’s PhotoVoice project. He enlisted other male veterans from the school, and they
decided to plan and execute the “mission” of PhotoVoice together, in the same style of planning and executing missions together they had learned in the military. “The photos they took in PhotoVoice became a catalyst for incredible, meaningful dialogue that this (veterans) group usually doesn’t have,” Stevenson said. “Veterans don’t usually sit down and talk about their feelings. So the project opened up a lot of doors for them.” Stevenson feels that dialogue and mutual support is important for veterans. The latest research indicates about 22 veterans commit suicide every day; having meaningful connections and conversations with supportive friends, especially fellow veterans, helps them process their experiences in a healthier way. The Movember Foundation funded the production of a video on the project, which also features NLU’s Brad Olson, Ph.D., co-director of the Community Psychology program.
National Louis University VIEW | SPRING 2022 13 National Louis University VIEW | SPRING 2022 13
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