Category Archives: Research

Research in Brief: Restorative Practices, Socio-Emotional Well-Being, & Racial Justice

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By: Delaney Desman

Highlights:

  • This Research in Brief blog is part of the School Mental Health series highlighting work and resources for mental health professionals.
  • This brief originated from the Virginia Partnership for School Mental Health (VPSMH) project, which partners with VA school divisions and institutions of higher education to expand support for school mental health services.
  • This brief summarizes a research article about completing the circle by linking restorative practices, socio-emotional well-being, and racial justice in schools.
Source: Canva

The authors propose a three-part model to implement restorative practices in schools with efficacy. First, they recommend targeting student and faculty behaviors through restorative practices to help reduce stress, foster trust between students and teachers, & increase classroom engagement. Second, the authors argue for the integration of tier three mental health supports within restorative practices through community partnerships and collaboration. Finally, the authors highlight the importance of school staff recognizing and understanding the impact of structural and interpersonal racism, particularly for Black and Latinx youth. They recommend schools take a trauma-informed approach to bolstering student mental health supports and services. By focusing on these three actions, schools can better ensure restorative practices are benefiting students in an equitable way.

Importance

School mental health professionals must be cognizant and actively combat ways institutionalized racism impacts students, such as exclusionary discipline. When students are suspended they are not able to engage in school, maintain academic achievement, and have positive associations with their school community.

Equity Considerations

The article fails to address implications for students with disabilities, various socioeconomic statuses, or English language learners. This Western perspective is not explicitly addressed and raises concerns about whether or not restorative practices are culturally relevant or appropriate for all students.

Practitioner Tips

  • Schools should emphasize strengthening the tier 1 socio-emotional climate within the school. This approach supports students and staff, builds community, and strengthens relationships within schools.
  • Fostering a positive school climate and using a trauma-informed lens to support students is an important step to creating a positive school culture.
  • Ensure acute mental health needs of students are addressed through services and resources to allow for true restoration to take place.
  • Address systemic and interpersonal racism within schools (past and present) to ensure restorative practices benefit students equitably.
Brief: Restorative Practices, Socio-Emotional Well-Being, & Racial JusticeDownload

Reference

Huguley, J.P., Fussell-Ware, D.J., Stuart McQueen, S., Wang, M.T., & DeBellis, B.R. (2022). Completing the circle: Linkages between restorative practices, socio-emotional well-being, and racial justice in schools. Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders, 30(2), 138-153. https://dx.doi.org/10.1177/106342662210 88989

If you have any comments or questions about this post, please email Youth-Nex@virginia.edu. Please visit the Youth-Nex Homepage for up to date information about the work happening at the center.

Author Bio: Delaney Desman is a graduate student in the Counselor Education program at the University of Virginia, pursuing the School Mental Health emphasis offered to trainees through the Virginia Partnership for School Mental Health. Trainees in this emphasis complete additional coursework and field experience requirements that prepare them to take on leadership roles in addressing the mental health needs of students in K-12 schools.

Mitigating Implicit Racial Bias Through Improved Mindfulness & Social Emotional Competency

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By: Pamela Nicholas-Hoff

Highlights:

  • Educators, like physicians, should seek to ensure safety and justice for those they serve including, and especially, their students.
  • Understanding educator stress and burnout, and reducing implicit racial bias is an important part of creating safe and just learning environments for students.
  • Engaging in mindful awareness practices is a promising intervention for reducing implicit racial bias and its effects.
Source: Adobe

Educators, like physicians, should seek to ensure safety and justice for those under their care. Physicians who recite the Hippocratic Oath upon completion of medical school pledge to “keep [patients] from harm and injustice”1. Though the Hippocratic Oath is considered outdated by many institutions, this particular phrase within that famous text is relevant to the teaching profession.

Ensuring safety and justice for students is not as easy as one might think. Unlike physicians who are required to participate in prolonged, supervised residencies under close scrutiny, educators only participate in brief periods of supervised instruction before being permitted to engage with students in relative isolation. The potential for harm is evident in such situations, especially when educators are unaware of their implicit racial bias. Educator stress and burnout can also lead to unsafe learning environments as they increase the likelihood of reactivity and reliance on heuristics (e.g., racial bias and stereotyping).

Educator Stress & Burnout

Again, similar to medical professionals, educators experience higher levels of stress and burnout. During the school year, rates of daily stress for teachers were found to exceed those of all other occupations surveyed, including physicians, and tied those of nurses2. Stress negatively impacts teachers’ effectiveness and students’ academic outcomes3. Elevated levels of teacher stress affect the health, well-being, and quality of life of teachers4 and can result in unsafe learning environments for students, especially students of color. Chronic stress can lead to burnout5.

According to a more recent poll6:

44% of K-12 workers responded they “always/very often” felt burned out at work which a) is the highest percentage of burnout reported by workers in all professions surveyed, b) represents a 22% increase from March 2020, the start of the pandemic, to February 2022.

Burnout can exacerbate implicit racial bias.

Understanding Implicit Racial Bias

Unlike explicit biases of which individuals are aware, implicit biases are unconscious. Implicit biases influence one’s behavior, decisions, and understandings7. Implicit racial bias is ubiquitous among U. S. citizens8. This type of bias manifests at an early age and continues developing due to the environmental messages one receives9,10 throughout their lifetime.

Implicit racial bias is thought to be a primary cause of the disproportionate rates of exclusionary discipline consequences for Black students. Factors contributing to implicit racial bias include automaticity of response11, socio-cultural conditioning12, media representation of Black people13, hearsay14, and stressful situations15. Like many in our society, educators are exposed to and/or experience all of these factors.

So what can we do to help ensure students’ safety and just treatment? In addition to courageously and authentically identifying, acknowledging, understanding, and examining our biases, including implicit racial bias, we can:

  • Develop greater self-awareness,
  • Respond thoughtfully rather than react automatically to situations and others,
  • Manage stress in healthy ways, and
  • Cultivate self-compassion.

Mindfulness can facilitate all of the above!

Mitigating Bias through Mindful Awareness Practices

Mindfulness has been described as a “state of mind,” personal trait, or practice16. The American Psychological Association states that:

“Mindfulness is awareness of one’s internal states and surroundings. Mindfulness can help people avoid destructive or automatic habits and responses by learning to observe their thoughts, emotions, and other present-moment experiences without judging or reacting to them.”17

In a recent blog, I discussed some of the benefits of mindfulness and how we can establish and maintain a mindful awareness practice. Spending consistent time in practice can increase self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making; these are attributes that the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning18 refers to as social emotional competencies (SEC). In addition, when we possess greater SEC and are more mindful, our ability to assess situations with nonjudgmental awareness, openness, curiosity, and compassion increases. We are less likely to perceive situations and the actions of others as personal attacks, thus reducing the likelihood that we will react automatically and commit egregious acts (conscious and unconscious) resulting in harm to students.

The term “mindful awareness practice” encompasses a broad range of activities. Two types of practices, in particular, have been shown to reduce implicit racial bias: focused awareness and compassion or lovingkindness practices, as detailed here: 19, 20, 21, 22, 23

  1. Focused awareness practice involves focusing on and maintaining focus on an object or activity with openness and curiosity24. As thoughts and distractions arise, the mindful awareness practitioner acknowledges, and perhaps notes or labels them25, and redirects their awareness back to the focus target.
  2. Though Lovingkindness/compassion practice may vary, it often involves sitting quietly and focusing first on oneself with love, compassion, and kindness26, then, while maintaining feelings of love, compassion, and kindness, the practitioner’s focus gradually extends outward to close loved ones, neutral others, challenging others, and then back to self, extending well-being to all. During lovingkindness/compassion practice, the practitioner may visualize specific individuals and/or group of individuals to develop/increase empathy and compassion toward those individuals/that groups of individuals23.

In addition to reducing stress and increasing empathy, lovingkindness/compassion practice increases positive emotions26 often related to stress coping adaptations27. Even seven to ten minutes of focused awareness and/or lovingkindness inductions can reduce implicit biases22, 23.

Tips to Get Started

Educators have an obligation to keep students safe and ensure their just treatment. Here are some practitioner tips to integrate mindfulness into your educational practice:

  • Practice self-compassion as you identify, acknowledge, gain insight into, and examine your biases.
  • Though engaging in brief mindfulness practices has been shown to reduce implicit racial bias, consistency is key; therefore, set aside time and space for a daily 10- to 15-minute practice. (For tips on how to establish and maintain a consistent practice, please see this recent back-to-school blog.)
  • Try engaging in a focused awareness (e.g., the awareness of breath practice) or lovingkindness/compassion practice such as the ones found here. After becoming comfortable with the lovingkindness/compassion practice, consider visualizing specific individuals and/or group of individuals to develop/increase empathy and compassion toward those individuals/that group of individuals.

By identifying, acknowledging, understanding, and examining our biases and through the practice of mindfulness, we can reduce implicit racial bias, cultivate SEC, better manage stress, and assess situations with nonjudgmental awareness, curiosity, and compassion helping to ensure the safety and just treatment of all students.

Citations

1Markel, 2004, p. 2028; 2Gallup, 2014; 3Hoglund et al., 2015; 4Souza et al., 2012; 5Maslach & Leiter, 2016; 6Gallup, 2022; 7Staats et al., 2015, p. 62; 8Jones et al., 2012; 9Castelli et al., 2009; 10Baron & Banaji, 2006; 11Lueke & Gibson, 2015; 12Heitzeg, 2009; 13Dorfman & Schiraldi, 2001; 14Dasgupta, 2013; 15Bertrand et al., 2005; 16Jennings, 2015, p. 2; 17American Psychological Association, 2023, para. 1; 18CASEL, n.d.; 19Fabbro et al., 2017; 20Hirshberg et al., 2022; 21Kang et al., 2014; 22Lueke & Gibson, 2015; 23Stell & Farsides, 2016; 24Jennings et al., 2013; 25Kabat-Zinn, 1994; 26Fredrickson et al., 2008; 27Fredrickson et al., 2003

If you have any comments or questions about this post, please email Youth-Nex@virginia.edu. Please visit the Youth-Nex Homepage for up to date information about the work happening at the center.

Author Bio: Pamela Nicholas-Hoff is a triple Hoo and postdoctoral research associate supporting work in Youth-Nex and the Department of Curriculum, Instruction, and Special Education. Before earning her Ph.D., Pam spent 17 years teaching at the middle school level (five of those years were spent teaching at an alternative middle school serving students who were pushed out of traditional schools) and seven years teaching health and physical education teacher preparation courses. Pam is also a certified CARE facilitator and is working toward her certification to facilitate Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction courses. Her research focuses on using mindful- and compassion-based practices to mitigate teacher-based implicit biases, stress, and automatic responses and to eliminate exclusionary discipline disparities for historically marginalized students. In her spare time, Pam enjoys spending time with her family, reading, and fitness training.

Research in Brief: Mindfulness-Based Programs & School Adjustment

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By: Karen Ko

Highlights:

  • This Research in Brief blog is part of the School Mental Health series highlighting work and resources for mental health professionals.
  • This brief originated from the Virginia Partnership for School Mental Health (VPSMH) project, which partners with VA school divisions and institutions of higher education to expand support for school mental health services.
  • This brief summarizes a systematic review and meta-analysis of studies on mindfulness-based programs and school outcomes that used a randomized controlled design with students from preschool to undergraduate levels.
Source: Canva

In this systematic review and meta-analysis, 46 studies on mindfulness-based programs were selected an evaluated. Each of the selected studies used a randomized controlled design and consisted of students from preschool to undergraduate levels. Results of this analysis found that in comparison to control groups, there was a small effect for overall school adjustment outcomes, academic performance, and impulsivity; small to moderate effect for attention; and moderate effect sizes for mindfulness outcomes.

Importance

  • School mental health professionals are able to use proactive and preventative measures to support students’ mental health and help build resiliency skills.
  • To promote the use of mindfulness-based programs, school mental health professionals must act as advocates to help clarify the relationship between mindfulness and outcome data when consulting with decision-makers such as school/district administrators, school board members, policy makers, etc.

Equity Considerations

  • Need for more research, as many mindfulness-based programs are being offered across populations, but there is a lack of research investigating differences in programs across participant characteristics.
  • Need to examine the effects of mindfulness-based programs as a whole, as well as individual components, for specific populations.

Practitioner Tips

  • Mindfulness-based programs are encouraged to be implemented at a Tier 1 (school-wide) approach, focusing on helping students build skills in mindfulness
  • Rather than targeting psychopathology, it is important for school mental health professionals to take a strengths-based approach to build skills in students.
  • Incorporating a combination of research-designed mindfulness activities and yoga-based mindfulness activities have shown continued positive effects even after the intervention concludes.
  • Providing training and professional development opportunities in how to implement mindfulness can allow teachers to incorporate mindfulness strategies and practices into their classrooms.
  • Adaptation of an existing mindfulness program, such as MindUp, have shown significant effect on improving overall school adjustment and mindfulness.
Mindfulness-Based Programs & School AdjustmentDownload

Reference

Mettler, J., Khoury, B., Zito, S., Sadowski, I., & Heath, N. L. (2023). Mindfulness-based programs and school adjustment: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of School Psychology, 97, 43-62. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsp.2022.10.007

If you have any comments or questions about this post, please email Youth-Nex@virginia.edu. Please visit the Youth-Nex Homepage for up to date information about the work happening at the center.

Author Bio: Karen Ko is a graduate student in the Counselor Education program at the University of Virginia, pursuing the School Mental Health emphasis offered to trainees through the Virginia Partnership for School Mental Health. Trainees in this emphasis complete additional coursework and field experience requirements that prepare them to take on leadership roles in addressing the mental health needs of students in K-12 schools.

Youth-Nex Job Market Candidates 2023

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Source: Youth-Nex

Youth-Nex was founded in 2009 to expand and apply the science of positive youth development to address fundamental challenges facing societies around the world. Youth-Nex supports junior scholars and their professional development throughout their career. Learn more about the current candidates on the job market for 2023-24! These candidates are in alphabetical order by last name, including Maria Guzman Antelo, Dr. Jessica Forrester, Dr. Pamela Nicholas-Hoff, Dr. Toshna Pandey, Ariana Rivens and Jieun Sung.

Maria Guzman Antelo

María Guzmán Antelo (she/her) is a Ph.D. candidate in Curriculum and Instruction in the School of Education & Human Development at UVA. She is a bilingual speaker of Spanish and English with transnational teaching experience in Argentina, China, and the US. 

Her work focuses on preparing and supporting pre-service teachers to work with multilingual learners and their families and the role mentor teachers play in the preparation of future teachers. 

Research Interests: Teacher learning and development for teaching multilingual learners; practice-based pedagogies of teacher education; reflective teaching practices; core practices for teaching multilingual learners; advocacy, and social justice.

Faculty Advisors: Dr. Chris Chang-Bacon and Dr. Peter Youngs

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Professional Website
EHD Profile

Dr. Jessica Forrester

Jessica Forrester (she/her) earned her Ph.D. in STEM Education from the University of Minnesota, where she combined her interest in STEM engagement with justice-oriented practices in education. For her dissertation, Jessica created culturally responsive mathematics activities for an after-school tutoring program by authentically connecting the traditionally rigid content area of mathematics with the beauty, brilliance, and histories of communities not always seen through an asset-based lens. Jessica’s passion for equity, community engagement, and participatory research methods is grounded in amplifying the voices and solution-driven ideas of historically marginalized communities and youth, especially in academic and research settings. In addition, Jessica embodies a culture of care and considers how adults can use their power to support youth as leaders of change.

Jessica is currently a postdoctoral researcher with Youth-Nex’s youth participatory action research (YPAR) initiative, Youth Action Lab. Jessica’s work with Youth Action Lab focuses on three key areas: 1) supporting existing community partnerships, including school-based YPAR classes and out-of-school programming; 2) developing a line of research on the processes and outcomes for all participating YPAR stakeholders (high school youth, teachers, youth organization leaders, undergraduate students, graduate researchers, affiliated faculty); and 3) challenging traditional research dissemination approaches (e.g., including youth and community voices in scholarly publications). In addition to her research endeavors, Jessica supports multiple research labs on implementing YPAR practices in their unique contexts and mentors graduate and undergraduate students as they navigate their research journeys.

Research Interests: Participatory action research, bridging theory and critical practice, culturally responsive mentoring, community engagement, qualitative methods, positive youth development, and decolonizing research methodologies  

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Nancy Deutsch

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Dr. Pamela Y. Nicholas-Hoff

Pamela Nicholas-Hoff is a postdoctoral research associate for the University of Virginia School of Education and Human Development’s Youth-Nex Center and Department of Curriculum, Instruction, and Special Education. Pam earned her B.S. in Middle School Education and M.Ed. in Physical Education with a concentration in Exercise Physiology from the University of Virginia. Before matriculating to the University of Virginia to earn her Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction, Pam taught in the Health, Physical Education, and Recreation Department of a historically Black institution. Prior to teaching at the collegiate level, Pam taught middle school. While teaching middle school, she developed a Health, Physical Education, and Social Emotional Learning curriculum that she implemented with her students attending an alternative middle school. Pam is interested in how pre- and in-service educators’ increased levels of mindfulness and social emotional competency may eliminate disproportionate rates of exclusionary discipline consequences for Black students by mitigating educators’ implicit racial bias. Her dissertation research, funded by an American Educational Research Association-National Science Foundation Dissertation Grant, employed zero-inflated negative binomial regression modeling to analyze and compare counts and incident risk rates of out-of-school suspension using federally-funded, national datasets spanning the Obama and Trump administrations.

Research Interests: Interventions for eliminating racial discipline disparities, Educators’ implicit racial bias, Educators’ social emotional competency, Focused awareness practices as interventions to mitigate implicit racial bias, Caring/compassion practices as interventions to mitigate implicit racial bias, Relationship between educators’ levels of mindfulness and implicit racial bias, Relationship between educators’ levels of social emotional competency and implicit racial bias, and Critical Race Theory.

Faculty Advisors: Nancy L. Deutsch, Ph.D. and Patricia (Tish) A. Jennings, Ph.D., M.Ed.

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Dr. Toshna Pandey

Toshna Pandey earned her Ph.D. in Special Education from Virginia Commonwealth University. She is currently working as a postdoctoral research associate with Catherine Bradshaw, Jessika Bottiani, and Katrina Debnam on projects that seek to prevent challenging student behaviors, facilitate positive student-teacher engagement, and improve teachers’ equity stamina and racial literacy. Pandey’s research focuses on optimizing coaching to enhance teachers’ implementation fidelity of evidence-based practices. Specifically, she serves as the Co-PI on an internal research grant that explores the core components of classroom-based coaching models that lead to high intervention implementation fidelity. She is interested in supporting teachers’ use of social, emotional, and behavioral school-based interventions to reduce students’ challenging behaviors and consequently, exclusionary discipline. Concurrently, she is working on a NIMHD-funded grant that uses a school-level randomized controlled trial (RCT) design to test the integration of a universal, classroom-based evidence-based social-emotional learning program for Anne Arundel County Public Schools students with elements of from the Double Check professional development framework and an equity-based coaching component. She has extensive experience collecting classroom data using observational measures and has served in leadership roles to train members of various research teams in similar measures. At present, she serves as a project coordinator for an IES-funded follow-up study that seeks to explore teachers’ practices, attitudes, beliefs, and personality traits that influence their use and perceptions of the Good Behavior Game intervention and MyTeachingPartner. She has proficient interviewing skills and extensive experience using qualitative and mixed-methods research designs. She also serves as a project coordinator for an NIH-funded grant that aims to generate new theories regarding the context and development of romantic relationships for young Black women using grounded theory.

Research Interests: School-based preventative behavior interventions, classroom management, classroom observations, teacher professional development using coaching models, implementation fidelity, cultural-responsiveness, disproportionate exclusionary discipline among racially and ethnically minoritized students, school mental health, qualitative research methods, mixed-methods research.

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Catherine Bradshaw

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Ariana Rivens

As a doctoral candidate at the University of Virginia and predoctoral intern at the University of Pennsylvania, Ariana Rivens has received substantial clinical science training and clinical experience. These experiences have informed her commitment to being a clinical psychologist who conducts rigorous research and evidence-based clinical practice. Her research program leverages qualitative and mixed methodology to examine the multifaceted experiences of Black adolescents and emerging adults, with a particular focus on mental health service utilization and higher education. She is passionate about using research findings to reduce racial health disparities, inform the adoption of culturally responsive clinical practices, and address structural inequalities in behavioral health systems. As a clinician, Ariana seeks to continue working among the most marginalized individuals experiencing psychological distress by focusing on pathways to care.Thus, Ariana is seeking postdoctoral positions that will facilitate her growth as a clinical psychologist who utilizes empirical research coupled with evidence-based assessment, intervention, and supervision skills to improve mental health service use. She is particularly interested in working in multidisciplinary team environments where she is able to leverage and refine the clinical and research expertise she has developed throughout her doctoral training, as well as contribute to equity efforts.

Research Interests: Black youth and emerging adults, culturally responsive practice, pathways to care, mental health service utilization, trauma-informed practice, collegiate mental health, community engagement, higher education, applied research, mixed methods, qualitative methods, 

Clinical Interests: Pathways to care,evidence-based treatment, cultural adaptations and considerations for those with marginalized identities (i.e., racial/ethnic, LGBTQ+, low-income), suicide prevention and treatment, trauma-focused care

Faculty Advisors: Dr. Noelle Hurd, Dr. Joseph Allen, & Dr. Seanna Leath

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Jieun Sung

Jieun Sung is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Social Foundations program at the University of Virginia School of Education and Human Development. Her work is concerned broadly with ways that education, schooling, ethical formation, and the preparation of individuals to participate in social, cultural, political, and civic life are interrelated. She is particularly interested in the educational experiences of newcomer families and the significance of non-school contexts as influential sites for youth development. Her current research explores how immigrant families’ experiences of education, cultural adaptation, and overall adjustment are shaped by interactions with significant community organizations and networks. Her dissertation focuses on efforts by Korean American and Korean immigrant parents to navigate the formal education of children, and on the role of Korean ethnic church communities in shaping families’ relationship to schools.

Research Interests: Youth development and non-school contexts, community engagement, education of newcomer youth, immigrant integration, global migration and diaspora, ethnic and racial identity development, belonging, and ethical formation

Faculty Advisors: Dr. Rachel Wahl

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Professional Website

If you have any comments or questions about this post, please email Youth-Nex@virginia.edu. Please visit the Youth-Nex Homepage for up to date information about the work happening at the center.

Research in Brief: Perspectives of Restorative Practices Classroom Circles

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By: Anna Hukill

Highlights:

  • This Research in Brief blog is part of the School Mental Health series highlighting work and resources for mental health professionals.
  • This brief originated from the Virginia Partnership for School Mental Health (VPSMH) project, which partners with VA school divisions and institutions of higher education to expand support for school mental health services.
  • This brief summarizes research on school staff and youth perspectives of tier 1 restorative practices classroom circles.
Source: Youth-Nex

In this qualitative study, researchers gathered perceptions from staff and students about the relationship between restorative practices, community-building circles, and social- emotional learning. Data included beginning- and end-of-year surveys about staff perspectives on implementation, semi- structured interviews with staff, and surveys about student participation. Results showed a strong association between community- building circles and social-emotional learning (SEL). The challenges mentioned included circle participation, equitable access, and conflict between discipline and restorative practices. This supports the idea that restorative practices need to be implemented school-wide.

Importance

School counselors, especially in elementary schools, often deliver short lessons and can incorporate community circles into their curriculum. This is an important opportunity to advocate for equitable access to classrooms. Community circles are a proactive way of building strong peer relationships and strategies for resolving conflict.

Equity Considerations

  • Ensure that all students have access to participate in the circle (e.g., alternative seating, multiple modes of participation).
  • Carefully consider opening and closing questions that all students can connect with.

Practitioner Tips

  • Community building circles have the potential to be a strong tool for improving social-emotional competence in students.
  • Teachers can seamlessly incorporate such circles into pre-existing group time by setting a clear routine (ex. greeting, opening question, SEL topic of the day, closing statement/activity).
  • Teachers and students report positive increases in student participation, communication, and sense of belonging.
  • Circles can be used among staff to develop a strong sense of school community.
Perspectives of Restorative Practices Classroom CirclesDownload

Reference

Garnett, B. R., Kervick, C. T., Moore, M., Ballysingh, T. A., & Smith, L. C. (2022). School staff and youth perspectives of tier 1 restorative practices classroom circles. School Psychology Review, 51(1), 112-126. https://doi.org/10.1080/2372966X.2020.1795557

If you have any comments or questions about this post, please email Youth-Nex@virginia.edu. Please visit the Youth-Nex Homepage for up to date information about the work happening at the center.

Author Bio: Anna Hukill is a graduate student in the Counselor Education program at the University of Virginia, pursuing the School Mental Health emphasis offered to trainees through the Virginia Partnership for School Mental Health. Trainees in this emphasis complete additional coursework and field experience requirements that prepare them to take on leadership roles in addressing the mental health needs of students in K-12 schools.

Youth-Nex Faculty Accepting Ph.D Students

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Source: Youth-Nex

Youth-Nex is dedicated a) to providing a venue for scholars and practitioners whose work is furthering the goal of racial justice, b) to supporting developmental science that is not only anti-racist but is in the service of dismantling white supremacy, and c) to amplifying the voices and lived experiences of adolescents who have been marginalized. Interested in joining this work and furthering your education?

Faculty at Youth-Nex from multiple universities are accepting doctoral students for the fall 2024. As application season approaches, review their faculty profiles for more on their scholarship, explore the academic programs they are accepting students through and APPLY to join our community! In alphabetical order, learn more below about Dr.s Valerie Adams-Bass, Catherine Bradshaw, Chris Chang-Bacon, Katrina Debnam, Noelle Hurd, Michael Lyons, Channings Mathews, Lora Henderson Smith, and Jonee Wilson.

Dr. Valerie N. Adams-Bass

Valerie N. Adams-Bass is an applied researcher seeking to advance scholarship that provides meaningful contributions to the lives of Black youth and their families. Her research integrates contextual factors with a focus on how Black children see themselves and related outcomes, and she is most interested in examining how media exposure influences inter-personal interactions and self-concept.

Dr. Adams-Bass is accepting a doctoral student at Rutgers University through the Childhood Studies program.

Faculty Profile
Academic Program

Dr. Catherine Bradshaw (she/her)

Dr. Catherine P. Bradshaw is a professor, the senior associate dean for research and a faculty fellow with the University’s vice president of research. Her research focuses on bullying and school climate; emotional and behavioral disorders; and the design, evaluation, and implementation of evidence-based prevention programs in schools.

Dr. Bradshaw is accepting a doctoral student at the University of Virginia through the School & Clinical Psychology program.

Faculty Profile
Academic Program

Dr. Chris Chang-Bacon (he/his)

Chris Chang-Bacon researches equity in multilingual and multicultural contexts. His work explores anti-oppressive pedagogies and policies in English as a Second Language (ESL), dual-language, and bilingual education settings.

Dr. Chang-Bacon is accepting a doctoral student at the University of Virginia through the Language Education in Multilingual Contexts program and/or the Curriculum & Instruction program.

Faculty Profile
Language Education in Multilingual Contexts Program
Curriculum & Instruction Program

Dr. Katrina Debnam (she/her)

Debnam’s scholarship stems from her interest in health outcomes for marginalized adolescents through community-based violence prevention strategies. Debnam serves as a research expert in three interrelated strands of adolescent health, teen dating violence prevention, creating equitable school environments for Black youth, and the protective role of religion and spirituality in youth development.

Dr. Debnam is accepting a doctoral student at the University of Virginia through the Research, Statistics, & Evaluation program.

Faculty Profile
Academic Program

Dr. Noelle Hurd (she/her/ella)

Dr. Hurd is planning to admit a doctoral student for the 2024/2025 academic year who has an interest in studying how social experiences in emerging adulthood may influence subsequent physical health outcomes. Prospective applicants should have an interest in quantitative analyses with longitudinal data.

Dr. Hurd is accepting a doctoral student at the University of Virginia through the Community Psychology program and/or the Clinical Psychology program.

Faculty Profile
Community Psychology Program
Clinical Psychology Program

Dr. Michael Lyons (he/him)

Michael Lyons is interested in the social-emotional development of middle and high school students in a positive psychological and traditional mental health framework. Specifically, his research reflects an interest in understanding the mechanisms and practices in a school setting that promote student well-being and school-relevant outcomes (e.g., grades and behavior) through an ecological model.

Dr. Lyons is accepting a doctoral student at the University of Virginia through the School & Clinical Psychology program.

Faculty Profile
Academic Program

Dr. Channing Mathews (she/her/hers)

Dr. Mathews’ research considers how youth of color draw upon their ethnic-racial identity and critical consciousness development as motivators for their STEM based academic engagement and activism. Her scholarship has three central foci: 1) integrating ethnic-racial identity and critical consciousness factors as dual promoters of positive Black and Latinx adolescent and emerging adult development, 2) examining how both ethnic-racial identity and critical consciousness promote STEM orientation, and 3) assessing the complexity of ethnic-racial identity and critical action behaviors (including STEM-based activism) in both Black and Latinx adolescence and adulthood.

Dr. Mathews is accepting a doctoral student at the University of Virginia through the Community Psychology program.

Faculty Profile
Academic Program

Dr. Lora Henderson Smith (she/her/hers)

My research broadly focuses on student wellbeing with projects on improving supports for students returning to school after mental health crises and collaborative work focused on culturally responsive practices in schools. I use mixed-methods and community-engaged research methods to elicit the voices of minoritized and marginalized youth and community members in my work.

Dr. Henderson Smith is accepting a doctoral student at the University of Virginia through the School & Clinical Psychology program.

Faculty Profile
Academic Program

Dr. Jonee Wilson (she/her/her’s)

My research focuses on examining and outlining instructional practices that empower and honor historically marginalized students specifically in the context of conceptually-oriented mathematics classrooms. I am also working with others in using what we, as a field, are learning about equitable mathematics instruction to support school and district leaders, instructional coaches, and teachers as they work to understand and develop practices that aim for equity.

Dr. Wilson is accepting a doctoral student at the University of Virginia through the Curriculum & Instruction program.

Faculty Profile
Academic Program

If you have any comments or questions about this post, please email Youth-Nex@virginia.edu. Please visit the Youth-Nex Homepage for up to date information about the work happening at the center.

Research in Brief: Counselor-Delivered Mindfulness & Social-Emotional Learning Intervention

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By: Melinda Espinoza  

Highlights:

  • This Research in Brief blog is part of the School Mental Health series highlighting work and resources for mental health professionals.
  • This brief originated from the Virginia Partnership for School Mental Health (VPSMH) project, which partners with VA school divisions and institutions of higher education to expand support for school mental health services.
  • This brief summarizes research on a mindfulness and social–emotional learning intervention that was delivered by counselors.
Source: Youth-Nex

This article explores the effectiveness of a counselor-led early childhood mental health consultation (ECMHC) intervention and its impact on the lived experiences of a small group of early childhood educators. The intervention consisted of 12 weeks of one-on-one counselor-teacher consultation using social emotional learning and mindfulness-based interventions. There was also a mindfulness intervention group-consultation component with the teacher participants. Participants reported feeling an increased ability to handle classroom related stressors while also experiencing changes in their beliefs towards themselves as educators and individuals. These beliefs extended beyond the classroom as participants also reported changes in their personal lives.

Importance

  • Work-related stress and lack of support can limit educators’ ability to be healthy and effective.
  • School counselors are able to supplement and promote mental health care for other educators.
  • Promoting mindfulness habits and emotional regulation skills, counselors can not only support fellow educators’ well-being but also positively impact students.

Equity Considerations

  • This study was conducted in urban schools with student populations consisting mostly of students from minoritized and low-income backgrounds.
  • Teacher participants largely identified as part of minoritized groups as well.
  • Participants (teachers) were provided with consultation on culturally-responsive practices.

Practitioner Tips

  • Mindfulness-based interventions have the potential to positively enhance inter-educator relationships. Educators may use the skills they learn to inform interactions with other colleagues.
  • Mindfulness skills helped participants learn to cope with and address workplace conflict.
  • Consultation influenced by mindfulness allows the educator to receive some mental health support while developing goals and problem-solving from a new approach.
  • Mindfulness practices helped teachers increase their self-awareness which allowed for changes in beliefs about teaching behaviors and in their personal lives.
Counselor-Delivered Mindfulness & SELDownload

Reference

Palacios, A. F., & Lemberger, T. M. E. (2019). A counselor‐delivered mindfulness and social–emotional learning intervention for early childhood educators. Journal of Humanistic Counseling, 58(3), 184–203. https://doi.org/10.1002/johc.12119

If you have any comments or questions about this post, please email Youth-Nex@virginia.edu. Please visit the Youth-Nex Homepage for up to date information about the work happening at the center.

Author Bio: Melinda Espinoza is a graduate student in the Counselor Education program at the University of Virginia, pursuing the School Mental Health emphasis offered to trainees through the Virginia Partnership for School Mental Health. Trainees in this emphasis complete additional coursework and field experience requirements that prepare them to take on leadership roles in addressing the mental health needs of students in K-12 schools.

How Can Youth Voice Amplify Research? Listening & Leadership Are Key

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This post is the 5th publication in a YPAR series, which aims to explain participatory research, youth-led measurement and evaluation approaches, and strategies for youth-adult collaborations in YPAR.

By: Jessica Forrester

Highlights

  • In this series on Youth Participatory Action Research (or YPAR), we’ve argued that youth engagement at all levels of research design can leverage their expertise and increase the validity of research findings. 
  • There are several ways to increase youth voice in research, including listening, collaboration, and leadership.
  • In this blog, I will describe how I’ve listened to youth in my collaborative research and how I envision youth leadership could amplify my future work.
Source: Canva

Increasing student voice and engagement in the research process has many benefits for youth development. These benefits include creating a network of justice-oriented adults and youth, developing critical thinking skills, and cultivating a sense of empowerment and purpose. Listening, collaboration, and leadership are three approaches to increasing youth voice in research that align with expert suggestions for transforming school decision-making. I will describe how I’ve used these practices below and give strategies on how you can apply these ideas to your work.

Increasing Student Voice Through Listening

Not all research studies are designed to be youth-led, and that’s okay. Sometimes adult researchers can include instances of listening to seek youth perspectives and opinions about our data and work.

Within my doctoral research process, I was the leading developer of culturally responsive mathematics activities for an after-school tutoring program in the North Minneapolis community. Even though I was the primary designer, I felt there were ways to include youth voices and feedback to improve my research. For example, one activity idea included an infographic of the distribution of Black teachers in the United States by region. It was clear from the infographic that the Midwest had drastically fewer Black teachers compared to the South, West, and Northeast. I was hesitant to include this figure because the students attending the program were predominately Black, and my aim of the activities was to create joyful learning experiences for students. Questions I asked myself were:

  • How can students help transform this activity from bleak to joy-centered?
  • How can we work together to change this activity into one focused on students’ identity and community?
  • How can we highlight Black teachers in Minnesota to inspire students and future teachers?

I held a reflection meeting with two 11th grade students participating in the program to gather youth input and feedback. I showed them the infographic, expressed my hesitancy to include it, and asked how they thought we could make this infographic more joyful. They gave several insightful possibilities:

  • Using the chart as an introduction to the lack of Black teachers locally and nationally,
  • Creating a survey for Black teachers to know more about their experiences, and
  • Designing a call to action for more teachers of color.

The revised activity would still allow students to mathematically explore the data while critiquing Black teachers’ working conditions and suggesting recommendations for change. We left that conversation feeling hopeful that a somewhat depressing activity could transform into a multi-dimensional learning moment for students.

Moving from Listening to Leadership

Listening is an excellent start to increasing youth engagement but it comes with challenges. For instance, Dana Mitra mentions the possibility of misinterpreting youth voices when students aren’t fully engaged with all steps of the research process. A way to improve youth engagement and move past a limited practice of only listening is to create opportunities for leadership and decision-making. A future direction of my research would incorporate students in the development phase of curriculum writing. At the end of the day, students are the ones engaging with curricular materials and deserve opportunities to give their voice and input. A fully collaborative curriculum with researchers, educators, community members, and students would provide opportunities for youth leadership over their learning.

If you are interested in moving from listening to leadership in your work, here are some tips and questions to ask yourself:

  1. Acknowledge your bias on what partnerships between youth and adults look like. What are my preconceptions of youth-adult collaboration? How can I change my everyday practices to create reciprocal youth-adult relationships? Am I willing to learn from the insider knowledge of youth?
  2. Establish clear goals, roles, and responsibilities at the beginning of the collaboration. Do I know everyone’s competencies, strengths, and talents? Are those strengths aligned with their roles and responsibilities? Am I providing valuable training opportunities to support youth development?
  3. Regularly reflect on your practice. Is there any misalignment between the partnership’s goals and actions? Is anything holding me back from transforming my current youth-adult collaboration? Over the next few months, what can I do to improve our decision-making process, communication, or shared responsibility?

Missed a post in the YPAR series? Check out all the tips and resources:

  1. The Benefits of Engaging in Participatory Approaches to Research
  2. Why Young Investigators Are Important
  3. Youth Voices in YPAR (includes youth)
  4. Strategies for the YPAR Collaboration Process (includes downloadable resources)
  5. How Can Youth Voice Amplify Research? Listening & Leadership Are Key
  6. 4 Universal Facilitation Tips for YPAR Collaboration
  7. Asset & Power Mapping as Tools for Youth-Led Research (includes downloadable resources)
  8. Why YPAR Matters: Youth Are “Looking at the World Differently” (includes youth)

If you have any comments or questions about this post, please email Youth-Nex@virginia.edu. Please visit the Youth-Nex Homepage for up to date information about the work happening at the center.

Author Bio: Dr. Jessica Forrester is a postdoctoral researcher working directly with Youth-Nex and the Youth Action Lab. Before joining the University of Virginia, Jessica earned a Ph.D. in STEM Education from the University of Minnesota and a bachelor’s and master’s degree in biomedical engineering. Her dissertation combined her interest in STEM engagement with justice-oriented practices in education to create mathematics activities for an after-school tutoring program in North Minneapolis. Specifically, qualitative and community-based approaches were utilized to acknowledge community assets and, in turn, value those assets during mathematical learning to influence students’ identity development, skills development, criticality, and joy. Additionally, Jessica explores equity and justice through youth participatory action research and mentoring networks.

Youth Engaged in Research: Strategies for the Collaboration Process

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This post is the 4th publication in a YPAR series, which aims to explain participatory research, youth-led measurement and evaluation approaches, and strategies for youth-adult collaborations in YPAR.

By: Shereen El Mallah

Highlights:

  • In this YPAR series, I’ve shared that participatory research is an approach to research, rather than a single research method, that intentionally considers power and equity with respect to both processes and outcomes.
  • Youth have a unique insight into their own needs and lived experiences, and engaging them in the research process can leverage their expertise on how best to support their own learning and development.
  • In this blog, I share specific strategies that facilitated the collaboration process to support the design and application of participatory research in practice.
Source: Dr. Shereen El Mallah

Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) is an approach to conducting research increasingly used by educators, administrators, practitioners and researchers alike. However, there is still a lack of practical knowledge about how participatory research can best be designed and applied in practice.

In a recent publication, I provide examples or starter templates for researchers who are seeking to develop culturally sensitive measures and/or who are inviting youth stakeholders to transition from the passive role of informant to the active role of co-researcher. These are included below but first, I share some of the strategies that supported the youth-adult collaboration in this study.

How To Guide

The collaborative process can be broken down into multiple phases. During the planning phase (i.e., prior to engagement), the research team took the following steps:

  • Planning a “shadow day,” to follow a subgroup of students for three hours as they went about their regularly scheduled school day. This has previously been used as a teacher training and professional development exercise, and in the context of the case study, it held the same purpose of better understanding the realities of students in their daily environment.
  • Toward the same goal, disposable cameras were handed out to 30 randomly selected seventh and eighth grade students. They were asked to take pictures throughout the week of “things that were important to them.” The adult researchers were asked to do the same. All pictures were printed and later put on display in the room where collaborative working sessions took place.

During the partnering phase, the research team took the following steps:

  • The first collaborative working session was dedicated to collectively drafting a “contract” that discussed expectations, identified priorities and articulated the collective goals of the team. This conversation revealed varied outlooks among the youth researchers, from hesitation and apprehension (stemming from poor experiences in the past or a general distrust of adult outsiders) to hope and excitement at the prospect of playing a role in improving the student survey experience.
  • A lot of attention was also directed towards ensuring the statements in the contract were explicit, with very little room for ambiguity. For example, stating a commitment to shared decision-making was followed by a detailed description of the voting process (two-thirds majority for all votes) and a clear rationale provided for the few decisions that would be exempt from the process (e.g., the adult-driven research design decisions that were already underway, the decisions around any disciplinary matters that might emerge, etc.).

During the training phase, the research team took the following steps:

  • Youth researchers were encouraged to coin their own terms for the research concepts. For example, most youth researchers referred to quantitative and qualitative analysis as “numbers” analysis and “word” analysis; and although this may not be a technically accurate, it helped them more quickly distinguish between the two approaches
  • With regard to preparing students to lead cognitive interviews with their peers, the adult researchers employed reciprocal teaching strategies (“I do, we do, you do”): first modeling the interview protocol, then role-playing the interviewee for the youth researchers and eventually creating space for the youth researchers to offer one another feedback as they honed their interviewing skills.

During the learning phase (i.e., data analysis and interpretation), the research team took the following steps:

  • Youth researchers were guided through semi-structured data interpretation activities which included reflecting on surprises between what they expected and what they found in the data, as well as identifying patterns within the sample.

During the sharing phase (i.e., dissemination), the research team took the following steps:

  • The youth researchers created a social media page to highlight some of the key decisions and work products that emerged from each collaborative session.  One member of the team was charged each week with taking candid photographs to include in the updates that were co-authored by the adult and youth researchers on the team.
  • At the end of the data collection and analysis process, the youth researchers prepared four more comprehensive presentations to be delivered at a schoolwide assembly (targeting their peers), a school board meeting (targeting school and district leadership), a staff meeting (targeting their teachers) and a parent-teacher night (targeting families). Adult researchers in attendance took notes during the interactive presentations, documenting any questions or concerns raised by audience members. During the subsequent collaborative working sessions, the research team debriefed on key take-aways from the experience, as well as brainstormed new strategies to refine the dissemination process (e.g., after the first presentation, the decision was made to have handouts available for audience members).

Download Resources

To promote more widespread use of YPAR approaches, five resources were included in the publication and linked below. These resources were written for a general audience to ensure broad applicability and include examples, templates, and tools that may be helpful for those seeking to initiate research involving youth-adult collaborations. Each one was designed with the intention of drawing a more explicit link between the abstract guidelines and the concrete practices that are often associated with the YPAR process. 

Sample Recruitment FlyerDownload

A template of a recruitment flyer that can be used to invite students to work with adult researchers on improving school survey experiences.

Sample Project PlanDownload

An example of a project plan that begins with a broad overview of the research process in a youth-adult partnership, followed by a more detailed breakdown of the focus and purpose of each collaborative working session.

Sample Training Tool: Survey EvaluationDownload

A newly developed measure called the “KIVI” used by both youth and adult researchers to examine the clarity, relevance and coverage of items on survey measures.

Sample Training Handout: Types of ValidityDownload

A training handout explaining the different types of validity used to evaluate surveys in an age-appropriate and relevant way for youth researchers.

Sample Training Handout: Interview PromptsDownload

A training handout used to help youth researchers obtain richer responses from their peers when conducting interviews.

Missed a post in the YPAR series? Check out all the tips and resources:

  1. The Benefits of Engaging in Participatory Approaches to Research
  2. Why Young Investigators Are Important
  3. Youth Voices in YPAR (includes youth)
  4. Strategies for the YPAR Collaboration Process (includes downloadable resources)
  5. How Can Youth Voice Amplify Research? Listening & Leadership Are Key
  6. 4 Universal Facilitation Tips for YPAR Collaboration
  7. Asset & Power Mapping as Tools for Youth-Led Research (includes downloadable resources)
  8. Why YPAR Matters: Youth Are “Looking at the World Differently” (includes youth)

If you have any comments or questions about this post, please email Youth-Nex@virginia.edu. Please visit the Youth-Nex Homepage for up to date information about the work happening at the center.

Author Bio: Dr. Shereen El Mallah is interested in the intersection of applied science and social justice. As a scholar-activist, her work draws heavily on rapid cycle evaluation, participatory approaches, design-based research, and the framework of QuantCrit to address three notable gaps: 1) The gap between what works in research and what works in practice, 2) The gap between valuing what we can measure and measuring what we value, 3) The racial/ethnic and socioeconomic gaps in developmental and educational outcomes that are rooted in longstanding structural and systemic inequities. El Mallah regularly engages in research-practice partnerships intent on interrupting inequitable practices, policies, and research, as well as explores communication and dissemination strategies that facilitate the use of evidence. She is committed to working with and for underrepresented, marginalized, or systematically minoritized groups to leverage both quantitative and qualitative data in challenging dominant narratives.

Youth Voices in YPAR

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This post is the 3rd publication in a YPAR series, which aims to explain participatory research, youth-led measurement and evaluation approaches, and strategies for youth-adult collaborations in YPAR.

By: Mykei & Angel, 11th graders

Highlights:

  • Previous posts in the YPAR Series explained what participatory research processes are, and why youth should be engaged in research.
  • This post showcases two high school students who are engaged in YPAR, and currently designing research projects.
  • Mykei and Angel talk about what they learned in YPAR and how it has helped them.
Learn more about one of last year’s YAL YPAR projects, led by LMA students, through this award-winning documentary.

Starting in 2021, Lugo-McGinness Academy (LMA) and Youth-Nex’s Youth Action Lab (YAL) partnered to introduce students to youth participatory action research (YPAR). YPAR is a research approach that engages young people in identifying problems relevant to their own lives, conducting research to understand the nature of their problems, and using findings to advocate for change.

LMA classroom teachers and Youth Action Lab team members co-facilitate YPAR projects to support student leadership and uplift student voices in a school setting. The current YAL facilitators, Dr. Jessica Forrester (a postdoctoral researcher) and Olivia Burke (a grad student), sat down with two students from LMA to ask about their experiences in YPAR.

Question: Tell me about the current YPAR project you’re working on.

  • Mykei: I am working on creating interview questions on what sparks adults’ career interests and why they went into that field of work. I just want to see what people say, to be honest, like what their different experiences are. So far, I have interviewed my history teacher, Mr. K. He told me that he went to law school but realized teaching was his calling. I am excited to interview Mr. K’s father-in-law who is a nurse.
  • Angel: The overall question of my project is “Do high school students have enough resources for jobs, and internships after completing high school?”. My current project started off as research looking into career-based classes. It then led to looking into internships for high school students, in- and out-of-school. I have now expanded my project into a focus group for 11th and 12th graders; asking for their opinions on what kind of internships they wish they had and if they feel that high school successfully set them up for success in their career choice. The focus group will be recorded and sent out to businesses that are open to interns so that they may use the data to edit intern interview questions for high school students. During the focus group, we will give the students information on businesses open to internships.

Question: What have you learned while working with Youth Action Lab and YPAR?

  • Mykei: What sparks people’s interests. I also learned how to word questions to get a better response from the people I interviewed. I also learned a lot about the research process, like what to look for on the internet, especially when I was searching for different people in the community to interview.

Question: In what ways has your YPAR project been helpful for you and your future?

  • Angel: It has benefited my mentality. I now feel a need to strongly take initiative towards my future, while using the skills my project has taught me; such as reaching out when help is needed, looking into resources in my community, and looking closer at the people around me who could possibly bestow more knowledge upon me.

Question: What do you want to do after high school?

  • Mykei: I want to become a traveling nurse. They make a lot of money and it seems really fun. My aunt, grandma, and mom were all nurses. They all loved it. My grandma was a nurse for 40 years. I take care of my mom and little brother, so I am used to taking care of people.
  • Angel: After high school, I will continue my nursing program until it is time for me to head off to college. While in college I plan on majoring in Chemistry or Biology while doing nursing on the side so that I still have an income. Hopefully studying abroad at some point, and after many years of school, achieve my dreams of becoming an anesthesiologist.

Missed a post in the YPAR series? Check out all the tips and resources:

  1. The Benefits of Engaging in Participatory Approaches to Research
  2. Why Young Investigators Are Important
  3. Youth Voices in YPAR (includes youth)
  4. Strategies for the YPAR Collaboration Process (includes downloadable resources)
  5. How Can Youth Voice Amplify Research? Listening & Leadership Are Key
  6. 4 Universal Facilitation Tips for YPAR Collaboration
  7. Asset & Power Mapping as Tools for Youth-Led Research (includes downloadable resources)
  8. Why YPAR Matters: Youth Are “Looking at the World Differently” (includes youth)

If you have any comments or questions about this post, please email Youth-Nex@virginia.edu. Please visit the Youth-Nex Homepage for up to date information about the work happening at the center.

Author Bio: Mykei is an eleventh-grade student at Lugo-McGinness Academy and is joining the YPAR team for the second year in a row. In addition to YPAR, Mykei works part-time at a local business and has caretaking responsibilities for his younger sibling. Mykei’s education research interests are rooted in his commitment to education. In particular, he wants to increase the variety of class options for LMA students, such as advanced placement, career, and technical opportunities.

Author Bio: Angel is an eleventh-grade student and one of the YPAR team’s newest members. Angel is interested in transforming school classes to focus on students’ strengths in order to build their confidence. In addition to making a difference in educational spaces, Angel wants to shine light on business opportunities for high schoolers because of her own entrepreneurial spirit.