Tagged With "Higher Ed"
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Colleges Are Looking For Ways to House and Feed Homeless Students [psmag.com]
Four years ago, Dorothy Gorder was living under the I-5 bridge in downtown Seattle. Addicted to meth and heroin, she lived in makeshift shelters fashioned out of cardboard boxes and pallets, draping clothing to block out the wind. Her car had been stolen. Gorder left behind a son in Montana, who was living with his grandmother. A daughter to whom she'd given birth while homeless was taken away and adopted by a foster family. Then she got pregnant again, with another son, and resolved to turn...
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Colleges Are No Match for American Poverty [theatlantic.com]
Russell Lowery-Hart spent a Texas winter weekend sleeping outside, even when a light rain fell and it grew so cold that he forced muddy shoes into his sleeping bag to warm his feet. By day, the 48-year-old became increasingly sunburned crisscrossing the streets of Waco, applying for fast-food jobs and searching for soup kitchens. He arrived at one charity at noon to find that lunch ended at 11:30; luckily, a homeless woman shared her cinnamon bread with him. He was unshowered and unshaven,...
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High School Suspensions, Multiple Schools Affect Foster Youth as They Enter College [edsource.org]
By Ashley A. Smith, EdSource, January 30, 2020 California foster students who were suspended from school or attended multiple high schools are more likely to struggle in college, according to a new report that examines the academic transition these students undergo. The report released Wednesday, from Educational Results Partnership, a nonprofit research organization, and California College Pathways, a statewide organization that helps foster youth succeed in college, finds these students...
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Higher Education: What Do We Mean?
I'll be the first to admit that when I think of the phrase "higher education," certain things come to mind: ivy-clad red brick buildings, crisp fall afternoons punctuated by the staccato sounds of a university drumline rehearsal, and young wide-eyed students hanging on every word from the profound professor who looms large over the time-worn lectern. These stylized visualizations are informed by my own experiences in college, surely, but also by larger cultural narratives that contour the...
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JED Foundation and UMass offer new guide: College to Career: Supporting Mental Health
"Investigators from The Jed Foundation (JED) and the University of Massachusetts Medical School examined the literature in education, business, psychology and sociology regarding the college-to-career transition. Knowledge gained informed a national survey of 1,929 college seniors, recent graduates and employers exploring specific challenges to the transition, as well as existing strategies to support young adults and their emotional health. Data from the literature review and the survey...
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Millions of College Students Are Going Hungry [theatlantic.com]
As the costs of college have climbed, some students have gone hungry. When they’ve voiced frustration , they’ve often been ridiculed : “Ramen is cheap,” or “Just eat cereal.” But the blight of food insecurity among college students is real, and a new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), a nonpartisan congressional watchdog, highlights the breadth of those affected. There are potentially millions of students at risk of being food insecure, which means they do not have...
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NJ medical school program requires all first-year students to learn about ACEs science
In 2015, Dr. Beth Pletcher, a pediatrician and associate professor specializing in genetics, was at the annual conference of the American Academy of Pediatrics in Washington D.C. when she heard two speakers that forever changed her work with medical students. Dr. Beth Pletcher “I went to two talks on adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) that were so mind-boggling to me that I decided on my drive back to New Jersey that I had to do something about it,”says Pletcher, director of the Division...
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Ph.D. Students Face Mental Health Challenges
Science By Elisabeth Pain Approximately one-third of Ph.D. students are at risk of having or developing a common psychiatric disorder like depression, a recent study reports. Although these results come from a small sample—3659 students at universities in Flanders, Belgium, 90% of whom were studying the sciences and social sciences—they are nonetheless an important addition to the growing literature about the prevalence of mental health issues in academia . One key message for scientific...
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Press Release — New Survey of California Community College Students Reveals More than Half Face Food Insecurity and Nearly 20 Percent Have Faced Homelessness [California Community Colleges]
Press Release — New Survey of California Community College Students Reveals More than Half Face Food Insecurity and Nearly 20 Percent Have Faced Homelessness March 7, 2019 Sacramento — More than half the students attending a California community college have trouble affording balanced meals or worry about running out of food, and nearly 1 in 5 are either homeless or do not have a stable place to live, according to a survey released today. Click HERE to read the press release and click HERE...
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Professor uses her own ACEs story to teach med students how to help traumatized patients
When O’Nesha Cochran teaches medical residents about adverse childhood experiences in patients, she doesn’t use a textbook. Instead, the Oregon Health & Science University adjunct professor walks in the room, dressed in what she describes as the “nerdiest-looking outfit” she can find. And then she tells them her story. “My mom sold me to her tricks and her pimps from the age of three to the age of six,” she begins. “I could remember these grown men molesting me and my sisters. I have...
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Red Flag Warning
Red Flag Warning In weather-speak, a red flag warning is issued when conditions are ripe for fire combustion. Many law enforcement officials in Florida have described school shooter Nikolas Cruz as displaying all the “red flags” of a troubled youth, yet no one seemed to speak up enough to prevent the tragedy at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. This reflection extends writings I have recently done that describes trauma and traumatized systems as an invisible fire, an...
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Some 350 Florida Leaders Expected to Attend Think Tank with Dr. Vincent Felitti, Co-Principal Investigator of the ACE Study; Expert on ACEs Science
Leaders from across the Sunshine State will take part in a “Think Tank” in Naples, FL, on Monday, August 6, to help create a more trauma-informed Florida. The estimated 350 attendees will include policy makers and community teams made up of school superintendents, law enforcement officers, judges, hospital administrators, mayors, PTA presidents, child welfare experts, mental health and substance abuse treatment providers, philanthropists, university researchers, state agency heads, and...
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Study: Stress Disorders Linked to Greater Infection Risk [mercurynews.com]
By Lisa Rapaport, Reuters, October 31, 2019 People who have stress disorders like PTSD may be more vulnerable to potentially life-threatening infections, especially if they are diagnosed at younger ages or dealing with other psychiatric issues, a recent study suggests. Researchers examined data on 144,919 people diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), adjustment disorders common after a major life change like a death or move, and other stress-related conditions. They also...
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The Little College Where Tuition Is Free and Every Student Is Given a Job [TheAtlantic.com]
There’s a small burst of air that explodes from every clap. And when hundreds of people are clapping in unison, it begins to feel like a breeze—one that was pulsing through the Phelps Stokes Chapel at Berea College in Kentucky. The students and staff that had gathered here were stomping, clapping, and singing along, as they were led in a rendition of the Civil Rights era anthem, “Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around.” They had packed into the wood-framed building for a convocation address,...
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The Number Of Hungry And Homeless Students Rises Along With College Costs [NPR.org]
There's no way to avoid it. As the cost of college grows, research shows that so does the number of hungry and homeless students at colleges and universities across the country. Still, many say the problem is invisible to the public. "It's invisible even to me and I'm looking," says Wick Sloan. He came to Bunker Hill Community College in Boston more than a decade ago to teach English full time. He says it felt like he quickly became a part-time social worker, too. "When I first got here, I...
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The Support that is Helping Make College Graduation a New Reality for Foster Youth (chronicleofsocialchange.org)
About 30 percent of high school students in California go on to graduate from college, but only about 8 percent of foster youth make it that far, according to research by the Public Policy Institute of California and the University of Chicago. Young people who spend their teen years in foster care are more likely to land in jail than to earn a college degree. Those bleak prospects deter some students from even considering higher-ed options. Under the umbrella of Guardian Scholars programs,...
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The University of California Stands Out Among Top Schools When It Comes to Serving Poor Students [theatlantic.com]
The idea is clear, simple, and generally agreed upon: Colleges need to do more when it comes to enrolling and graduating low-income students. If college degrees are “the great equalizer”—though some research has disputed that characterization—then expanding access to those degrees will help make society more equal. Are any colleges succeeding in doing that? A new report from Third Way, a center-left think tank, tries to answer that question—and the results for many colleges are not pretty .
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When Students Are Traumatized, Teachers Are Too
When Students Are Traumatized, Teachers Are Too -Emelina Minero "Vicarious trauma affects teachers’ brains in much the same way that it affects their students’: The brain emits a fear response, releasing excessive cortisol and adrenaline that can increase heart rate, blood pressure, and respiration, and release a flood of emotions. This biological response can manifest in mental and physical symptoms such as anger and headaches, or workplace behaviors like missing meetings, lateness, or...
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Who's Missing From America's Colleges? Rural High School Graduates [NPR Ed]
When Dustin Gordon's high school invited juniors and seniors to meet with recruiters from colleges and universities, a handful of students showed up. A few were serious about the prospect of continuing their educations, he said, "But I think some of them went just to get out of class." In his sparsely settled community in the agricultural countryside of southern Iowa, "there's just no motivation for people to go" to college, says Gordon, who's now a senior at the University of Iowa. "When...
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A Landmark Lawsuit Aimed to Fix Special Ed for California's Black Students. It Didn't. [kqed.org]
By Lee Romney, KQED, October 18, 2019 Darryl Lester was at his mom’s place in Tacoma, Washington, when a letter he’d been waiting for arrived in the mail. At 40, he was destitute, in pain and out of work. The letter delivered good news: Lester would be getting disability benefits after blowing out his back in a sheet metal accident. But he crumpled it up and threw it in the trash. Why? Because he couldn’t read it. From first through seventh grades, Lester had attended three public schools in...
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A Trauma-informed, Resiliency-based Community of Practice for Prison Educators
An article in the Stanford Social Innovation Review titled " How Philanthropy Can Create Public Systems Change " describes how Renewing Communities, a five-year, multifunder initiative aimed increasing education of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated students by California’s public colleges and universities, partnered with the NYU McSilver Institute for Poverty Policy and Research in order to address educator burnout through a trauma-informed and resiliency-based community of practice.
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ACEs in Higher Education: A Social Justice Approach
Hello. I am sharing a recent brief publication discussing how the principles of community psychology relate to ACEs in higher education, particularly the need to take a social justice approach to ACEs with non-traditional, adult, often minority students. It was posted in a community psychology bulletin, but would apply to anyone interested in ACEs in higher education.
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An Unusual Idea for Fixing School Segregation [theatlantic.com]
Many proposals for addressing school segregation seem pretty small, especially when compared to the scale and severity of the problem. Without the power of a court-ordered desegregation mandate, progress can feel extremely far off, if not altogether impossible. Some even believe—understandably though mistakenly —that no meaningful steps can be taken to integrate schools unless housing segregation is resolved. But a new theory from Thomas Scott-Railton, a recent graduate of Yale Law School,...
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Black Colleges Have to Pay More for Loans Than Other Schools [theatlantic.com]
It’s expensive to be poor. And few places in higher education feel that more acutely than historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs), where endowments are typically smaller and enrollments have fluctuated wildly over the past decade. Now, to be clear, the financial misfortune of black colleges does not rest squarely on their shoulders. Born out of necessity primarily after the Civil War to educate black people who were shut out of most other colleges, the institutions have been...
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California's Higher Ed Diversity Problem [npr.org]
In 1996, right after voters in California banned affirmative action in employment and college admissions, minority student enrollment at two and four-year institutions plummeted. What has happened since though, is pretty remarkable. Of the 2.8 million students attending college in California today, two out of three come from racially and ethnically diverse populations. The most eye-popping increase in enrollment has been among Latinos. They now make up 43 percent of all college students in...
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Re: Reminder: Free Webinar on How to Create Trauma Responsive Educational Institutions
Dear Karen and Dr. Gross, I heartily second Karen's observation about the lack of resources on trauma in higher ed. Thank you for this webinar! I'll also circulate among my groups. Looking forward to it! Jeanie
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Re: Higher Education: What Do We Mean?
Hi, Suzette. Welcome to the community! Do you mind sharing information about where you're at and what your team is doing?
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Re: Higher Education: What Do We Mean?
I'm actually the founder of this network, Suzette! Thanks for joining ACEs Connection!
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Re: Red Flag Warning
Andrew, thoughtful as always, and the metaphor of the invisible fire is powerful. To campus safety and security---an offshoot of your posting: as the students/faculty/staff on MassBay's campus have been talking about safety in the wake of Florida, it's clear the familiar categories of response fall short. Initiatives such as the Safety Net in Cambridge, MA combine law enforcement, with the schools, with mental health, with families, to engage in relationship building and collaboration that...
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Re: Higher Education: What Do We Mean?
I'm so glad you posted this, Andrew. As we move from a "them-us" world into a only an "us" world, we pull down all kinds of barriers, including this one, as you did so gracefully. Thank you!
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Re: Higher Education: What Do We Mean?
Andrew, I also teach at a community college, and am so glad you have raised this need to expand and diversify what we mean by higher ed. Perhaps because so many of my students are first generation, and have to stretch resources of time and money to pursue their college education, they bring a sharpness and investment to the question: what do we as a culture mean by higher education? What is the function of a college education: transfer? vocational and trade? lifelong learning? What I've come...
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Re: Higher Education: What Do We Mean?
Thanks for creating this blog. My team and I are trying to work on ACEs in higher ed. For us, the place we are meant to be is not so different than a community college. We are a university and I actually run our only PhD program, but our student body is non-traditional and often under prepared. I think this is the future of higher education. I think access to a broader population is necessary for our success as a nation and it requires us to re-think how we engage a student body with larger...
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Re: Resilient College Students
I'm so glad to see these positive movements in higher ed. Thanks for sharing.
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Re: Food, Housing Insecurity May Be Keeping College Students From Graduating [npr.org]
A recent poll at our campus indicates that 56% of our students are food insecure. I know many community colleges, state colleges and universities are doing all kinds of great things to partner with local food banks, pantries, etc. Food insecurity, housing insecurity---fundamental obstacles to student ability to be present and learning. At least these media spotlights on issues around higher ed represent the actual, holistic conversation through which we inquire into challenges and potential...
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Re: What is your ACEs in Higher Education Connection?
Hello Andrew and Dennis. I am happy to see others in Illinois doing this work. I presume you are part of the IL ACEs collaborative? Dennis, I could copy and paste your post, but change "Sociology" to "Community Psychology" and it would be a fairly accurate description of my work. I find it ironic that the field of community psychology does so little in this area. I recently sent out a post to our listserv asking for anyone who is doing work related to ACEs and found few people. What I did...
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Re: What is your ACEs in Higher Education Connection?
Suzette and Dennis, Our ACEs in Higher Education community of practice at Harper College is just getting started--we're conducting a literature review on the topic this semester, and then will use that information to inform next steps. We've discussed hosting a regional conference and perhaps this is a point of collaboration? My e-mail is aanastas@harpercollege.edu . I would love to get together and don't mind traveling to Cicero Best, Andrew
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Re: Securing Funding
A few years ago our school decided it was important to set up resources to allow our mostly teaching oriented faculty to have an opportunity to do research to "seed" the procurement of external funding. The project are under $10,000. My first grant was ~$7,500 and I used it on ACEs and Community Resilience. I also used it to learn from experts in Washington State. The second grant I am a partner on. I think it was approximately the same amount. In addition to that, the team that has this...
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California colleges increase online mental health services to serve expected student need [edsource.org]
By Larry Gordon, Ed Source, August 31, 2020 With surveys showing that the pandemic is worsening anxiety and depression among college students, campus counseling centers across California are bracing for an expected sharp rise in the numbers of students seeking mental health services. Like most college and university classes, psychological therapy sessions switched to online — or on telephone — in March. The campuses say they will try their best to advertise, expand and improve those virtual...
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Undergrads’ nonprofit preps Central Valley teens for college success [Berkeley News]
Growing up in the Central Valley town of Kerman, population 15,000, wasn’t easy for Michael Piña, who self-identified as queer. Piña, who prefers the pronoun “she,” suffered abuse from family, local youth and a Catholic priest who, at a church retreat, “threw holy water at me, trying to get the devil out of me,” she said. “It caused a lot of emotional trauma.” But in Fresno County, where less than 20% of all residents and less than 10% of Latinx residents have a bachelor’s degree,...
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What Happens Before College Matters [insidehighered.com]
By Madeline St. Amour, Inside Higher Ed, October 20, 2020 Higher education is not the root of all equity gaps. But it can be a vehicle to lessen those gaps. Historically, it has not been. Equity gaps between students based on their race, ethnicity and income persist and thrive at most institutions. For Black students, simply accessing higher education remains difficult, particularly at four-year colleges. At some institutions, including public flagship and research universities, access has...
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Mental Health, Substance Use, and Wellbeing in Higher Education: Supporting the Whole Student
The National Academies released a report based on an 18 month consensus study on mental health and well-being in higher education. You can read the press release, download the report (free), and more at the below link. One overarching theme of the report is for whole campus, collective awareness and responsibility for mental health and wellbeing. There is a small section on trauma and higher ed as well. Any questions, please feel free to reach out to me jtietjen@massbay.edu or to Layne...
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Re: Mental Health, Substance Use, and Wellbeing in Higher Education: Supporting the Whole Student
Janice, Thank you for all the work you are doing both in scholarship and in practice to recognize the presence of trauma and adversity in higher ed & implications for responsive practices! Jeanie
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ACEs in Higher Education, A National Conversation of Universities and Colleges Begins
(Becky Haas and Ben Schoenberg, Co-Authors) A group of like-minded higher education professionals across universities and departments came together on Tuesday, March 23, to explore the impact ACE's and Trauma initiatives have had on campus. This convening was hosted by the East Tennessee State University Ballad Health Strong Brain Institute following their participation in the January CTIPP CAN call which showcased three universities who are doing work around the Adverse Childhood...
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