keri-lyn durant wins graduate student paper award

congratulations to phd student keri-lyn durant, recipient of the richard kalish graduate student paper award, to be presented at the association for death education and counselling (adec) 2019 conference next april.

keri-lyn’s paper, “how grief camp reinforces the need for death education in elementary schools” (published in the fall 2018 issue of canadian journal for new scholars in education) discusses her experiences as a volunteer at children’s grief camps. grief camps offer a safe grieving space for children who have experienced a death-related loss, along with opportunities for open dialogues about grief and loss and the development of coping strategies that focus on restoration. the camps, she explains, highlight the need for death education in schools.

in the paper she writes: “not immune to issues surrounding dying, death, and loss, young people are being done a great disservice by our embraced ignorance of inevitable life events… it is time to reclaim our dying … by moving towards healthy and appropriate modes of lifelong learning regarding death and the life that precedes it.”

receiving the adec award is a significant honour, as keri-lyn’s paper was selected as part of an international competition. she plans to attend the conference in atlanta in the spring.