Nearly five years after the COVID-19 pandemic began, adults worldwide are still assessing its impact on children and what can be done to help them achieve success in its wake.
As the keynote speaker of Concordia College’s 2024 Faith, Reason, and World Affairs Symposium, themed “Flourishing Futures: Nurturing Children for Civic Engagement,” on Sept. 18, journalist Anya Kamenetz shared the insights from her latest book, “The Stolen Year: How COVID Changed Children’s Lives, and Where We Go Now.”
“Young people have a lot to say,” Kamenetz said, emphasizing the importance of listening and being aware of others’ struggles.
The pandemic challenged institutions and individuals and altered the definition of “normal.” Students faced change and hardship on multiple levels: in education, in development, in mental and physical health, in safety and security, and in suffering loss.
Believing that “what is good for young people is good for the whole society,” Kamenetz asked what a supportive, child-centered world would look like and suggested possibilities such as paid family leave, child tax credits, strong public schools, and other institutional practices. Where might schools be flexible and allow support to flow between the community and schools? How can teachers help students catch up and have targeted instruction time to do so?
On a more human-to-human level, Kamenetz had more questions.
“How do we change how we interact? What is my role in making sure that we’re able to successfully respond to these continuous changes that we’re going to be living through?” she asked the audience.
To answer the questions, Kamenetz encouraged people to think in terms of relationship building and centering disadvantaged voices.
“Below 18, you don’t have a vote, and then people feel entitled to not listen to you and to make decisions for you and to make policies without you and to not have you in the room where they’re making decisions that affect you. That’s not OK, right?” Kamenetz said, noting that educational institutions are one way to become empowered and engaged and to thrive.
Impacting lives
The symposium included other events as well, including Kamenetz’s faculty and staff development session, which included more specifics on the pandemic’s effects on learning and ways adults can provide support to young people through mentoring and other types of engagement.
Symposium attendees also had the opportunity to choose two topic-centered speaker sessions. Each of the expert-led sessions focused on different ways to help nurture young people for civic engagement.
Dr. Chris Tiongson, pediatrics/urgent care at Sanford Children’s and chair/clinical professor of pediatrics at the University of North Dakota School of Medicine & Health Sciences, examined the topic of gun violence and how it can be viewed as a public health crisis given its status as the leading cause of death in children in the U.S.
A group of Concordia staff and students offered up ways Cobbers could connect with young people in the Fargo-Moorhead area. Dr. Lisa Twomey, director of community engagement and associate professor of Spanish, and Sunet Rubalcava, academic counselor, were two of the adult leaders, along with students Alisha Debleye ’25, Gabrielle Fritz ’26, Yelitza Hernandez-Guitron ’25, Kailey Thomas ’25, Edwin Rasidovic ’25, and Johan Dominguez Lopez ’25.
Dr. Michelle Lelwica, professor of religion at Concordia, drew from her recently published book to speak about “Hurting Kids: What Incarcerated Youth Are Teaching Me About Whiteness, Compassion, Accountability, and Healing.” The book examines religion’s impact on American beliefs about justice, and its consequences for teens who encounter the law, including research on the juvenile justice system as well as theological analysis and perspectives of incarcerated youth themselves.
In “Community Catalysts: Empowering Children with ADHD to Flourish,” Dr. Jane Indergaard, associate professor of nursing at Concordia, spoke about the importance of connection, empathy, and understanding in helping young people with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.
Beginning with “ADHD is real, not something made up,” Indergaard shared 10 key insights about the neurodevelopmental condition, and emphasized that its most well-known features — inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity — are generally just the most visible ones, as ADHD affects the way the brain signals and draws information together in order to allow a person to accomplish their goals. Less visible symptoms include emotional dysregulation, sleep issues, and developmental delays, as well as difficulty with organization, time management, and initiative.
The event closed with a panel discussion, “Engaged Leadership: The Joys and Challenges of Leadership in Youth-Serving Organizations,” moderated by Dr. Darrell Stolle, professor of education and symposium co-chair.
The panelists were Dr. Mary Jean Dehne, executive director of Legacy Children’s Foundation, Jennifer Soupnir-Fremstad, assistant director of human capital for Fargo Public Schools, Andrea Richards, director of behavioral health and wellness at West Fargo Public Schools, Dr. Chris Tiongson, a pediatrician at Sanford Children’s Urgent Care Clinic in Fargo and Residency Program director at the University of North Dakota Pediatrics, and J’Neil Gibson, founder of Beyond the Game and co-director of Umoja Inc.
