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| My poster and I are ready for PASSHE Summit 2024 |
Good afternoon beautiful people,
I have had a marathon week since last Tuesday when I did the full day Youth Mental Health First Aider training. Wednesday to Sunday was one long day largely made up of editing my poster - which has existed in versions ranging from final/final with last edits to final with last edits ready for printing (how else do you name these final versions). This was followed by 2 days of PASSHE Summit 2024 where I presented said poster.
If you were here last year, you followed along my almost PASSHE Summit 2023 experience. I documented everything from when I started toying around with the idea of turning one of my class papers into a proposal for the summit, to sending a poster proposal on Institutional Betrayal in relation to (Black African) international students which was accepted and working on the poster. Unfortunately I couldn’t make it to the Summit due to last minute logistical issues.
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| PASSHE Summit 2024 Venue - Millersville, October 2024 |
For the newbies, PASSHE stands for Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, and every year it organizes a summit that brings together all the 10 or so public universities in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (I gave a lengthier explanation about it and the Summit in last year’s blogpost).
First forward to this year, and I submitted another poster proposal, this time focusing on loneliness and isolation in relation to non-traditional students.
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| Name tags and other stackable identification tags - Millersville, October 2024 |
As you all know I went back to school in my late 30s, so being an ‘older/mature’ student + international + student of color + first generation + commuter + other classifications I fall under, I check so many boxes of what Higher Ed calls non-traditional.
You may also know that I am interested in health disparities and help seeking behaviors and the concepts of happiness, addiction and suicide. Research shows a correlation between sense of unbelonging, loneliness and isolation with depression and suicidal ideations.
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| Day 1 Bathroom Selfie - Millersville, October 2024 |
In academia, the numbers are high in students who cannot find their place. Those were the ‘subjects’ of my literature review, and it was interesting to get some of the theories on why some students are traditional and some non traditional, and the whole in group/out group spin that contributes to unbelonging.
Instead of going on and on about the what happened or didn’t happen, I will share my top three highlights from the Summit.
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| One of best discussions was by Alexis from Slippery Rock University who highlighted the role student activism played in the school embracing diversity. It may have taken 10 years but it has gotten tangible impact - Millersville, October 2024 |
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| Liked this poster presentation by Dr Gill from West Chester University on podcasts as additional learning/teaching tools. As we chatted, I shared my experience from a non fiction class I took - the Professor used Untitled Dad Project as one of the instruction guides - and how the podcast enhanced our participation and learning |
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| If I was to give gold stars, this presentation by students from Bloomberg University gets the crown. They introduced us to an amazing mentoring and community project they are part of. They then went ahead to give first hand accounts of the impact one professor who cares enough to walk with students who are struggling has had on them and their peers. Shout out to Mr Ralph and the amazing work he does through the Emerging Scholars Program (more info about the J.Cole video in the next caption). |
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| Beside all the usual academic study (time management, study skills etc) they also do check in activities that range from journaling, listening to music and sharing what comes up for them (we listened to J.Cole’s Neighbors - won’t lie it was my first time listening to it), to complimenting each other (which we did and it felt nice to give and receive compliments)…and creating albums. Based on my poster - my album title (rewind), dedicated to (older/returning students), lyrics (it will be hard at times but it is worth it) |
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| At the end of Day 1, I picked up my poster from the printing lab and made sure it was ready for presentation |
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| Screen grab of my session from the Summit’s app - bright and early on Day 2 |
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| There it is…lonely, isolated and lacking the sense of belonging - Millersville, October 2024 |
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| I leave you with this quote from a slide by Day 2’s keynote speaker - Millersville, October |
I am not sure where my next poster presentation will be, but having done two poster presentations this year (here is my first), I definitely feel more confident in my poster proposal, preparation and presenting skills…and look forward to venturing beyond Pennsylvania to present.
Until the next post.
Sending love and light,
Sitawa
