Beyond the Lab | 2024
Choose Your Own Path Booklet
Two graduate students, Hadia Aslamy and Fiona Sauvé, from the fall 2023 Narratives of School Shootings Lab applied to the Beyond the Lab program in spring 2024 with a goal of further refining and disseminating their original course outcome — a Choose Your Own Path booklet. The booklet is designed to prompt students to report concerning information to responsible adults while encouraging teachers to cultivate inclusive classrooms. Compelled by the gravitas of school shooting tragedies, they partnered with their course faculty, Professors Sarah Lindstrom-Johnson and Jim Blasingame, for mentorship and guidance throughout the process.
To bring their transformative outcome to reality the students additionally applied for and received a Beyond the Lab fellowship grant.
Scroll below to learn more about the team and their outcomes.
Team Bios
Fiona Sauvé is a first-year graduate student pursuing a master’s degree in Narrative Studies and a graduate certificate in Nonprofit Leadership and Management. In May 2023, Fiona graduated from ASU with a bachelor’s degree in English (Writing, Rhetorics, and Literacies) and a minor in Violin Performance. After graduate school, Fiona plans to be an inspirational storyteller for a faith-based nonprofit organization and a freelance writer and violinist. Through her original works of creative nonfiction, poetry, and music, Fiona aspires to bring light to topics such as faith, human dignity, identity, homelessness, poverty, and mental health issues.
Hadia Aslamy is a first-year graduate student pursuing a master’s degree in English Literature. Hadia graduated from ASU in May 2022 with both a bachelor’s degree in English Literature and in Film and Media Studies. Hadia aims to pursue a career that combines her degrees by working with film producers to take already-published written works and adapt them to the big screen. As someone who primarily works with young-adult literature and the importance of representation, Hadia recognizes that this stage is essential to how they develop into adulthood, and aspires to produce works that center on underrepresented groups.
Problem Statement
How can schools foster welcoming, supportive learning environments to ensure students feel comfortable attending school, establishing relationships with their peers and teachers, and speaking up when they encounter concerning information from their peers? High school students increasingly struggle with mental health issues, and in 2021, more than four in ten high school students felt persistently sad or hopeless. School shootings and mass shootings are also on the rise, with at least 80 school shootings and 630 mass shootings in the United States in 2023. Students’ mental health issues are often aggravated when they do not feel comfortable voicing their concerns to trusted adults, and sometimes, unaddressed resentment or anger can cause these students to act violently towards their peers and teachers. Although these students may not explicitly speak up, they almost always demonstrate warning signs. This booklet shows students how their actions can make a difference in their peers’ lives, and highlights the importance of having responsible, trusted adults in home and school settings.
Outcome | Choose Your Own Path: Gun Violence, School Safety, and Mental Health Booklet
The Choose Your Own Path: Gun Violence, School Safety and Mental Health Booklet immerses readers into the life of a fictional high school student facing various scenarios and decisions leading up to a potential school shooting. The primary objective of the outcome is to prompt students to report concerning information to responsible adults while encouraging teachers to cultivate inclusive classrooms, potentially integrating the Choose Your Own Path booklet into their curriculum. The project's booklet concludes with three possible outcomes: (1) prevention through the student speaking up, (2) prevention through someone else speaking up, or (3) occurrence of the school shooting.
The booklet underwent multiple revisions and was further refined through a focus group of mental health professionals and school administrators.
Take a look at the complete project here.
As of February 2025 the booklet, which additionally features an educators guide, is slated to be distributed by the Arizona Educational Foundation.
Presentations
Arming Students for Good: Youth Activism to Prevent Violence as part of the Narratives of School Shootings Humanities Lab This event aimed at elevating youth voices in collective efforts to prevent violence. Read more HERE.
Guns, Art - Making, and Truth: Public Dialogues on Gun Culture as part of the Guns, Art-making and Truth Humanities Lab. The event featured a captivating opening performance by Professor Daniel Roumain with his violin, followed by a series of student-led presentations. Read more HERE.
The Trauma Sensitive Schools Symposium where the team presented their Choose Your Own Path: Gun Violence, School Safety and Mental Health Booklet. The symposium, themed "Strengthening Our Foundation: The Building Blocks to Becoming Trauma Informed," took place on June 4th from 8:00 am to 3:00 pm MST. The event aimed to expand participants' knowledge of trauma-sensitive school systems and educational approaches, focusing on foundational elements of trauma-informed practices and their impacts on students, families, staff, and communities. This platform provided Fiona and Hadia the opportunity to share their research outcome with educators and stakeholders, contributing to the ongoing conversation about creating safe and supportive learning environments. Learn more here.
In February 2025 the team again presented their booklet, this time at the Bringing Research and Innovation into the Debate on Guns and Society's Inaugural Symposium.
