Results from a 2017 Study on the Lived Experience of Students in Collegiate Recovery Programs
Information
Date & Time
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Description
In this session, Dr. Whitney will share results of his 2017 study of the lived experiences of students in collegiate recovery programs at the University of Michigan, the University of Colorado at Boulder, and Penn State. In-depth interviews revealed three main discursive themes:
1) Recovery discourses were primarily rooted in the discourses of Alcoholics Anonymous.
2) A second set of discourses instilled an imperative to work towards success, driving students to acquire the prolonged, specialized educations and other qualifications necessary to gain a professional career.
3) In a third set of discourses, students in CRPs defined and claimed social power for their CRP and helped establish various means for students in recovery to be “cool” in college. Using discourses in creative combinations to make sense of their experience and to (re)position themselves, students in CRPs resisted college discourses that invited them to return to active use of alcohol and other substances.
Target Audience
- Counselor
- Psychologist
- Social Worker
- Substance Use Disorder Professionals
Presenters
Jason Whitney is Program Coordinator of the Penn State Collegiate Recovery Community, a program of Student Affairs that supports students in recovery from addictions. Dr. Whitney is also an assistant teaching professor in the College of Education. He serves as faculty advisor of the Penn State CRC’s affiliated student organization, Lions For Recovery, and he is a member of Penn State CRC’s alumni interest group, Lions In Recovery. Jason is a Core Collaborator on the Cohort Study at PSU, and a champion of the new addiction and recovery minor offered at Penn State. He is involved with the Penn State Consortium to Combat Substance Abuse (CCSA). He has served on the board of the Association of Recovery in Higher Education from 2014-2017, and was awarded the ARHE Cornerstone Award for Student Support in 2019. In 2017, he co-hosted the National Student Collegiate Recovery Leadership Summit and Recovery Skiathon in Keystone, Colorado. In his research, he studies the lived experiences of students in recovery. Jason’s own recovery began while he was a student at the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1991.
Financially Sponsored By
- Association of Recovery in Higher Education