TA News

Two TA students, Elliott Jones ’22 and Layliana Benjamin ’26, were selected to co-present at the University of Michigan Medical’s 2021 Adolescent Conference on Health. The conference, now in its seventh year, is part of Michigan Medical’s Adolescent Health Initiative (AHI), a program that aims to “advance innovative adolescent-centered health care through practice improvement, education, research, and youth and community engagement.” More than half the events at this year’s conference were co-facilitated by youth.

Elliott and Layliana have been active in TA’s “Getting to Y” (GTY) program this year, a youth-driven exploration of Vermont’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) data led by the Montpelier-based nonprofit Up for Learning. Throughout the school year, TA’s middle and high school GTY groups analyzed local YRBS results, hosted student and community conversations about their findings, and proposed solutions tailored to the TA student community.

At the Adolescent Conference on Health, TA’s students co-facilitated a session that explored lessons learned from two adolescent health best practices (Getting to Y and a program from Hawaii) as recognized by the Association of Maternal and Child Health Program’s “Innovation Station.” The group, including GTY coordinator Sharon Koller, was tasked with sharing about their experiences and best practices in Positive Youth Development.