Expert Corner

Should mentors be compensated? Two experts weigh in

Professor Timothy Cavell is the  Director of the Center for Research on Aggression and Victimization (CRAV). Primarily, CRAV’s researchers are interested in the development of effective interventions for school age children that may be on their way to having problems as they grow. Sometimes it makes sense to compensate mentors Do you think that mentors […]

Commentary on CDC Report Finds Alarming Levels of Mental Health Symptoms in High School Students

By Alexandra Werntz, Ph.D. On February 13, 2023, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention  results of a survey conducted with American high school students in the fall of 2021. According to the data, the kids are not alright.   More specifically, the report highlights three major takeaways:  “New CDC report raises urgency to invest in […]

Rooted in Relationships Podcast series with guest Jean Rhodes: Mentorship is a rich opportunity for positive development from youth to adulthood

Episode 2.6 – Jean Rhodes – Mentorship is a rich opportunity for positive development from youth to adulthood The mentor-mentee relationship can be particularly rich for both individuals. Mentors can connect mentees with opportunities and guide them through important educational, professional and personal stages in their lives. In this episode of Rooted in Relationships, former […]

How Mentors Support Young Adults as They Gain Awareness of Societal Inequality and Engage in Social Action

Authors: Lidia Y. Monjaras-Gaytan & Bernadette Sánchez Young people have been at the forefront of many sociopolitical issues — whether they are protesting, getting involved with community organizing, sharing their views on social issues on social media, or simply challenging their friends’ racist opinions. They are demonstrating that at a young age, they are becoming […]

Winner takes all?: Mentoring programs in the age of inequality

By Jean Rhodes In his recent best-selling book, Winner Takes All, writer Anand Giridharadas sheds light on the complexities and potentially self-serving nature of focusing on individual solutions and one-off opportunities in an unjust world. Through this lens, private solutions, including youth programs that promote skills, can be seen as a counteroffer to essentially public […]

Building Relationships with Diverse Learners

Meet Laura Tollis, an 8th-grade teacher who co-teaches math, social studies, language arts and whose primary focus is supporting students with special needs. She describes how she builds relationships with all the students in her class, and offers tips to connect better with those who have diverse needs and invisible disabilities: When I set out […]

On Methods: What’s a meta-analysis, anyways?

  by Adar Ben-Eliyahu, Assistant Professor, University of Haifa There is often considerable fanfare when a new meta-analysis is published. What’s the excitement about anyways? Don’t most meta-analyses seem to be saying things we already know from previous research? This is somewhat true, as meta-analyses summarize previous research findings. However, in contrast to a review, […]

The youth mental health crisis is real, but teachers can’t solve it alone

By David B. Shapiro and Stephanie M. Jones, Reprinted from The Hill The U.S. surgeon general this month issued a stark warning about the state of mental health among America’s youth. Citing mounting evidence that the COVID-19 pandemic has contributed to social isolation, feelings of hopelessness, and self-harm among adolescents, his public health advisory urged […]

The end of the Build Back Better is a gut punch to kids and poor familie

By Stephen Seligman (OpEd, reposted from the San Francisco Chronicle) On Sunday, Democratic West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin announced that he would vote no on President Biden’s Build Back Better plan. The key holdout in a 50-50 Senate, Manchin’s lack of support, with no Republicans willing to break party lines, makes it all but impossible […]

When COVID robbed children of their friendships, learning suffered

By Caitlin McDermott-Murphy, Reprinted from The Harvard Gazette After the pandemic closed schools last year, hospitals saw a surge in mental health-related emergency visits among children 18 and under. The statistics have been grim enough that a large cohort of the nation’s top pediatricians recently declared a “national emergency” in child and adolescent mental health. […]