April 2024 Newsletter

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The Chris Walsh Center is excited to announce the last three events in our 2023-2024 speaker series. In April, Hannah Rubbio, LMHC will be presenting Teaching Happiness: Practices to Support Our Wellbeing and Becca Gibson, LICSW will be presenting Breaking Stereotypes: Understanding Varied ADHD Expressions in Youth. To wrap up the series we will host our final talk in June, with Dr. Chu Ly discussing Unlocking Potential: Nurturing Multimodal Learning and Play with Children. So, Make sure you keep up to date with all of our upcoming offerings by being subscribed to this newsletter and following us on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

At Teaching Happiness: Practices to Support Our Wellbeing Hannah Rubio, LMHC will briefly overview the study of Positive Psychology and a definition of happiness. Then she'll introduce specific behaviors, thoughts, and feelings you can practice to impact your happiness.

Hannah Rubio is a School Adjustment Counselor at a local public high school where she provides mental health support to students and co-teaches a class titled “Psychology and the Good Life.”. After starting her career in human resources at a financial services company, she quickly realized she did not feel a sense of purpose and fulfillment in her work. Ultimately, she went to graduate school where she majored in Clinical Mental Health Counseling with a focus on School and Community Counseling. She is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor and has a small private practice providing young adults with therapeutic support. As of 2024, she is also an instructor in the Counseling Psychology Graduate Program at Framingham State University.

When: Wednesday, May 8th, 7:00 to 8:30

Who: Hannah Rubio

Where: Online Webinar hosted by the Chris Walsh Center

To register for Teaching Happiness: Practices to Support Our Wellbeing, and learn more about Hannah Rubio, LMHC CLICK HERE. If you know someone who would benefit from attending this event, please feel free to forward this email, as well as share the included social media tile.

Join us on Thursday, May 30th for Breaking Stereotypes: Understanding Varied ADHD Expressions in Youth with Becca Gibson, LICSW. Becca is a dynamic presenter who combines lived experience, research, and hands-on therapeutic practice to delve into the often-overlooked realm of youth who present with non-stereotypical ADHD traits. Becca will discuss different profiles of ADHD, the intersection of ADHD with other identities, why ADHD is often misidentified in those socialized as girls, and signs you can look for to reduce disparities in ADHD identification. Along with providing valuable information about both the short and long-term impact of unsupported ADHD traits, Becca will offer you practical suggestions for supporting these youth both at home and in the classroom.

Becca Gibson (they/she), LICSW, LCSW-C, is an Autistic and ADHD licensed independent clinical social worker, as well as the founder and owner of Wired Differently Therapy, a private practice serving clients in the states of Maryland and Massachusetts. After spending years working in special education, Becca began a career in social work with a specialization helping neurodiverse couples, families, and neurodivergent individuals through a neurodiversity affirming lens. Becca’s clinical work focuses on Autistics and ADHDers – especially those who are considered “gifted”, or “twice-exceptional” – and the intersection of LGBTQIA+ identities and neurodivergence. In addition to their work as a therapist, Becca provides professional development training, clinical consultation, and clinical supervision.

When: Thursday, May 30th, 7:00 to 8:30

Who: Becca Gibson, LICSW

Where: Online Webinar hosted by the Chris Walsh Center

To register for Breaking Stereotypes: Understanding Varied ADHD Expressions in Youth, and learn more about Becca Gibson, LISCW, CLICK HERE. If you know someone who would benefit from attending this event, please feel free to forward this email, as well as share the included social media tile.

Join us for the final event in the Chris Walsh Center's eight part speaker series on building family resiliency, Unlocking Potential: Nurturing Multimodal Learning and Play with Children with Dr. Chu Ly, taking place Wednesday, June 5th at 7:00 PM.

Our children engage in rich, meaning-making experiences at home and in their communities. Children make sense of the world around them through multiple modes such as linguistic, visual, aural, spatial, and gestural, and the interplay of these modalities. Attend this workshop to explore how your children navigate their world - online and in-person through these modalities and how we, as educators and caregivers, can cultivate this learning at home and in schools. Join us as we delve into multimodal learning by first learning from our children by drawing upon their knowledge and insights and then providing practical insights into incorporating a more playful and joyful learning experience. Click Here to register.

More about Dr. Chu Ly: Dr. Ly teaches undergraduate courses in foundations of education, literacy, and child and family studies. She worked previously as an early childhood teacher in a bilingual school in Shanghai, China and as an administrator in Boston Public Schools. Dr. Ly’s research interests are focused on equity and social justice for young children through digital literacy, critical perspectives in children’s and young adult literature, critical pedagogy, bilingual education, and teacher education. She lives in Boston with her husband and two curious little humans. She enjoys reading, cooking, spinning, and wondering about the world with her children.

When: Wednesday, June 5th, 7:00 to 8:30

Who: Dr. Chu Ly

Where: Online Webinar hosted by the Chris Walsh Center

Registration: CLICK HERE

To register for Unlocking Potential: Nurturing Multimodal Learning and Play with Children with Dr. Chu Ly, CLICK HERE. Likewise, if you know someone who would benefit from attending this event, please feel free to forward this email, as well as share the included social media tile.

After these events, the Chris Walsh Center will be hosting three discussion groups. By taking part in a discussion group, you will have the opportunity to talk with other attendees about what you learned, how it may apply to your family relationships or the classroom, as well as brainstorm with others any challenges you may be facing regarding implementation of the skills and strategies presented. This will give you the chance to not only learn new strategies from these incredible presenters, but also to directly engage with the material and explore how to get the most out of these tools for you and your family.

To register for the . . .

Teaching Happiness: Practices to Support Our Wellbeing Discussion Group on Wednesday, May 22nd at 7:00 PM CLICK HERE.

Breaking Stereotypes: Understanding Varied ADHD Expressions in Youth Discussion Group on Thursday, June 13th at 7:00 PM CLICK HERE.

Unlocking Potential: Nurturing Multimodal Learning and Play with Children Discussion Group on Wednesday, June 12th at 7:00 PM CLICK HERE.

We look forward to seeing you there!

The Chris Walsh Center supported Accepted Students Day by greeting incoming students and providing them with the opportunity to learn about our center, as well as the other eight on campus centers where students can work to gain experience in a variety of fields.

Photo Above: from left to right Mckaylee Salazar, Dr. Susan Dargan, Mandy Taylor, Laura Hudock, & Selin Atkas

Join us in celebrating Natalie McCollam, Graduate Assistant for the Chris Walsh Center, for her induction into the Framingham State University Chapter of the Phi Kappa Phi Honors Society on April 18th alongside fellow inductees, Catie Ashe, a previous intern for the Chris Walsh Center, Mariah Mackenzie, and Elizabeth Kolenda. Natalie marked this proud moment, reflecting on her inspiring journey. Overcoming challenges of undiagnosed ADHD and being unsupported in primary school, Natalie returned to school three years ago with the goal of becoming a neurodiversity-affirming licensed mental health counselor. Natalie's journey led to her recognition as one of the top 10% of all graduate students across disciplines at Framingham State University. Looking back, Natalie highlighted the importance of academic and mental health support, self-acceptance, and a supportive community. As Natalie continues her path, she remains committed to providing support to neurodivergent clients, drawing from her own experiences, as well as her education, to guide and inspire others. Congratulations Natalie on this incredible achievement!

The Chris Walsh Center is incredibly proud of all three of our undergraduate interns, all of whom will be graduating this May, 2024. They have been wonderful assets to our team. We are sure they will continue to shine as they move into the next chapter of their lives.

Alana is graduating from Framingham State University this spring with a major in Psychology and minors in Neuroscience, Statistics, and STEM. During the Fall 2023 Semester, she completed McLean's MENTOR program, a collaboration between McLean Hospital, Framingham State University, and Bridgewater University. This program offers mentorship to undergraduates interested in mental health care or research, with a focus on historically excluded groups in academic psychiatry, psychology, and related fields. Alana's participation in the MENTOR program sparked her interest in becoming a Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner. This summer, she will continue to work as a Security Desk Attendant at Framingham State University while applying and preparing to begin a direct-entry nursing program in January 2025.

Mckaylee is earning her Bachelor of Science degree and majoring in Fashion Design & Retailing with a concentration in Apparel Design. Last spring, she received the Arlene Handschuch Scholarship Award at the Student Recognition and Awards ceremony shortly after completing her apparel design portfolio and presenting her garments in the FSU fashion show. Her goal is to build her brand and ultimately sell the clothing she makes.

Denarie is earning his Bachelor’s Degree in Criminology with a minor in Sociology. He made the Dean’s List last semester, and he hopes to do it once more as this semester comes to a close. His goal is to be a therapist while also understanding criminal profiling.

The Chris Walsh Center is looking for two Framingham State University undergraduate interns to work for the center during the Fall 2024 semester. Interning at the center is an amazing opportunity to improve your advocacy skills, learn how to create positive change, and improve the lives of families and children with disabilities. The Chris Walsh Center is dedicated to the growth of all of our student interns, work study students, and graduate assistants. Interns collaborate with the Chris Walsh Center to choose a semester long project that serves the families and educators of Massachusetts, while also incorporating the interests of the student. Likewise, the center is committed to equity. Therefore, all of our interns are paid for their time.

If you would like to learn more about the Chris Walsh Center, please check out our website at https://www.chriswalshcenter.org.

To apply to intern at the Chris Walsh Center, please CLICK HERE.

If your are an educator at Framingham State University and you know a student who this may be a good fit for, please share this opportunity with them.

Thank you for your time and interest. We hope you'll choose to join our team and make a difference with the Chris Walsh Center.

The Chris Walsh Center's eight-part speaker series on building family resilience has been packed with information and strategies designed to help caregivers support their children as they learn and grow. To date, the series has included talks on how to work with schools to support children who need a 504a or an IEP, how to talk to kids in ways that boost their participation in the discussion, how to support adolescents as they transition to college, how to support siblings of students with disabilities, and how to boost social emotional learning. Coming up, the Center will host presentations on how to identify and support autism and ADHD in people with nontraditional presentations, as well as talks on positive psychology, and how to support multimodal learning. It is our goal to make this valuable information accessible to as many people as possible. As such, we are proud to announce that subtitles for the first five presentations in this series have been translated into Spanish, with the rest to follow. To access the videos in Spanish please Click Here and take these steps:

For the Youtube subtitle instructions, viewers can find the translated subtitles by clicking the Settings tool (⚙️), then the “Subtitles/CC” section, then the “auto-translate” where you can find all of the subtitle options in alphabetical order, including Spanish and Portuguese. The Chris Walsh Center's Spanish translator, Makaylee Salazar, has reviewed all of the subtitles in Spanish for the videos in this series to ensure they are correct. However, YouTube will automatically generate subtitles in over 100 languages allowing people to enable them in their preferred language.

La serie de ocho sesiones de discursos del Centro Chris Walsh sobre el desarrollo de la resiliencia familiar ha estado repleta de información y estrategias diseñadas para ayudar a los cuidadores a apoyar a sus hijos mientras aprenden y crecen. Hasta la fecha, la serie ha incluido charlas sobre cómo trabajar con las escuelas para apoyar a los niños que necesitan un 504a o un IEP, cómo hablar con los niños de manera que aumenten su apoyar a los adolescentes en su transición a la universidad, cómo apoyar a los hermanos de estudiantes con discapacidades, y cómo identificar y apoyar el autismo y el TDAH en personas con presentaciones no tradicionales, así como charlas sobre psicología positiva y sobre cómo apoyar el aprendizaje multimodal. Nuestro objetivo es poner esta valiosa información al alcance del mayor número de personas posible. Por ello, nos enorgullece anunciar que se han traducido al español los subtítulos de las cinco primeras presentaciones de esta serie, a las que seguirán el resto. Para acceder a los vídeos en español, haga clic aquí y siga estos pasos:

Para las instrucciones de subtítulos de Youtube, los espectadores pueden encontrar los subtítulos traducidos haciendo clic en la herramienta de configuracion (⚙️), luego en la sección “Subtítulos/CC”, luego en la “auto-traducción” donde se puede encontrar todas las opciones de subtitulos en orden alfabético, incluyendo español y portugués. La traductora al español del Centro Chris Walsh, McKaylee Salazar, ha revisado todos los subtítulos en español de los vídeos de esta serie para asegurarse de que son correctos. No obstante, YouTube generará automáticamente subtítulos en más de 100 idiomas para que los usuarios pueden actuvarlos en su lengua preferida.

Throughout the school year the Chris Walsh Center offers free consultations for caregivers. However, the center is going on summer break starting May 6th, 2024 and will return to offer this valuable service in September.

In honor of National Autism Acceptance Month this April, we're excited to spotlight the Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN). ASAN is a nonprofit organization led by autistic people, dedicated to ensuring that autistic people enjoy equal access, rights, and opportunities. On their website, you'll find ASAN's comprehensive resource library, featuring a wide range of valuable materials including books, COVID-19 resources, reports, brief materials, toolkits, accessibility resources, and self-advocacy guides. Be sure to also check out the rest of the website to explore ASAN's definition of autism, insightful blogs, and opportunities to get involved. Visit ASAN's website to access these invaluable resources and learn how you can contribute to creating a more accepting world for autistic individuals.

Mission: To provide information for families and educators about the continuum of educational support available to students with disabilities, students who are gifted, and students with unmet needs. The center will offer support, workshops and other programming for families, educators, student support professionals, administrators, and advocates in the MetroWest area. The center also will engage in scholarly research, educator preparation, and professional development.

Email: chriswalshcenter@framingham.edu
Website: https://linktr.ee/chriswalshcenter
Location: 100 State Street, Framingham, MA, USA
Phone: (508) 215-5630