SEELYE FELLOW PUBLIC LECTURES

The University of Auckland Seelye Fellow and Harvard PhD graduate Prof Renée Spencer, theoretical and applied expert in youth mentoring.

“Having it all? Affluent adolescent girls’ perceptions of stress and quests for success”

Tuesday 9 May

5pm drinks reception, A201 | 6pm public lecture, J1 lecture theatre, Epsom Campus

Despite contemporary young women enjoying greater educational success, accounts of intense achievement pressures and high levels of emotional distress, particularly among affluent young women, are increasingly common. Longitudinal study findings will be presented and strategies to manage these pressures will be discussed at this public lecture for staff, students, alumni, schools, parents/caregivers and the general public.

Bio:

Current University of Auckland Seelye Fellow and Harvard PhD graduate Prof Renée Spencer is a theoretical and applied expert in youth mentoring. As a Professor at the School of Social Work at Boston University, Spencer’s influential work has revealed the under-recognised role of parents in mentoring; particular contributions adult mentors make to the mentoring process; mentoring young people in foster-care; educational stress and adolescent girls’ development; and the complexity of how and why mentoring relationships end.

She has a breadth and depth of experiential and theoretical knowledge of tertiary institutions, schools, research clusters, as well as school teachers, youth practitioners, parents/caregivers and community and government agencies grappling with delivering positive youth outcomes through mentoring programmes and adult-youth partnerships.