April 19, 2024
See Julie's poster here.
As a current CoE trainee and former LEAP scholar, it was such an honor to attend and present at the 2024 Annual Maternal Child Health Programs Conference. As a volunteer for the event, as well as a poster presenter, I was able to connect with so many different MCAH leaders and organizations from around the country. As a prior Title V intern, I was able to meet folks I worked with in person for the first time, which was a beautiful experience!
Apart from being invited to the conference as a volunteer, I was also selected to present my capstone research as a poster presenter. I was selected as a presenter for the mental & behavioral health track to discuss my research on the associations of mental health & higher education outcomes among California foster youth. My research is so important to me - partly because foster youth mental health/educational outcomes are under researched, and because this research is so integral to my lived identities. As a former foster youth myself, I have experienced the direct impacts of mental health and how this impacts the ability to succeed in higher education. Being able to highlight foster youth as an integral MCAH population was so impactful, and I hope it inspires MCAH professionals to continue to focus on this population and their diverse mental health & educational needs.
Thank you to UC Berkeley's MCAH program, as well as UC Berkeley's School of Social Welfare program, for supporting me in presenting at this conference. I plan for this research to be a stepping stone to improving mental health and higher education outcomes among foster youth. You can view my research poster here. And please feel free to connect with me via LinkedIn.
