Using Strength-Based Pedagogy to Engage All Students/Free Webinar by Dr. Sally Reis, Professor, University of Connecticut

On Tuesday, May 7, 2024, from 5:00 – 6:00 pm PDT, Sally M. Reis, Ph.D., Letitia Neag Morgan Chair of Educational Psychology, Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor, and Teaching Fellow at the University of Connecticut will give a keynote webinar as part of the Alan Hu Foundation Mental Health Lecture Series. Her talk, “Using Strength-Based Pedagogy to Engage All Students” is funded by a generous grant from Three Valleys Community Foundation.

“Join us for the opportunity to learn about cutting edge new research to address the academic, social, and emotional needs of neurodivergent, and twice-exceptional learners (high ability students with learning challenges) by focusing on their strengths and interests. For the last five years, a team of researchers has been studying the ways in which we can educate and support neurodivergent, twice-exceptional students with autism who have succeeded academically and are attending highly competitive universities to pursue their dreams. Learn about which strength-based strategies worked best and how these were implemented at school and at home in this uplifting and positive keynote,” said Dr. Reis.

Sally M. Reis, Ph.D. was a classroom teacher and administrator in public education before beginning her work at the University of Connecticut over three decades ago, where she served as an Endowed Professor, as well as the Vice Provost of Academic Affairs. She was Principal Investigator of the National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented. Her research interests are related to talent development in all children, as well as special populations including talented students with disabilities, talented girls and women, and diverse groups of talented students who are often underserved. She has authored or co-authored numerous books, including The Schoolwide Enrichment Model, with Dr. Joseph Renzulli, and many book chapters, monographs, and technical reports.

The free webinar will be held on Tuesday, May 7, 2024, from 5:00 – 6:00 pm PDT via Zoom. It will include 15 minutes for questions and answers following Dr. Reis’s presentation. Please RSVP by May 6 at: https://alanhufoundation.org/ to receive the Zoom meeting link. Participants may join beginning at 4:45 pm PDT. The Mental Health Association for Chinese Communities at https://www.mhacc-usa.org will provide simultaneous Chinese interpretation.

The Alan Hu Foundation was created by Xiaofang Chen and Chih-Ching Hu in memory of their son, Alan. He passed away due to mental disorders in 2018 at the age of 15. Their mission is to promote mental health, raise awareness and remove stigma surrounding psychiatric disorders, and to support fundamental research for cures.

For further information and to support the Alan Hu Foundation, please visit the website: https://alanhufoundation.org/helping