“Risk of School Dropout For Boricua Youth in the U.S. and Puerto Rico” will be presented as part of the symposium, “Adolescents at Risk” at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association in New York City on April 16, 2018. Co-authors with Dr. Michelle Porche include Sarah Mejia, doctoral student at BU SED, Dr. Lisa Fortuna at BMC, and Dr. Ye Wang, Dr. Kiara Alvarez, and Dr. Margarita Alegria at Harvard University/MGH.

On May 15, Professor Michelle Porche and Counseling Psychology doctoral student Sarah Anais Mejia were part of an invited Presidential Symposium, “Translating the Evidence for the Next Generation: Addressing the Mental Health of Youth and Emerging Adults of Color.” Chaired by Dr. Lisa Fortuna of the Boston Medical Center, the symposium was part of the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association in Atlanta, GA.

Professor Porche and Ms. Mejia’s talk, entitled “Why Capable Young People Struggle: Educational Attainment and Mental Health in Communities of Color,” highlighted Professor Porche’s recently published research on early trauma and associations with academic outcomes. It also touched on preliminary results of speakers’ currently-in-progress work conducting a secondary analysis of data from the Boricua Youth Study.

The Boricua Youth Study is a longitudinal study of the development and mental health of Puerto Rican children living in the Bronx and in Puerto Rico headed by Principal Investigator Dr. Margarita Alegria at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. The analysis being conducted in collaboration with Dr. Alegria and researchers at MGH investigates risk of high school dropout for Puerto Rican youth exposed to school violence and other trauma experiences.

Boston University’s School of Education and College of Communication jointly hosted this year’s Educational Writers Association (EWA) National Seminar. Beginning on May 1, Over 600 journalists and education experts participated in three days of engagement and discussion of issues related to the seminar’s theme, “The Quest for Quality and Equity.”

Dr. Michelle Porche, Clinical Associate Professor in Counseling Psychology & Applied Human Development at the School of Education, joined a panel discussing the documentary Paper Tigers at 1:30 PM on May 1. The documentary looks at students at a Washington state alternative high school that focuses on educating traumatized young people, exploring what happens to children exposed to chronic stress. Filmmaker James Redford answered questions related to the film and the issues it presents; the panel discussion, moderated by Washington Post reporter Michael Alison Chandler and also including researcher Amanda Moreno from the Erikson Institute, explored relevant research on trauma, stress and learning.