When I think of the word “awesome” I typically associate it with words like “amazing” and “excellent”. However, when I think about the word a bit longer, I realize that these synonyms do not do it justice. When you break the word “awesome” down, you encounter the word “awe”. To say something is “great” or “fabulous” is to hold it in high regard and enjoy it; to say something is awe-inspiring is to feel profoundly moved and humbled in a deep way. This summer, presenting a poster at the Society for Community Research and Action (SCRA) Biennial Conference was, quite literally, awesome.

When I joined the Residential Child Care Project (RCCP) team as a research assistant at the beginning of junior year, Dr. Izzo, Senior Research Associate at RCCP and my research mentor, sat down with me and asked what my post graduation plans were. I told him I intended to apply to clinical psychology doctoral programs. In the future, I hope to practice as a clinical psychologist specializing in the mitigation of adolescent trauma. Hearing this, Dr. Izzo declared that he would help me to advance this goal by supporting my growth as a scholar within the field of clinical psychology. I was excited about this opportunity to engage with RCCP’s work while also exploring my own research interests in understanding the mechanisms of trauma in adolescence. From then on, the team at RCCP and I got to work on the burgeoning endeavor that would culminate in a poster presentation entitled “Relationship Quality Predicts Child Social Emotional Functioning in Residential Care Settings”. We investigated how an individual’s biological makeup predict child functioning and whether relationships with caregivers in group homes remain predictive of child functioning. Our findings highlighted the importance of strong relationships within a child’s proximal environment for predicting that child’s wellbeing. In particular, relationships among children and direct care providers are important and a promising target for intervention.

It was an absolute privilege to see all of our months of weekly meetings and hours in between spent investigating pay off at the conference. I felt honored to have the opportunity to spend a week surrounded by some of the most passionate, driven, and intelligent people I have ever met. When I arrived at the pre-conference session, I was pleasantly surprised to have a plethora of friendly faces approach me and introduce themselves, as well as inquire about me and my story. I was in disbelief that these accomplished researchers, professors, and changemakers were genuinely curious about the work RCCP and I were doing. It was empowering and motivating to be able to chat with them regarding our shared interests.

Over the course of the next few days, I attended nearly a dozen sessions and often found myself struggling to choose between multiple enticing options, ranging from “Youth-focused Interventions: Lessons learned from multiple programs” to “Housing First for Youth: How youth begin to think about their future”. I was blown away by the caliber of the talks and the facility with which each and every one was delivered. With each successive workshop, I became simultaneously more excited and apprehensive about my poster presentation. Fortunately, the poster session was a success, and I cannot thank PRYDE and RCCP enough for the guidance and support that empowered me to disseminate my research. In the hour that was allocated for the presentations, multiple attendees took pictures of my poster and asked me insightful questions regarding my work. Being able to share my findings with the community was exhilarating. Attending SCRA an invaluable experience and has encouraged me to further pursue research after graduation. I am eager to continue learning about how traumatic experiences in early childhood can inform the developmental process and eventually be able to develop effective interventions for youth.