The Steve Fund – a nonprofit dedicated to improving mental health for students of color – is hosting a series of on-campus, daylong conferences called “Young, Gifted and @Risk.”
Each conference will bring faculty, administration, students and mental health experts together for in-depth discussions on the emotional well-being of minority students.
The first conference in the series took place this Thursday at the University of Michigan, and two more will convene at Georgetown University and the City University of New York (CUNY) next month, on Nov. 1 and Nov. 15 respectively.
While all of the conferences focus on the same broader theme, the Steve Fund worked with each school to create a conference agenda tailored to their interests.
The program “depends on what the desire is of that particular campus,” said Dr. Annelle Primm, chief medical officer at the Steve Fund. “We work in close collaboration with them in designing the program and in ensuring that some of the key issues of concern on that campus are highlighted and uplifted.”
University of Michigan’s conference “Young, Gifted, @Risk & Resilient” focused on how campus climate impacts mental health for students of color. One panel, for example, delved into the effect microaggressions can have on minority students while another dealt with how to respond to racial biases in higher education.
At Georgetown University, the “Young, Gifted and Advancing” conference will emphasize how students’ mental health and emotional wellbeing affect persistence rates among students of color.
