• Community Connection Seminars

    2021 Fall Community Connections Seminar

    The seminar was held on Thursday, October 21, 2021, and the topic was "Resources Available for All Students".

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    Topics discussed included the resources NA has available to help all students throughout the school year.

    • Members of the NA Student Services team are available for students in all buildings.
    • Support for students to be successful in overcoming any concerns with anxiety, depression, and other areas that create barriers in the learning process.

    Presentations included:

    • ways to help develop and use coping strategies to be successful.
    • how we utilize outside resources to help support us, including MAPs (Maximizing Adolescent Potentials) from the University of Pittsburgh.
    • Rusty Hewitt from the Allegheny County Office of Behavioral Health on how to help our students overcome adversity and the available resources from Allegheny County.

    2019 Spring Community Connections Seminar

    The seminar was held on April 3, 2019 and the topic was "The Teenage Brain & Drug Use: Forging the Path to Addiction".

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    This seminar featured speaker Dr. Tom Brophy. Dr. Brophy's goal is to explain the neuroscience of addiction in a way in which everyone can understand it. Having a grasp on this complex information helps us all understand why experimentation with various drugs can be so dangerous, and why it often escalates rapidly from "I'm just having fun" to the inevitable "this isn't fun anymore and I need help". As a physician that is board certified in both fields of emergency medicine and addiction medicine, this progression is something he is very familiar with and encounters on a daily basis. He has educated hundreds of thousands of people on this topic and is a highly respected member of the local medical community.

    2018 Fall Community Connections Seminar

    The seminar was held on October 23, 2018 and the topic was "Social Media 101: What Parents Need to Know".

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    Monitoring children’s behavior and interactions on the internet is very critical in today’s world. Children are being targeted by online predators and cyberbullying at an alarming rate. This presentation, featuring Mr. Phil Little from the Attorney General's Office, gave parents a foundational education on understanding the social media sites their children use and how to keep them safe while using them. Parents were informed how to navigate and learn how to enable the security features on the “apps,” along with recognizing the importance of knowing their child’s passwords.

    2018 Spring Community Connections Seminar

    The seminar was held on April 4, 2018 and the topic was "The Dangers of Teens and Vaping: What You Need To Know!".

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    Did you know that teen use of e-cigs and vaping devices increased 900% between 2011 and 2015? This program focused on the use of e-cigarettes and other vaping devices among teenagers, along with the risks these products pose to adolescent health and development. Specialists in the field will shared their knowledge and insight.