ISSUED: 23 April 2015
MEDIA CONTACT: Valerie Owens
SHEPHERDSTOWN, WV — A Shepherd University sociology professor has won a $3,000 West Virginia’s Remote Online Collaborative Knowledge System (WVROCKS) Course Creation Grant funded by the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission to create an online course for students pursuing the Regents bachelor of arts degree.
Dr. Chiquita Howard-Bostic, assistant professor of sociology, is one of 10 grant recipients this year. She will design the course Juvenile Delinquency that will explore policing and the legal system as applied to juveniles.
Howard-Bostic said the course will examine formal and informal institutions that are designed to manage and control young offenders, and various treatment options and strategies. It will also examine several causes and consequences of violence, school shootings, gang membership, and drug use.
WVROCKS courses run eight weeks instead of the normal length of 16. They are offered online and are available to students attending any West Virginia college or university who are working toward an R.B.A. degree.
Howard-Bostic said the Juvenile Delinquency course is interdisciplinary in its relation to legal systems, sociology, criminology, and social problems.
“I am always honored to offer social and academic opportunities that support diverse groups across campus,” Howard-Bostic said. “By offering classes like this, the R.B.A. program gives students who have diverse life and work experiences an opportunity to achieve a college degree.”
Enrollment in the WVROCKS program has grown over the past three years, from 50 to just under 600 this year. The project was launched by the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission and is powered and staffed in part by WVNET.
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