{"id":73866,"date":"2025-01-31T09:26:32","date_gmt":"2025-01-31T16:26:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/?p=73866"},"modified":"2025-01-31T09:26:32","modified_gmt":"2025-01-31T16:26:32","slug":"giffords-fellowship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/giffords-fellowship\/","title":{"rendered":"Making school a safer place"},"content":{"rendered":"

NAU senior <\/span>Ellie Faley<\/span><\/b> aspires to become a federal intelligence analyst. This spring, a prestigious fellowship will bring her one step closer to that dream.<\/span><\/p>\n

As one of six <\/span>Giffords Courage Fellows<\/span><\/a> in Arizona, Faley will go to the heart of the gun violence prevention movement, engaging in a wide array of activities that focus on advocacy and effective organizing. With mentorship from lawmakers, advocates and other experts, she\u2019ll design a gun violence education program for high schoolers. She hopes the program may someday be incorporated into the general curriculum in local schools, alongside required classes in health and government.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Faley said her sister, a special education teacher, was the inspiration behind the project.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy sister\u2019s school has minimal safety procedures in place in the event that there\u2019s a school shooting, such as lockdowns, but it\u2019s not enough,\u201d Faley said. \u201cI started researching the impacts of school shootings and the most effective ways to mitigate them, and it really seems like education and preparation is the key.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Ellie<\/a>Growing up in the Valley, Faley loved her high school government class, enjoyed watching \u201cCriminal Minds\u201d and knew she wanted to pursue a career in public service\u2014but she had no idea she\u2019d wind up studying gun violence. Her family held mixed views on firearms, and that gave her an appreciation for both sides of the American debate on guns.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI understand why some people feel the public shouldn\u2019t have access to guns, but I also understand why some people think it should be OK to use guns recreationally, as long as they\u2019re safe,\u201d Faley said.
\n<\/span>
\nStill, she worried about educators like her sister and their students. How, Faley wondered, could she help protect them?<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s what led the criminology major to the Giffords Courage Fellowship,founded by former United States Rep. Gabby Giffords of Tucson, who suffered severe injuries in an assassination attempt in 2011 during a constituent meeting where 18 other people were also injured. The fellowship program is aimed at 18 to 24-year-olds who are passionate about advocating for gun violence prevention. Over the course of six months, <\/span>the fellows<\/span><\/a> come together to learn more about gun violence and effective advocacy, lobby for gun violence prevention at the state capitol and develop personal projects focused on stopping gun violence.<\/span><\/p>\n

When Faley completes the program in June, she\u2019ll have developed a full high school curriculum on gun violence, which she hopes Arizona schools will someday implement.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt could be a module within health class or government class,\u201d Faley said. \u201cMy thought behind it is, we don\u2019t allow high school students to drive a car until they\u2019ve been through driver\u2019s ed, so why not teach them the basics of gun safety and share statistics about gun violence before they turn 18 and can legally buy one?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

After graduating this spring, Faley will stay at NAU for one more year to earn a master\u2019s degree in applied criminology. Whether gun violence prevention factors into her long-term plan, she\u2019s not sure. But for now, it\u2019s at the forefront of her mind.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was growing up, I didn\u2019t go to school in the morning unsure about whether I\u2019d still be alive at the end of the day,\u201d Faley said. \u201cI don\u2019t want kids to feel that fear anymore. I want to make school a safer place.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Northern<\/span><\/p>\n


\nJill Kimball | NAU Communications
\n(928) 523-2282 | jill.kimball@nau.edu<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NAU senior Ellie Faley aspires to become a federal intelligence analyst. This spring, a prestigious fellowship will bring her one step closer to that dream. As one of six Giffords Courage Fellows in Arizona, Faley will go to the heart of the gun violence prevention movement, engaging in a wide array of activities that focus…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":73867,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-community"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73866\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}