Transdisciplinary Bridge Project Receives Funding From Office of Special Education Programs

The Transdisciplinary Bridge Grant, which is selected for funding by the Office of Special Education (OSEP), U.S. Department of Education, will establish a brand new collaboration among the Early Childhood Special Education program from the College of Education, the Applied Behavior Analysis Program from the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, and the Communication Disorders program from the College of Health & Human Development. In the history of CSUN, such collaboration among the three colleges has never happened, which is groundbreaking and truly a transdisciplinary collaboration.

Over the next five years, the Transdisciplinary Bridge Project will prepare 36 highly qualified professionals to work with young children with disabilities from diverse backgrounds through transdisciplinary collaboration. The grant would fund 9 Master’s students per year (3 from each represented Master’s program), covering their tuition and many other unique opportunities to build their knowledge and skills (e.g., funding for students to attend academic conferences, join professional organizations, and pairing them with community mentors). Students in the Transdisciplinary Bridge Project will take joint courses and conduct joint practica during the program. We are proud to say that over 70% of our funding goes directly to support students.

The principal investigators of this grant (Drs. Malmberg, Chai, and Yu) want to express their sincere gratitude for the invaluable support we received from Dean Tarver-Behring, Dean Searcy, and Dean Best during the development of their grant proposal. Each Dean generously offered to allocate and provide full units to the instructors for the co-taught courses, a significant contribution that significantly enhanced the chance for them to get the funding.