Maple League Better Together: Lessons From My Trauma Awareness Journey: Understanding Stress, Adversity and Trauma in Higher Education
September 17, 2025 (12:00 pm - 1:00 pm)
Location: Online/Virtual
The Maple League Teaching and Learning Committee warmly invites you to the first Maple League Better Together event of the fall: Lessons From My Trauma Awareness Journey: Understanding Stress, Adversity and Trauma in Higher Education with Mélanie Letendre Jauniaux, Bishop's University.
Live on Zoom – Register here: https://bit.ly/TraumaAwareHigherEd
Visit the registration form for details about the presentation and speaker or see details below.
If you have any thoughts or questions, please email the Director of the VMLTLC, Juan Carlos López at jlopez@acadiau.ca.
This presentation interlaces science, story, and metaphor to explore trauma awareness as an essential lens in post-secondary settings. First, we will delve into our current understanding of how stress and trauma shape our brain, physiology, and coping mechanisms. We will explore some of the ways in which trauma can disconnect us from ourselves and others and the problems that can arise when we don’t understand these impacts. Given that well-meaning individuals and systems can unknowingly perpetuate harm, this talk will outline the pillars of a trauma-informed approach for post-secondary communities that seek to prioritize healing. A carefully crafted vignette will help us reflect on how to apply this knowledge to foster safety and connection in our campus communities and embrace our shared role in reducing harm both to ourselves and others.
Mélanie Letendre Jauniaux is a former youth protection worker. She witnessed firsthand both the harm caused when systems lack trauma awareness and the transformative benefits of trauma-informed approaches. These experiences motivated her to pursue graduate studies in psychology, where her research focuses on community-engaged scholarship to raise trauma awareness in post-secondary settings. She currently leads the Trauma Awareness Project, a grassroots initiative dedicated to empowering individuals and communities through relationships and education based on the science of trauma. Recognizing that most healing happens in community settings, Mélanie’s work advocates for a shift in understanding and narratives—so that individuals and institutions alike can foster more supportive and trauma-informed environments. By integrating research, storytelling, training, and collaboration, Mélanie bridges the gap between evidence-based knowledge and everyday realities on Canadian campuses to create spaces that cultivate curiosity, connection, resilience and safety.
