Virginia Governor's o ce hosts mental health forum on campus

Wednesday, March 29, the o ce of Virginia

Governor Glenn Youngkin hosted a discussion forum at the College of William and Mary on mental health in the state’s education system in Sadler Tidewater. e event, titled “ e Pursuit of Calm: e Mental Health Landscape of the Pandemic-Endemic Era,” hosted leaders from K-12 and postsecondary schools across Virginia. Attendees included Youngkin and First Lady of Virginia Suzanne Youngkin, Secretary of Education Aimee Rogstad Guidera and Secretary of Health and Human Resources and Board of Visitors member John E. Littel P ’22.

In December, Youngkin introduced “Right Help, Right Now,” a six-pillared approach to address Virginia’s behavioral health challenges. e threeyear comprehensive plan invests more than $230 million in the state’s behavioral health system.

“Right here today, we are going to be helping him realize that plan,” College President Katherine Rowe said.

In her opening remarks, Rowe noted the importance of tackling the mental health crisis.

“Addressing mental health among children and young adults is among the most pressing challenges for educators in the U.S. and those who lead in every sector,” Rowe said.

Rowe also discussed the di culties educators face in addressing the mental health crisis.

“ e challenge of the work that we’re doing together is that it’s really pretty new,” Rowe said. “ is is not work that I was trained to do when I began my career, and I imagine that’s also true for every leader here.” things right.” e challenges that we have, which manifest themselves in statistical data, re ect the realities of loneliness and depression, suicidal thoughts, anxiety,” Youngkin said. “For very few, sadly, tragically, the response can turn to violence. Harming themselves, harming others. Nowhere has this been more apparent than the horri c murders in Charlottesville, Chesapeake, now tragically in Tennessee. I'd suggest that there's no one in this room for whom this is not personal, deeply personal.”

Rowe commended Youngkin and other political leaders for their dedication to mental health.

“With the governor's leadership and bipartisan support, Virginia is poised to allocate record funding for youth mental health services this year,” Rowe said.

Littel explained that the discussion forum will help inform the Governor’s o ce and its decisionmaking for future state-wide initiatives.

America’s state rankings, which places Virginia at 48th in the nation in youth mental health. He also tied the mental health crisis to recent instances of gun violence.

Youngkin detailed the six pillars to his “Right Help, Right Now” plan. However, Youngkin said he rst needs the Virginia General Assembly to pass the state budget.

“I need senators, delegates to come together, I need Republicans and Democrats to come together and deliver the budget,” Youngkin said. “And we will press forward with the most aggressive transformation of our behavioral health system in the entire nation. We believe we will provide that North Star that other states can be guided by.”

Guidera and Littel also provided opening remarks to set the tone for the day. Guidera speci cally emphasized the importance of the discussion forum in guiding future actions on mental health.

“Today is all about learning from you and catching your voices,” Guidera said. “ ese two issues of education and mental health are the Governor’s two priority issues. He knows that Virginia will not be the greatest place to live, work and raise a family if we do not get these two

“We have a number of initiatives that we’re working on for this year, but we’re also trying to develop what’s in next year’s plan,” Littel said.

Littel introduced Associate Vice President for Health and Wellness and Director of Center for Mindfulness and Authentic Excellence Kelly Crace, who discussed the new challenges facing students today.

Following Crace’s discussion, Rowe introduced Youngkin for the keynote speech. During his speech, Youngkin cited Mental Health

After his speech, Youngkin spoke with The Flat Hat about the key elements of “Right Help, Right Now,” and how its policies can improve students’ mental health.

“I believe that particularly for students, making sure we fund expansion of access is really important,” he said. “One of the more important parts of the plan is to take the telehealth part of the plan and spread it across all universities and colleges in our public schools in Virginia.”

College hosts largest Lemon Project Symposium to date

Friday, March 24 and Saturday, March 25, the College of William and Mary hosted the 13th annual Lemon Project Spring symposium titled “At the Root: Exploring Black Life, History, and Culture” at the School of Education and online over Zoom. The event was the largest Lemon Project symposium since its inception in 2009, with over 700 people registered to attend in-person and online.

The event featured remarks from Robert Francis Engs Lemon Project Director Jody Allen, College Provost Peggy Agouris and Judge John Charles Thomas HON ʼ18. Over two days, the symposium presented 20 panel discussions on topics such as Black church history in Virginiaʼs Historic Triangle, the Braxton descendents, Black communities displaced in Colonial Williamsburg and navigation of Black culture today.

“Acquiring knowledge about African American history is becoming more and more challenging,” Allen said. “Because of this, it is clear that establishing alternative venues to obtain this history is vital. That said, it is imperative that you share with your community what you learn this weekend.”

Agouris thanked the Lemon Project team and emphasized the importance of the projectʼs presence on the Collegeʼs campus. She also thanked the Williamsburg and Hampton Roads community members that have contributed to the project.

MOLLY PARKS // FLAT HAT EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Alynn Parham M.A. Ed ’18 found her future at the podium of her eighth grade classroom with the help of her social studies teacher, Mr. Yunker.

“He noticed I had a love for history and one day, I think as a joke, he was like ‘Parham, why don’t you take the podium and why don’t you teach?’,” Parham said. “I thought, ‘You know what? I like this.’”

A fth-generation educator and product of public school education, Parham teaches social studies at Jamestown High School. Her current courses include World History II, World Geography and African American History.

“I’ve had teaching in my blood since… forever,” Parham said. “On top of that, education is a very important aspect in our family. Both of my grandparents went o to college. Both my parents, they’re professors, they have their Ph.D.s. Even my great grandparents went o to college.”

Parham noted how her grandparents’ dynamic with each of their students inspired her to see the potential that the student-teacher relationship has to positively shape students’ lives.

“I’ve been very blessed to have education as an important aspect in our family household on top of teaching,” Parham said. “Even to this day, their students still say, ‘If it wasn’t for Mr. Cain or Ms. Cain, I wouldn’t be where I was today.’ So seeing that growing up, made me want to be like them.”

At age 27, Parham has already made her mark not only at Jamestown High School, but on public education at a national level. She is the president of the local Williamsburg/James City County Education Association, the president of District P of the Virginia Education Association, and serves on the VEA Board of Directors for District P, which spans from Henrico to Hampton and includes 21 di erent locals.

Parham’s passion for educator unionization originally stemmed from her grandparents and her time spent as an undergraduate student at Virginia State University.

“Between the school of ed at VSU and my grandparents, they emphasize the extreme importance of joining the education association,” Parham said. “Whenever you walk into that classroom, you need to have that union card or badge on you for a variety of reasons — whether it’s resources, health, legal liability and so forth.” e WJCCEA elected Parham as their local president during only her third year of teaching. She discussed how this role has helped her grow in her career and in her personal skills.

“Education union president has helped me become a better teacher because our state union provides a lot of professional development,” Parham said. “ ey have their own teaching and learning section within the state union so you can get PD for your job. It’s also helped me become a better leader, not just for the union but for myself. Like advocating for what I would need in my classroom for my students. And that is something that I will forever acknowledge and recognize that, if I had not been the union president, I don’t think that I would have been as strong a leader for myself.” roughout her incumbency as both the local and district president, Parham has traveled to local, regional, state and national conferences to meet and collaborate with other educators. March 10-12, Parham was one of about a dozen educators from the state to attend a leadership summit for the National Education Association in San Francisco, CA.

“I think sometimes you don’t realize there are other people just like you on the West Coast or in Hawaii or in Alaska,” Parham said. “ e networking is surreal, and I was fortunate to end up connecting with a teacher in Pennsylvania and a teacher in Florida and also be in a group chat with other local union presidents from across the country.”

Nov. 15, 2022, the WJCCEA held their Rally for Raise event, o cially kicking o a ve-month push for a 10% raise for all WJCC school employees.

“We worked with our executive team, worked with our organizing team and reached out to teachers, members, parents, community supporters, League of Women Voters, the NAACP, the Village, United Campus Workers — who we’ve been chatting with — and they came out to give so many amazing testimonies. And then in December we went to the Board of Supervisors,” Parham said.

In March, the school board announced they would put the 10% raise in the budget.

“After this ve-month long campaign, we’re now seeing the bene ts of this rally,” Parham said.

She expanded on this topic, noting that locally, educator salary is one of the most important issues for public school teachers. Parham voiced that the biggest concerns for public school teachers state-wide include student discipline and funding from the state government. Student discipline has become especially pertinent in the state after a six-year-old Richneck Elementary student shot his first grade teacher in Newport News in January, making national headlines.

“I feel like our sta has become more vocal in addressing discipline issues and our school division has become very receptive to hearing those issues,” Parham said about changes in the local school systems following the incident.

“I do feel like a veil has been lifted, especially for those who are not aware as to what goes on in an everyday classroom, especially if you are in a school where there are disciplinary issues,” Parham said. “I do want to thank Newport News, their union, they’ve been working very hard dealing with ongoing sta concerns and sta issues, I know they did a town hall with their mayor, Mayor Jones. And I’ve talked to the president and I’ve given him my condolences and unity.”

In addition to educator salary and school safety, Parham also spoke to the issue of how standardized testing impacts K-12 students. She described how giving state-required exams like the Virginia Standards of Learning assessment are one of her least favorite parts of the job, as they often lead to student test-taking anxiety.

The Citizensʼ Climate Lobby chapter on campus calls for change in creative new campaign

In Feb. 2023, Emily O’Keefe ’24 partnered with the College of William and Mary chapter of the grassroots organization Citizens’ Climate Lobby. Her goal was to begin a passive-activism campaign in support of a national carbon fee and dividend policy to combat climate change and suggested the use of signs or posters to broadcast support during everyday activities. Within the span of a month, the campaign has grown into a “collective action movement” among the College’s student body with plans to expand across the country.

“Most E ective Climate Policy, write Congress to support a #CARBONFEEANDDIVIDEND,” the campaign’s signs say, referencing the CCL carbon price resource to write senators in Congress. ough the national CCL organization, alongside economists and various governments worldwide, have been focused on the adoption of a carbon fee and dividend policy for many years, the College’s movement acts as the rst university-based sign campaign in the United States. e movement is a separate entity from CCL, but maintains vocal and direct support from the organization.

“Everybody has a moment when they realize that the way that the world works is not sustainable, and I think I learned that kind of late,” O’Keefe said. “But when I realized that infinite growth is impossible, and that we’re going through a crazy, terrible climate crisis, I was really scared.

It takes a lot to put yourself out there with a sign and say you stand for something. And I was thinking, well, we’re going through something that’s way bigger than all of us, just an existential threat, and I’m surprised that not more people are screaming and sitting with signs or anything.”

A carbon fee and dividend policy enforces a tax on corporate polluters based on how much carbon dioxide they emit. The tax revenue from increased carbon prices would then be distributed equally amongst American citizens via tax refunds, creating a more equitable policy solution and offsetting costs of more expensive products.