The annual Vision Long Island Youth Summit is a partnership among public and private high schools, St. Joseph’s College, Northwell Health, Vision Long Island and a number of other businesses and organizations.
Designed to engage students in an exploration of important current socio-medical, environmental and socio-economic issues, the event was held virtually last month for more than 170 participants, including students from 16 Long Island high schools and numerous St. Joseph’s faculty and staff members.
Hosted by St. Joseph’s, the event began with welcoming remarks from Gail Lamberta, Ph.D., SJC’s associate dean of community development and professor and chair of recreation and leisure studies. Dr. Lamberta’s remarks were followed by a keynote address from Harold Fernandez, M.D., chief of cardiothoracic surgery at Northwell Health’s South Shore University Hospital.
After Dr. Fernandez’s address, guests joined interactive workshops on a variety of topics important to young people today. During the workshops, participants discussed a range of issues and developed solutions that were later presented during the event, with awards given to the best projects.
“This annual event brings together so many talented students for one-on-one discussions concerning current issues with experts in various fields,” Dr. Lamberta said. “Each year, we hope to engage students from high schools across Long Island and encourage them to explore important topics and issues that impact them, and our region on a daily basis. The student projects were impressive, and their solutions to the issues at hand were feasible — and some had recently been implemented. I look forward to keeping this tradition going for a long time.”
Workshops Featuring St. Joseph’s Faculty and Staff
• “Bullying, Cyber-Bullying and Social Networking” with Thomas DiBlasi, Ph.D., assistant professor of Human Relations at SJC Long Island, and Jo Anne Durovich, Ph.D., associate professor and chair of Human Services at SJC Long Island
• “Teen Mental Health, Self-Esteem and Well Being” with Joshua D. Wright, Ph.D., assistant professor of Psychology at SJC Long Island, and Adrianna Silva, associate director of admissions and coordinator for minority student recruitment at SJC Long Island.
• “The Impact of Climate Change” with Thomas Petriano, Ph.D., professor and chair of religious studies at SJC.
• “Leadership” with Cristian Murphy, director of campus ministry at SJC Long Island.
• “Ethical and Social Implications of Science and Technology” with Victoria Hong, Ph.D., assistant professor and chair of mathematics and computer science at SJC Long Island.
