Follow

• 

  An Investigation of Key Team Interaction Behaviors that Relate to Cohesion and Performance

  Mikayla Marcinkowski, Jonah Richardson, and Suzanne Bell

  Teams have the potential for diverse skills, expertise, and perspectives that allow them to address complex problems. Yet, several barriers exist that may inhibit teams from realizing their benefits. In the current research, we take a deep dive to investigate how key team behaviors and interactions affect decision making performance and team cohesion. Data were collected from 9, 4-person teams who participated in the Human Exploration Research Analog (HERA) at Johnson Space Center where crews engaged in a series of decision making and relational tasks. Even descriptively, behaviors during these tasks reveal an initial understanding of crew interactions and trends of high performing and cohesive crews. Multilevel analyses demonstrate that high performing teams engage in more conversation (b=.29, p<.05) and express more disagreements (b=.26, p<.05) and cohesive teams express fewer rejections (b=.31, p<.05). Together, these results might suggest that reactions to shared information are critical and teams need effective disagreement without rejection to achieve both high performance and cohesion. Ultimately, this work suggests interaction coding is a fruitful avenue for understanding crew performance and cohesion and can have implications for monitoring and measuring team health and training interpersonal and team dynamics.

• 

  PSY 395 Class Advocacy Project (Internship)

  Sampson A. Marks

  This presentation will describe an internship experience created out of necessity for students in PSY 395 during the COVID-19 pandemic, titled the PSY 395 Class Advocacy Project. This project’s primary focus was the mental health of youth of color activists. It began by members researching and understanding the stressors that youth of color face. Once the group had delved deeply into the literature regarding the trauma of youth of color activists, it was realized that the group and its goals needed to be focusing on the resiliency and strengths that youth of color activists possess in order to combat white supremacy within institutions and systems such as higher education and human services. Once the group understood this as one endeavor of the project, it was better able to focus on what activities and “services” they wanted to provide. Part of the group partnered with the Revolutionary Oak Park Youth Action League (ROYAL) to provide the youth tutoring. The group shared ROYAL’s social media posts and fundraisers and attended ROYAL events. This group project offered its members/interns many resources to equip themselves with in order to fight white supremacy within human services and work toward abolishing the prison industrial complex. The class project may not exist next year, but the poster will offer some contact information for Dr. Brown, Sampson A. Marks, and ROYAL.

• 

  The Impact of Social Inclusion and Exclusion on Relational and Referential Creativity

  Blair Martin and Jessica Chakoria

  This study examined the impact of social inclusion and exclusion on two different types of creativity: relational and referential (Ijzerman et al., 2014). Relational creativity requires people to identify and forge conceptual relationships among existing stimuli (Kray et al., 2006). Referential creativity involves disconnecting from prior knowledge (Ijzerman et al., 2013) and relies on divergent thinking, which facilitates broader thinking and generation of novel, loosely associated ideas (Guilford, 1959). All participants completed the study via Qualtrics. They were randomly assigned to one of three social inclusion/exclusion conditions. We asked them to describe the last time they felt included (inclusion condition), excluded (exclusion condition) or what they ate for breakfast (neutral condition). Next, participants completed two creativity tasks - a Remote Associates Test (RAT; Kray, 2006) to measure relational creativity and a product naming task (Ashton-James & Chartrand, 2009) for referential creativity. Our results show that being excluded made people perform worse on the referential task, while exclusion improved performance on the relational task.

• 

  Compassionate Care Network

  Nora Martin and Abrar Quader

  This presentation will provide viewers with an understanding of Compassionate Care Network and their mission as a Chicago based non-profit organization. The populations served by CCN are primarily low income communities and immigrant communities, and the primary goal of CCN is to provide patients in Chicago with reduced cost medical services and providers, as well as advocate for those experiencing healthcare disparities. In the last year, Compassionate Care Network has dedicated endless time and resources to fighting the COVID-19 pandemic; as of May 1st, they have distributed thousands of COVID tests, and as they have become more widely available, COVID vaccines. In addition, interns for CCN are offered a wide range of opportunities, including volunteering to organize community vaccination events, developing and running CCN social media accounts, and networking with professionals in the healthcare field. CCN also places emphasis on providing continuing support for their interns, and giving them a space to speak openly about world events, voice opinions, and develop connections with other interns. It is made clear to interns that mental health and wellness are the foundations for the organization, therefore they constantly promote different ways to implement self care and encourage interns to take care of themselves. This presentation will include an application for future interns, as well as agency contact information.

• 

  DePaul Family and Community Services Internship Experience

  Maria Mattox

  This presentation will describe an internship experience at DePaul Family and Community Services (FCS). The mission of this organization is to strengthen and empower families and communities through innovative, evidence based, community-oriented services and the training of culturally competent, socially responsible professionals. DePaul FCS offers a variety of mental health services to children and families including individual and group counseling, family therapy, play therapy, parent-child interaction therapy, psychiatric assessments, psychological testing, and school-based services. Common issues for treatment are depression, anxiety, trauma, behavioral issues, and parenting stress. DePaul FCS is committed to working with schools, healthcare providers, community councils and other social service organizations in order to increase access to mental health services for children and families. Senior interns at DePaul FCS are placed with a specialty team. This presentation describes an internship experience as part of the parent-child interaction therapy (PCIT) specialty team. Some responsibilities of an intern at DePaul FCS include participating in meetings, assisting with program maintenance, assisting with administrative work, and observing therapy cases. This presentation with conclude with application information for interested future interns.

• 

  Predictive Validity of a Structured Interview of Stressful Life Experiences Among Adolescents Experiencing Urban Poverty

  Maria Mattox, Noah Schlossman, Sarah Dababneh, Mareta Eberhardt, Alex O'Donnell, Jocelyn Carter, and Kathryn Grant

  Adolescents’ stressful life experiences are typically measured using a survey approach, which can limit the depth and precision of self-reports of chronic stress. The aim of this study was to compare the predictive validity of a structured chronic stress interview to a widely used survey measure of stressful life experiences. Data came from two waves of a longitudinal study on adolescent stress and coping. Participants were 386 students (65% female) from one high school and two elementary schools in Chicago—composed of predominantly low-income students—and were 13.1 years old on average. At baseline and one year later, participants completed the Urban Adolescent Life Experiences Scale (UALES), which examines chronic and episodic stress in several categories. A subset of participants (n = 47) also completed the structured UCLA Life Stress Interview (LSI), which measured chronic stress experienced over the past six months across a number of domains. Results indicated that severity scores from the LSIs were associated with the major events and daily hassles subscales of the UALES as well as internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Our findings suggest that structured interviews of stressful life experiences, although more cumbersome to score, contribute additional richness to our understanding of adolescent chronic stress.

• 

  Sense of School Belonging: Impacts of Negative Racial Experiences and Food Insecurity

  Rebecca McGraity-Palmer, Anne Leung, Amira Hady, Jacqueline Hernandez, and Julianna De Leon

  University students’ sense of belonging and their ability to fit into their new community is often tested. Factors such as gender, sexuality, race or ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and racial experiences may be influential in their sense of belonging (Dura et al., 2020). In this study, negative racial experiences were tested to predict sense of belonging, moderated by food insecurity.

• 

  School Services Internship

  Hannah Miller

  This presentation will describe an internship experience at Lurie Children’s Hospital. The internship position described is a School Services Intern, completed on the Adolescent Inpatient Psychiatric unit. The psychiatry inpatient program is “a family-centered setting focusing on crisis stabilization, intensive evaluation and short-term treatment for problems affecting children and adolescents, ages 3 through 17 years” (Lurie Children’s Hospital, n.d.). The inpatient psychiatry program serves children with a variety of diagnoses including depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, behavior disorders, ADHD, and developmental disorders such as autism (Lurie Children’s Hospital, n.d.). The inpatient program provides many services to adolescents, some of which include medication therapy, individual and group therapy, recreational and behavioral therapy, and classroom instruction with a specialized teacher. A School Services Intern on the inpatient psychiatry unit works directly with the specialized teacher on the unit who provides classroom instruction and support to patients who are hospitalized. Patients have the opportunity to complete classwork from school that they are missing while in the hospital or receive instruction with supplemental materials during a one hour group each weekday. Other educational materials, such as videos or games that aid instruction are also used. The specialized teacher on the unit serves as the liaison between the patient’s schools and the hospital and is able to advocate for school supports and services for the patient when they return to school. This presentation will conclude with application information for future interns.
  

• 

  Class Advocacy Project

  Jada Nunez and Molly Brown

  The following presentation will describe an internship experience known as the “Class Advocacy Project”. The Class Advocacy Project is known as a project which is committed to understanding the experience of black youth activists as well as the experience of youth of color activists in the United States. The Class Advocacy Project is dedicated to allyship with youth of color activists and is committed to learning how to remain an ally to youth of color activists. The Class Advocacy Project has spent many hours researching the experience of people of color, particularly youth, and how systemic factors contribute to the consistent oppression of people of color. The Class Advocacy Project has worked toward providing social media posts which advocate for the mental health of people of color, specifically youth activists of color. Additionally, The Class Advocacy Project has provided services for the youth of ROYAL (Revolutionary Oak Park Youth Action League) such as tutoring and mentorship, allyship, office hours for discussion, and more.

• 

  Masking Ourselves: How Face Masks Hinder Our Interactions

  Maeve O'Sullivan

  Face mask use is an objectively effective measure in combating the COVID-19 pandemic, yet face masks’ full well-being impacts are unclear. While physically protective, face masks are barriers to social connection by depriving us of vital facial and emotional cues when interacting with others (Carbon, 2020; Van Kleef, 2009). We seek to experimentally evaluate face masks’ influence on our perception of ourselves and strangers. Participants in DePaul’s Psychology Subject Pool will interact with a confederate over Zoom, and the face mask status (masked/unmasked) of both confederate and participant will be randomly assigned. Participants will then rate their partner for perceived warmth and report their own self-related psychological need fulfillment. Consistent with face masks’ concealment of social-emotional information, we predict that perceived partner warmth and self-related needs will be lowest when both interaction partners are masked and highest when both are unmasked. We further predict that the confederate will be rated as warmer when unmasked, and that participants’ self-related need fulfillment will be higher when participants are unmasked. If confirmed, these patterns would demonstrate potential social-emotional costs of face masks and valuably inform public health messaging which might encourage people to carefully interact unmasked in safely distanced outdoor settings to mitigate the deleterious effects of prolonged social isolation.

• 

  Mentoring at CITIES

  Mariana Polania

  Presentation describes internships experience at the CITIES Project. Describing what the role is as a mentor to CPS students from low-income communities. The mission of the organization is to understand how stressful experiences impact young people and how can you use that knowledge to create programs to support the healing of students while fighting the causes of the trauma and stress. The mission of mentors is to provide support to students through community support sessions. As a mentor you attend weekly sessions in which you engage in activities with mentees depending on the theme for that given day. Mentors also work with their supervisors to help plan sessions. The presentation will go over what it is like to participate in this program virtually and what it looks like to engage with mentees over zoom, instead of going to the school. The presentation describes the theme of each day for community support sessions and some of the daily exercises implemented in session. The presentation will end with the contact information of Molly Cory who is the project director of CITIES.

• 

  TCEP

  Edwin Rabadan and Veronica Gonzalez

  Telpochcalli Community Education Project mission is to mobilize youth and adults for social justice work by building individual capacity, collective power and mutual responsibility through culturally relevant and community directed education, leadership development and organizing. It is a non-profit organization focused on creating social change in the community. It is located in the Little Village neighborhood, their primarily focus is on the Hispanic population including residents from surrounding neighborhoods. It consists of two components, adults and youth. Some of the services offered for adults consist of art, computer literacy, ESL, GED, sewing workshop and Spanish literacy. As for the youth, services offered are its summer institute, tutoring, mentorship and Girl Talk. As an intern at TCEP there is a lot of collaborative work between adults and the youth leaders to create events and programs to address ongoing issues. WIth weekly meetings, youth leaders come together to put together a curriculum for how they vision a program to be executed. There are always opportunities given to be able to enhance one’s skills and put ideas into action. Edwin Rabadan is the youth coordinator for TCEP’s youth component, Ollin, Jackeline Gongora is the main parent leader in charge of its parent component.

• 

  Volunteer Program at Lakeview Pantry

  Julia Ray

  This presentation will describe an internship experience at Lakeview Pantry. “Lakeview Pantry’s mission is to eliminate hunger and poverty in our community by providing food to fill the basic need of hungry people; empowering [our] clients to gain independence through innovative social service programs; and raising awareness of hunger and poverty and working towards solutions to eliminate them” (Lakeview Pantry, 2021). The internship requirements for the Human Services concentration are broad and many acceptable internships fall under the category of volunteer. Lakeview Pantry does not have internships, but it operates largely under the work of volunteers. The pantry provides food distribution services, mental wellness services, and social services for anyone in the community. Volunteers work alongside staff in the food distribution services aspect of the organization. Volunteers help at every level of food distribution meaning that they have the opportunity to package, deliver, and serve clients depending on the shift that they chose. Within these different types of shifts, volunteers are assigned tasks at the beginning of the shift. This presentation will describe in-depth the different roles that volunteers can take to help distribute food to the community. The presentation will conclude with application information for future interns/volunteers.

• 

  Comfort with Computers, Distributive Self-Efficacy and Outcomes in E-Negotiation

  Mounica Reddy and Melissa Aguinaldo

  Though more cognitive effort is needed to communicate over less-rich media, such as chat-based negotiation, individuals can adapt to modes of communication as they become more familiar with them (Citera et al., 2005). This study examines the association between comfort with computers, distributive self-efficacy, and negotiation outcomes. We hypothesized that more comfort with computers would be associated with: a) more words used, b) higher distributive self-efficacy, and c) higher objective negotiation outcomes. Additionally, we hypothesized that joint negotiation outcomes would be predicted by joint distributive self-efficacy across negotiation dyads. Data was used from a previously conducted experimental study from 86 undergraduate students who participated in an e-negotiation. Correlations revealed significant relationships between comfort with computers and distributive self-efficacy (r = .25). Linear regression analyses did not indicate that joint distributive self-efficacy was predictive of joint negotiation outcomes. This study sheds light onto the relationship between comfort with computers and distributive self-efficacy which could be important to understanding how e-negotiation outcomes unfold.

• 

  Mental Health and Integration Experiences of Newcomer Rohingya Refugees in the U.S.

  Afshan Rehman, Wendy de los Reyes, and Shreya Aragula

  Objective: Since 2013, about 1,500 Rohingya refugees have resettled in Chicago, Illinois, but there is limited literature on the experiences of Rohingya refugees post-resettlement. This study aims to examine mental health and integration experiences of newcomer Rohingya refugees in the U.S. context. Method: This study is one component of a larger community survey that was conducted in collaboration with the Rohingya Cultural Center during Fall 2019. The survey was verbally administered to members of the Rohingya community (N = 308) by Rohingya research teammates A chi-square test of independence and one-way ANOVA analyses were used to assess group differences across gender. Multiple regression analysis was used to examine psychological distress as the outcome, predicted by integration, years in the U.S., and gender. Results: Men had higher levels of social integration and labor force involvement, whereas women had higher levels of navigational integration. Analysis also revealed that higher psychological and navigational integration was associated with lower psychological distress. In contrast, lower social integration was associated with lower psychological distress while age was associated with greater psychological distress. Implications: Findings may provide guidance for resettlement and other social service agencies on how to promote greater integration of refugees.

• 

  Arts of Life

  Debbie Riggs and Tim Ortiz

  At Arts of Life, the experience is like no other. Everyone in this organization is so supportive of each other, everyone wants to see everyone succeed, and interning here never fails to bring a smile. Artist mentors provide feedback and advice to both group programming, as well as, one on one meetings with individual artists. Those meetings are always fun. The mission is to advance the creative arts community by providing artists with intellectual and developmental disabilities, a collective space to expand their practice, and strengthen their leadership. The organization provides artists with disabilities access to an otherwise hard scene: the art scene! For the safety of both the artists and staff, group activities have been moved to remote programming, as a result of this, the organization also provides them with art supplies that they had access to in the studio, iPads for online programming, headphones, etc. If an artist does want to work in the studio, it is a very limited capacity, with everyone in their own area (with masks of course). Arts of Life is rewarding and the connections made with the artists and other staff have a positive impact in one’s life forever. The end of my presentation will conclude with application information for future interns.

• 

  CHOICE Lab Internship

  Dylan Sagan and Joanna Buscemi

  The presentation will describe an internship experience at the Child Health and Obesity Intervention through Community Engagement (CHOICE) Lab at DePaul. The lab recognizes how systemic barriers linked to racism and oppression limit access to health care, prescription drugs, and healthful foods and limit opportunities for physical activity. This is why the lab is committed to working at the individual, community, and policy levels to build partnerships and develop interventions that combat health inequities. The services provided through this lab are numerous and include studies that range from but are not limited to COVID contact tracing, Predictors of Lunch Program Participation in Chicago Public High Schools (CHOMP), Psychosocial stressors and physical health symptoms in undergraduate students, and also an e-Health intervention program for Hispanic women undergoing active treatment for breast cancer. Some activities included in the internship are weekly lab meetings, coding, analyzing both qualitative and quantitative data, and working together as a team to help one another with their tasks. A large portion of the internship for CHOMP focuses on qualitative data interpretation of interviews in which lab members must read and code data to organize it, and then take these analyses and write results from them. The presentation will conclude with application information for future interns.

• 

  HPV Vaccination Barriers and Facilitators among Asian and Asian American Young Adults Screen reader support enabled.

  Sabrina Salvador, Rebecca McGarity-Palmer, Young-Me Lee, and Anne Saw

  The human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted infection in the US (CDC, 2017). HPV infection can be prevented through the HPV vaccine. However, Asian American women are less likely to get vaccinated against HPV compared to White American women (Licht et al., 2010). Furthermore, it is important for males to prevent HPV infection via vaccination; however, Asian young adult males have the lowest HPV vaccination rates for all young adult males (NHANES 2017-2018 data). There is little research in the area of culturally appropriate HPV vaccination interventions for Asian and Asian American young adults. We conducted an integrative review to assess the barriers and facilitators for HPV vaccination for Asian and Asian American young adults. Twenty articles were included in this review. Identified barriers to HPV vaccination included (1) Limited awareness and knowledge regarding HPV infection and vaccine, (2) Concerns about safety and efficacy of vaccine, (3) Cultural and linguistic barriers, (4) Cost, (5) Lack of perceived susceptibility, and (6) Time consumption and fear of shots. Identified facilitators to getting vaccinated included (1) Knowledge and understanding of HPV infection and vaccine, (2) Social support, (3) Recommendations from healthcare providers, and (4) Benefits to self and others.

• 

  Behavioral Intervention Intern at Tuesday's Child

  Katarina Savaglio, Hana Holman, and Kathryn Linnen

  As an intern at Tuesday's Child in the TC Scholars Preschool, checking the goals of each child is necessary in assessing their needs. Each child is working on something different, like keeping their body in their own space, using their words, and sharing their peers. Interns must consistently praise each child for using their words, keeping their body in their own space, and sharing with their peers because these actions show each child's growth in achieve their goals. "Tuesday’s Child enables families to thrive through positive parent training, inclusive behavioral classrooms and support services. Our proven model impacts home, school, and the community." Tuesday's Child meets the specific needs of this population through the usage of an individualized approach to better address each family's specific needs. The evidence-based practices used provide beneficial training for both the parents and the child. The services that Tuesday’s Child provides is, TC Scholars Preschool, Classroom Intervention, Behavioral Summer Camp, IEP Support for Parents, Outreach Services, Prevention Initiative, and Friendship Club. As an intern, you would either be in the TC Scholars Preschool or the Classroom Intervention your supervisor will let you know which room you are in on your first day. If you are interested, apply on Handshake for a quick response.

• 

  The Cities Mentor Project: Understanding Youth Trauma

  Justin Slowikowski

  The following presentation will describe an internship experience at the Cities Mentor Project. The mission of the Cities Mentor Project is to lessen the gap of and eliminate inequality through education, specifically by connecting high-resourced universities such as DePaul with low-resourced public schools here in Chicago. The services provided by the Cities Mentor Project utilize trauma-informed therapy in order to inform the youth from low-resourced Chicago Public Schools (CPS) about chronic stressors relevant to their neighborhoods, such as poverty and violence, and teach them positive coping strategies. This trauma-informed therapy is reinforced through activities aimed at fostering stronger mentor-mentee relationships so that these youth have a positive outside adult figure that they can reach out to for social and mental support. Activities vary by day, with Wednesday being the main mentoring day where youth learn valuable concepts for coping, such as Make a Link and LetMGo, to name a couple. The remaining days of the week are community support days, where mentors and mentees are invited to engage in activities specific to that day’s theme, in order to introduce expressive forms of coping. Application information for future interns will be provided at the conclusion of the presentation.

• 

  Jumpstart

  Marianne Soriano

  Jumpstart is designed as an enhanced head start program that provides literacy, language and social-emotional skills to pre-school aged kids from under-resourced communities to prepare for kindergarten readiness. They recognize how much early educational experiences can make a lasting impact in a child’s scholastic career moving forward. Supervisors provided training for all employees in order to ensure a well-rounded education for all of the students in the Chicago Public Schools that they partner with. Small teams are created that work with children from each school; It is typically a team of four interns that work with four pre-school children, for a one-to-one ratio. Lesson plans lasted about an hour and a half and given the pandemic, included reading, art, and various other activities to engage the students virtually. Meetings would occur every week that enabled all workers to build a sense of community and provide information on social issues that are occurring that could potentially be impacting the children of the communities Jumpstart serves. The meetings were also used to give feedback on how to improve each lesson plan that is taught. To apply to Jumpstart, go to jstart.org or contact the project manager Jeanette Estrada at jestrad8@depaul.edu

• 

  To interact or not interact: How Perceptions of University Support for Students During the Pandemic impacted School Sense of Belonging​

  Helena Lucia Swanson, Abigail Adan, Natalie Gasterland, and Jacoby Weston

  Previous literature found that a lack sense of school belonging is related to negative academic performance prior to the pandemic. The pandemic and transitioning to remote learning has changed students' perceptions of school belongingness such that there is an increased sense of disconnect from the university and feelings of isolation among students. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between students’ sense of belonging before and during the pandemic and how perceptions of university support of students during the pandemic may have impacted sense of belonging. Findings indicate that there was a significant interaction between sense of belonging and perception of university support for students during the pandemic; such that students that had a lower sense of belonging prior to pandemic and disagreed to university support, drastically decreased in their sense of belonging post COVID. Students that felt the university did support students during the pandemic had a slight increase in sense of school belongingness over time. Universities should seek to foster an environment that embodies a strong sense of belongingness, especially during the pandemic and remote learning.

• 

  Openness in Evaluating Job Applicants with Disabilities Versus Those Without Disabilities

  Meridith Townsend

  Previous studies have shown that people with a disability historically have had struggles in hiring and selection processes. Some research has hinted at a possible connection between the type of disability an individual has in relation to whether or not he or she moves forward in the selection process (Gouvier, 2003). It has also been found that people in the position to hire often find themselves struggling between wanting to be inclusive and welcoming to all, but still under pressure from subliminal forces to possibly not hire a person with a disability (Araten-Bergam, 2016). The study explores the current social perception and openness in hiring a person with a disability and determine if people’s opinion towards a person with a disability has changed. The four levels being evaluated were: paralysis, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Autism Spectrum Disorder, or no disability. The hypothesis is people with a disability will be less often asked to move forward in the hiring process as compared to their able-bodied peers. After conducting a one-way between subject ANOVA, it was discovered that there appears to be no substantial difference in hiring people without a disability compared to those with a disability.

• 

  Interning with the CITIES Project & DePaul's Family & Community Services (FCS)

  Brashana Trammell

  The presentation will provide an insight to prospective DePaul’s Family and Community Services (FCS) interns about the agency. FCS is a clinic at DePaul University that strives to uplift and assist children and their families that experience various mental health problems. Spheres in which FCS works to help children and their families are all derived from evidence-based techniques fueled with a stout awareness of the children's culture. Children and families that frequent FCS have access to various services including different forms of counseling, psychotherapy services, testing/evaluations, and school programs, just to name a few. A school program at FCS that promotes mentorship connections is the CITIES Project. The CITIES Project seeks to assist Chicago school children from various age groups living in neighborhoods with a low socioeconomic status. The children are served through the various activities and lessons that school liaisons, supervisors, and mentors hold. Activities include various art, media, physical activity, and STEM-related projects to help promote the children’s emotional well-being. Information regarding FCS and the CITIES Project’s mission, description, intern responsibilities, and more are also communicated in the presentation. The presentation will conclude with a discussion about the steps needed to apply and the interview process for prospective FCS interns.

• 

  PSY-395 Class Advocacy Project

  Miguel Angel Vazquez

  This presentation will describe an internship experience within the PSY-395 Class Advocacy Project. The mission of the Class Advocacy Project is to advocate for mental health awareness. Mental health is often disregarded within society and the mission of this project is to detail how mental health stability is essential for an individual to prosper within society. The services offered within this internship is mental health advocacy through social media platforms, mental health support, and academic guidance. The social media platform that was used in this project was Instagram and there were various posts created through the social media page that detailed information on mental health awareness, social injustices, and social justice frameworks. Moreover, the mental health support service entailed creating a safe space for the population the interns served. Lastly, the academic guidance service offered assistance on resumes, applications for scholarships and colleges, curriculum-based issues (e.g., math, science, reading, and writing), and/or peer-review processes. Additionally, the interns participated in extensive self-reflection activities and self-educating activities which furthered their knowledge on the population they served. The population the Class Advocacy Project served were BIPOC youth whose ages ranged from 12-18 years old. This presentation will conclude with the appropriate application information for future interns.