1. Imprecise legal names

For your FAFSA® to process correctly, you need to enter both student and parent names, exactly as they appear on each person’s Social Security Card.

But for many people, this can be confusing. Your “usual” name (even the one they might be enrolled at school with, or signed up for a bank account with) might not precisely match your legal name. Common mistakes include:

• Middle names: Is your middle name part of your legal name? What if you have multiple middle names?
• Double-barrel last names: Did you use a hyphen or a space? Do both names actually appear on your Social Security card, or just one?
• Suffixes: If you’re “Jr” or “the second,” is this just unofficial, or is that suffix literally written into your legal name? If it’s something like “Jr,” is there a period after the “Jr”?
• Non-English names: Some students or families might have two names, one that is an Anglicized version of their home language name, and another that is their “English language” or “American” name. Pay attention to which one is written on your social security card, and use that one.

2. Swapping parent & student answers

The FAFSA® form uses “you” or “your” to refer to the student. However, since parents often fill out the FAFSA® on behalf of their child, this can get confusing. Parents regularly answer these “you” questions about themselves, rather than their child.

This leads to some funny answers like:

• “Your” (the student’s) tax filing status as “Married filing jointly” — unlikely for a high school senior!
• “Your” (the student’s) birthday as Feb 12,1980 — a bit on the older side in high school, huh?
• “Your” (the student’s) number of children/dependents as 3 — that’s quite a lot of responsibility and mouths to feed, for a teenager…
• “Your” net worth of investment assets as $67,000 — whoa, that 18-year-old got to investing pretty early!

Of course, this also leads to some less funny paperwork (and delayed financial aid) later on, usually when colleges ask families to “verify” their reported information by sending in tax transcripts, etc.

So don’t be this person: Remember that you/your refers to the student!

(Psst – On the Going Merry FAFSA® Made Easier, we often add the student’s name for commonly confused questions, to make this clearer. Plus, we’ll show warning messages if you put in any “funny” or unusual answers like the ones above.)

3. Round numbers (Estimated financial figures)

We at Going Merry see this error so often that we call it the “round number problem.”

The FAFSA® asks very specific financial questions on the FAFSA® like:

• What was your parents’ 2021 Adjusted Gross Income (AGI)?
• What was your mom’s 2021 earnings?
• How much did your parents pay in 2021 income taxes?

All of these questions are accompanied by detailed instructions on which tax forms (and even which lines on the tax forms) to look at. However, every years, some families completely ignore these instructions and instead just estimate their earnings or income.

How do we know?

Because we say way too many forms with “round numbers” reported for all the financial figures. Very rarely are figures on taxes round numbers like “30,000.”

And why does this matter, if the number is just about right?

Well, these figures might look suspicious to a college financial aid officer, who might then ask you for additional “verification” — basically a formal process in which you need to supply evidence of these numbers via paperwork (like tax forms/transcripts), and then if there are discrepancies, the financial aid officer is required to manually amend your FAFSA®. All this is a bit of a headache, and more importantly, may cause crucial delays in getting you that financial aid money you need and deserve.

4. Incorrect SSNs

To submit your FAFSA® (and to get your FSA ID to sign your FAFSA®), you’ll need to enter your and your parents’ Social Security Numbers. A lot of times the federal government will not let you proceed because it will see that there’s a mismatch between these three key things:

• The SSN, as entered on the FAFSA®
• The SSN, as entered when registering for an FSA ID
• The SSN, as it appears on your Social Security Card

Sometimes the culprit is just your standard typo — one number that was off. But we’ve also seen cases where parents have just entered the wrong person’s SSN.

• For instance, a parent with two kids Bob and Sue might put Sue’s SSN into Bob’s FAFSA®.
• Or else, a parent might put their own (or their spouse’s) SSN instead of their child’s.

5. School email instead of personal email

The government FAFSA® form just asks you for your (the student’s) email. Many high school seniors simply enter their school email address because that’s the one they use most often for “official” or “educational” stuff.

But that would be a mistake.

Most high schools disable student emails, once they graduate. So if the federal government tries to send you an email (to that high school email address) during the summer, or in the early weeks of college, you simply won’t receive it. 🤦‍♀️

That’s why it’s always better to put a personal email address instead, one that you’ll continue to have access to long after you graduate.

6. High school grade level instead of college grade level

The FAFSA® asks you what grade level you’ll be starting next academic year (the one you’re applying for financial aid to fund).

For high school seniors, this usually means: What grade will you be starting college next year? That means the answer for most high school students should be: First year (freshman). However, students who are quickly skimming the form and seeing the key words “grade level” answer (too quickly, and incorrectly): “4th year / Senior.” Oops.

Bonus error:

A related but less common version of this problem (but one we still see!) is for the question around what kind of degree the student will be pursuing. For most high school seniors, the answer is one of the following:

• Bachelors Degree (for a 4-year university/college degree)
• Associates Degree – Either “vocational/technical” or “General education/transfer” (for a 2-year community or junior college degree)
• Certificate or Diploma – For a trade school that doesn’t result in an Associates Degree, for example a beauty or hairstyling school

However, sometimes we see students incorrectly answer “Graduate or Professional Degree” because of the confusing naming. Students very reasonably (but wrongly) think:”I’ll be a high school graduate and am pursuing higher education for something professional.” This is incorrect because “Graduate or Professional Degree” refers to education you generally get after undergraduate college–like Masters degrees and PhDs, or to professional programs like medical school or law school.

7. Reporting child support or alimony

Child support and alimony are both confusing on the FAFSA®.

First, there are specific questions related to the amount of child support paid or received. In either case, child support should only be reported on PARENT finances if it meets two requirements:

1. It consists of formal, legally required payments resulting from a divorce decree, separation agreement, or legal child support agreement. Informal payments should be instead reported as “other untaxed income.”
2. The payments are made to the parent. Otherwise, payments made to the child should be reported under STUDENT finances, as “other income or bills paid on your behalf.”

Related to alimony, usually alimony is taxable and therefore included in a parent’s Adjusted Gross Income. However, it is not reported individually/separately on its own anywhere on the FAFSA® form.

8. Forgetting to report some income (all zeroes)

In the rush to complete the FAFSA® close to the opening date (October 1), some families don’t double-check their finance sections. Since a lot of the questions are NOT relevant to many families (specific tax situations, deductions, etc.), what we see is families putting down $0 for everything, without reading carefully.

In the end, this means that sometimes families accidentally miss out on key lines/fields that they should have reported figures for. Common issues we see are:

• Added combined parent Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) but missed/zero individual parent incomes
• Added income but missed/zero income taxes paid
• Added income for one parent, but missed/zero income for the second parent

The other reason we’ve heard from students is that they “didn’t have the right tax forms” to fill out certain fields, so they just entered $0 as a placeholder and forgot to go back to fix these fields. Eek!

(Psst – This is exactly why, on Going Merry’s FAFSA® Made Easier, we made fields skippable, so you don’t have to answer everything to move to the next question. At the end, you can toggle to see “Unanswered questions” so you remember to fill in the information you skipped before. No more adding $0 as placeholders you then forget about!)

9. Reporting parental separation incorrectly

For the FAFSA®, you can only report your parents as “married or separated” if your parents live apart.

If your parents still live together even though they consider themselves “separated,” unfortunately on the FAFSA®, you need to report them as “Married.” This also means you would need to report financial information about both of them.

10. Reporting the wrong parent (or missing a stepparent)

In the case of a divorce OR a separation in which the parents live apart, the student only needs to report one parent. Here are two important rules of thumb:

• Which parent to report: Generally, they should report the parent they live with more often. If the student splits time equally between parents, then they should report the parent who provides more financial support.
• Reporting step-parents: If your reporting parent (the one you live with more often) has remarried, you have to include their spouse as your second parent. This is true even if your stepparent has not legally adopted you.

Choosing a parent is NOT related to which parent has more money, nor with how they report you on their taxes (e.g. if they claim you as a tax dependent or not).

11. Adding cents as dollars

Tax forms usually have both dollars and cents reported, so a figure might appear like “$28,309.35” — This means it’s 28,309 dollars and 35 cents.

However, on the FAFSA®, you’re meant to “round” to the nearest dollar, and ignore all cents. Unfortunately, some students miss this instruction and put in all the numbers.

What does that mean? 28 grand instead gets entered as $2.8 million. 😱

Yep, big mistake. Unfortunately, when families accidentally enter $2.8 million as their income, savings, or investments, they become a lot less likely to get financial aid than if they had entered their income as $28,000.

12. Including the wrong things under “Investment net worth”

The FAFSA® asks for both the student and parent “net worth of investment assets.” They then list a whole bunch of things that count as “investment assets.”

However, sometimes families still end up reporting things they should not. For example, the following should not be reported here:

• Primary home (neither the value of it, nor the mortgages/debt against it)
• Car (again, neither the value of it, not the debt/loan related to it)
• Retirement accounts like 401k (the government doesn’t want you dipping into this to pay for your kid’s college!)

13. Reporting UGMA/UTMA custodial accounts as parent assets

Custodial accounts should always be reported as assets the accountholder (usually the minor/student) owns. So for the FAFSA®, if the parent is the custodian of a UGMA/UTMA account on behalf of their child, the balance in this account should be reported under Student finances, not Parent Finances.

You should also be careful NOT to double-report this. (Some families accidentally/incorrectly put it under both Student and Parent Finances.)

14. Reporting college savings accounts as student assets

Confusingly, although UGMA/UTMA custodial accounts should be reported as student assets, college savings accounts (like 529, Coverdell, etc) should be reported as parent assets.

Did this list freak you out?

Yeah, we know. It’s because the FAFSA® is a bit intense. But that’s why we created the 100% free FAFSA® Made Easier, where we build in a lot of our learnings from common mistakes, to reword questions and provide more guidance/warnings when you need them. Plus, if you’re ever in doubt, you’re always one click away from our helpdesk of FAFSA® experts to support you. Sign up for Going Merry to access it.

And whether you use our FAFSA® or the government’s one: We wish you an error-free journey. May your FAFSA® application sail smoothly onto the computer of your dream college’s financial aid officer. And may it land you all the financial aid you need.

‍Wednesday, November ‍2 at ‍7pm ET | ‍6pm CT | ‍5pm MT | ‍4pm PT

Register Now

During this session students and families will learn key tips on applying for scholarships, how to create a winning scholarship essay, and more.

Space is limited, so please register early!

Unable to Attend?

If you’re unable to attend either of these dates, go ahead and register—we’ll send you a link to the recording so that you don’t miss this valuable information.

Our free Scholarship Search connects students to scholarship opportunities based on their hobbies and interests. The database now has more than 6 million college scholarships worth up to $30 billion.

Plus, when students register, they can enter for a chance to win our monthly sweepstakes.1

Sincerely,
Sallie Mae

Below you will find a list of 15 Scholarship Programs that will give out more than 700 Individual Scholarship

https://studentscholarships.org/newsletters

SCHOLARSHIPS DEADLINES BETWEEN:

MAY 18th and AUGUST 31st, 2022

1) Jameela Jamil x I Weigh Scholarship - $5,000 – 3 Awards (Deadline: May 18, 2022)

To be eligible for the scholarship a student must:

A) Be 16 years of age or older and in good academic standing.

B) Be enrolled in a public, private, or parochial high school or home study program in the United States.

Applications can be found by going to:

https://studentscholarships.org/scholarship/19302/jameela-jamil-x-i-weigh-scholarship

2) Full Circle Scholarship - $15,000 - 650 Awards (Deadline: May 31, 2022)

To be eligible for the scholarship a student must:

A) Be a U.S. citizen eligible to attend college in the U.S.

B) Be enrolled in a certificate, associate’s, bachelor’s, or graduate program by the Fall of 2022.

Applications can be found by going to:

https://studentscholarships.org/scholarship/9645/american_indian_college_fund_scholarships

3) Know Your Worth Scholarship - $10,000 - 1 Award (Deadline: June 1, 2022)

To be eligible for the scholarship a student must:

A) You must be 16 years of age or older.

B) You must either be enrolled in a college/university or registered in a qualified high school.

Applications can be found by going to:

https://studentscholarships.org/scholarship/20409/know-your-worth-scholarship

The scholarships below are accepting applications between October 20th, 2022 and December 31st, 2022. For more details about each scholarship and the eligibility requirements, read the details below carefully.

Scholarships Available

Scholarship Deadlines:

$15,000 (25 Awards)

Prudential Emerging Visionaries Awards

Deadline: November 3, 2022

For Eligibility: Click Here

$1,000 (1 Award)

Medical Scrubs Collection Scholarship

Deadline: December 15, 2022

For Eligibility: Click Here

$2,500 (1 Award)

Annual Strive to be the Best Criminal Lawyer Scholarship

Deadline: December 31, 2022

For Eligibility: Click Here

$850 (3 Awards)

Youth Scholarship Program

Deadline: December 31, 2022

For Eligibility: Click Here

Featured Scholarships

$2,222 (12 Awards)

No Essay Smart Owl Scholarship

Deadline: October 29, 2022

For Eligibility: Click Here

$40,000 (24 Awards)

Big Future Scholarships

Deadline: October 31, 2022

For Eligibility: Click Here

$2,000 (12 Awards)

Nitro Scholarship

Deadline: October 31, 2022

For Eligibility: Click Here

$25,180 (1 Award)

Be Bold Scholarship

Deadline: November 1, 2022

For Eligibility: Click Here

$2,500 (12 Awards)

SP Scholarships

Deadline: October 31, 2022

For Eligibility: Click Here

$2,000 (12 Awards)

Niche Scholarships

Deadline: October 31, 2022

For Eligibility: Click Here

$1,000 (12 Awards)

Cappex Scholarship

Deadline: October 31, 2022

For Eligibility: Click Here

National Apprenticeship Week 11/14 - 11/18. IECRM is a not-for-profit apprenticeship school which works with over 200 independent electrical contractors in the Front Range to both grow and educate the electrical workforce. Becoming an electrician is one of the most in demand trades and our mission is to make becoming a licensed electrician as simple and affordable as possible. We work to get interested job seekers and prospective students hired by our member contractors who in turn pick up the costs of tuition for their apprentice electricians. Apprentice electricians earn while they learn and graduate our program with no college debt. Additionally, thanks to our partnerships with Emily Griffith Tech and CSU Global, graduates of our apprenticeship school earn over 40 hours of college credit.

Counselors Terri Mathis and Courtney Hay are holding the Peer Support Leadership training on Monday, October 31st ,on our PD day, from 9am - 2 pm for students interested in gaining the skills around mental health support to work with their peers. Our goal is to provide our student leaders with a solid foundation around supporting peers with mental health and other challenges making our community a place where students can feel supported moving towards all spaces being safe.

KEY POINTS

• Seasonal affective disorder manifests among approximately 10 million Americans each winter.
• SAD risk is best explained by understanding wintertime changes in biology, psychology, and behavior.
• The biopsychosocial factors that contribute to SAD risk are modifiable and preventable.

With the calendar flipping to October this week, winter is right around the corner. Although winter means different things to different people — do you think holiday gatherings and Christmas trees or blizzards and crowded shopping malls? — for approximately 10 million Americans each year, the winter months mean an increased risk for seasonal affective disorder.

Although most adults have heard of seasonal affective disorder, there exists a surprising amount of misinformation about this melancholic malady. Consider, for example, two of the prevailing myths about seasonal affective disorder versus findings from research:

• Although most people believe that SAD results from wintertime darkness, research reviews find almost no correlation between latitude (e.g., people living in more northern regions with greater darkness versus more southern with less darkness) and rates of SAD. Darkness doesn't explain it.
• Similarly, many people think colder climates cause SAD. Yet those data are conflicting as well. For example, the U.S. reports rates of SAD that are twice of Europe — including relatively colder and cloudier Scandinavian countries. In fact, these same winter-dominated Scandinavian countries again topped the list of happiest countries, as reported in the 2021 World Happiness Report (Finland, Denmark, and Switzerland were rated as the happiest countries among more than 149 countries included in the 2021 survey; ). Weather doesn't explain SAD either.

If these stereotypes about cold and darkness are more mythology than mechanisms for understanding SAD, what provides a better explanation? And how can we translate a more accurate explanation of SAD into more effective prevention and treatment?

It turns out that SAD is better understood using a biopsychosocial model. This model includes biological components (gene expression, changes in neurotransmitters, hormones, vitamins levels, etc., during winter months), psychological dimensions (e.g., expectations about SAD, early life experiences and traumas during winter months), and behavior patterns (reduced exercise and outdoor time, disrupted sleep cycles, changes in diet and eating patterns, etc.). Although none of these factors in isolation accounts for overall SAD risk, in combination, they offer actionable insights into how an individual can understand their personal SAD risk and what steps they can take for prevention and treatment. The biopsychosocial model also offers a compelling explanation for the high and varying rates of SAD across many parts of the U.S compared to other countries.

Biologically, here are just a few of the many neurotransmitters, hormones, and vitamins affected by increased darkness: serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine, melatonin, thyroid hormones, cortisol, and vitamin D. The expression of many genes is also modified by sunlight variation. Because individuals vary in their biological responses to sunlight decreases during winter, a subset of people may be affected more strongly in ways that worsen their mood, energy level, concentration, and motivation. The actionable piece of the biological component of the SAD model is that it supports known remedies such as light boxes (look for high quality lightboxes providing sufficient illumination intensity, such as those described in quality product review sites;) antidepressant use (5), and vitamin D supplementation for those with or at risk for deficiency. Importantly, these treatments may be even more effective if used prophylactically (i.e., used to prevent instead of waiting to treat active symptoms; ).

The behavioral, psychological, and social components of this SAD model interact with the above biological factors and may be especially relevant in the U.S. In comparison to Scandinavian cultures, for example, which maintain high levels of physical activity and outdoor time even in the winter months, wintertime is associated with decreased exercise and greater time indoors in the U.S. Combined with U.S. winter tendencies towards disrupted sleep patterns (e.g., sleeping in more on the weekends), reductions in in-person socializing, increased eating frequency (e.g., holiday snacking) and calorie intake, and seasonal weight gain, you unfortunately have an ideal cultural recipe for SAD. Notably, these behavioral and social changes are especially pronounced in northern areas of the U.S., perhaps explaining why north-south differences in SAD prevalence are pronounced in the U.S. but small in other countries.

Once again, however, the key takeaway from the biopsychosocial SAD model is the potential for individualized risk mitigation. Among people with a history of SAD or SAD symptoms, now is the ideal time to initiate a SAD prevention program. In personalized ways, this prevention program should include individual strategies for maintaining regular exercise, consistent sleep routines, outdoor time during sunlight hours (sunlight effects are powerful even on cloudy or overcast days), social contact, and healthy nutrition habits during the winter months. Not only will this program help you prevent or at least minimize SAD symptoms, it may also help you author a holiday season filled with adventure, connection, and great memories.

Please have interested students reach out to Ranger Chaffee (rachel.courtright@state.co.us) by Wednesday, October 12th.

When: Wednesday, October 19th, 1:00-2:30pm MST
Where: Virtual (Zoom)
What: Join us for ALL things Not Prescribed where we'll hear implementation tips from our state's top facilitator, preview newly revised content, share our new online post-survey tool and more! Session attendees will receive a certificate of completion.

Register for this event via Eventbrite HERE: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/not-prescribed-community-learning-call-tot-tickets-423652364627.

We are excited to launch updates to Not Prescribed, including a chapter/learning module related to the dangers of fentanyl and other contaminants.

Additional changes within Not Prescribed include:
- revised learnings targets
- updates to content, discussion questions & skill-building scenarios to reflect current trends and needs related to prescription drug misuse prevention
- a streamlined retrospective survey that students may take online or mobile device (instead of pre and post paper & pencil-based surveys)

Colorado will see more than $9 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Education to help create safer and healthier learning environments for school students.

The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act designates nearly $1 billion to states in the Southwest and West to support student mental health and reduce gun violence. The states receiving funding will have to develop competitive grant programs to help local educational agencies in the greatest need of support. Colorado will receive a total of $9,356,572 from the program.

“There’s a whole generation of Americans that have grown up feeling unsafe at school as a result of our country’s gun violence epidemic,” Democratic U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado said in a statement. “Following two years of COVID-19 and sky-rocketing social media use, our children also face increased rates of depression, anxiety, trauma, and other mental and behavioral health crises that affect their ability to learn and succeed at school. People are demanding action to protect our children — and through the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, we have made important progress to create safer educational environments.”

Bennet and Colorado’s other U.S. senator, Democrat John Hickenlooper, voted in favor of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act in June, as did all four Democrats from Colorado in the U.S. House. All three Republicans from Colorado in the U.S. House voted against the bill.

A news release from Bennet’s office said the funds can be used for schools without the resources to hire enough school-based mental health providers, and also to improve school trauma treatment programs.

According to the U.S. Department of Education, safe and supportive schools proved to be most effective in promoting academic success for students, as well as social, emotional, physical and mental well-being. State educational agencies are encouraged to prioritize schools committed to implementing evidence-based strategies meeting student needs, engaging school communities in implementing strategies, and designing equity-based policies and practices that are responsive to underserved students.

“We have years of evidence that demonstrate the value of building safe and supportive schools. These efforts improve academic achievement, promote emotional well-being, reduce disciplinary actions, and increase positive behaviors,” U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said in a news release. “Safe and supportive schools help our children and youth overcome challenges and provide a strong foundation for school safety. These grants will provide real benefits to real students in real schools.”

Three additional grant programs launched Monday to increase access to mental and behavioral health services as a partnership between the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services. The $280 million in funding for these programs also comes from the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.

A Colorado nonprofit launched an advertising campaign Monday to highlight warnings the state released regarding the use of marijuana concentrate.

In 2021, the Colorado Marijuana Enforcement Division released a warning for marijuana concentrates with high THC levels, such as hash or wax. The state said using concentrates may lead to mental health problems, vomiting, physical or psychological dependence on cannabis and psychotic symptoms or disorders, including delusions, hallucinations or difficulty distinguishing reality.

One Chance to Grow Up, a nonprofit focused on preventing youth marijuana use, said the warning offers essential information for Coloradans, but not enough people know about it.

"We wanted to make sure parents and others can access this important warning," said Henny Lasley, executive director of One Chance to Grow Up. "Unfortunately, our research visits to Colorado dispensaries found that few are proactively providing this important resource. Furthermore, those who don’t go to dispensaries aren't benefiting from this important information."

The campaign features digital advertisements displaying excerpts from the warning and directing people to the state’s full educational resource page, which also includes serving sizes for marijuana concentrates, immediate effects, regulatory requirements and penalties.

The creation and distribution of educational resource material was mandated by the state legislature last year through House Bill 21-1317, a bipartisan-sponsored bill directing $7 million to the study of high-potency marijuana concentrates. Gov. Jared Polis signed the bill into law in June 2021.

"This clearly stated warning from the State of Colorado is a breakthrough public health event so we wanted to highlight it to the broadest possible audience," Lasley said. "We hope the state and others also highlight this important document to the broadest possible audience."

For many people, a trip to the doctor is a way to receive some clarity and comfort. But for those in the transgender community, a medical visit can come with the risk of leaving with more issues than when they arrived.

“Having to go through that gauntlet of being misgendered, having the wrong name used, having to pull out documents that don't align with who you are over and over again can be really hard, and leads to a lot of the mental health problems that we see in the trans community,” said Dr. Jerrica Kirkley.

Kirkley is the co-founder of Plume, a gender-affirming telehealth app.

The impact of gender-affirming care

Countless studies have revealed that gender-affirming care saves lives. Transgender and gender-diverse individuals with access to said care are proven to have a significantly decreased risk of suicide, psychological events, and substance abuse.

Despite these findings, only seven states in the United States prohibit health care discrimination based on gender identity.

For transgender and gender-diverse youth, the numbers are even grimmer. Fifteen states are working to ban gender-affirming care for people under the age of 18, which would leave 58,200 more U.S. citizens lacking valuable health care.

Although some states like Colorado mandate that insurance companies cover gender-affirming care, many barriers remain.

“Health insurance coverage doesn't equal access to care, and doesn't necessarily equal good care,” Kirkley.

According to Kirkley, even the best insurance in the world doesn’t guarantee adequate health care, because there is always a risk of encountering a dysphoric environment.

And it’s not just the transgender community who suffers from this lack of care. Kirkley noted, “If we know that gender-affirming care saves lives, improves mental health, improves quality of life, that's what we're all going for. We all want to be happy. We all want to be healthy. And so I think if we can do that in any way for any community, transgender community or otherwise, we're all better off.”

A ‘lightbulb’ moment

Kirkley co-founded Plume with Dr. Matthew Wetschler, a close friend she met in medical school. Kirkley was in the process of coming out as a transgender woman herself. Between her personal experience in seeking medical care and her time volunteering at public clinics, the lack of access to gender-affirming services had become very clear.

While brainstorming with Wetschler, the two found a valuable overlap — Kirkley’s passion for gender-affirming care, and Wetschler’s penchant for expanding access to medical necessities through apps. Thus Plume was born, and its mission to “transform healthcare for every trans life.”

Plume provides patients around the country with access to a range of gender-affirming care such as hormone therapy, testing, and letters of support for gender-related surgeries, all through a lens of both clinical and cultural competency.

Patients can access their care team from the safety and comfort of home and rely on confidential, supportive services from qualified doctors - many of whom are fellow members of the transgender community.

The name “Plume” came to the cofounders as a representation of both an individual and a community.

Kirkley explained further, “So you have plume as a feather, something that, you know, can be very ornate when we think about nature and animals and individuality and expression. But then you have plumage, which is a collection of all those feathers. And where the community aspect comes in. Yes, each one of those feathers is individual and it's beautiful in and of itself. But when they all come together they make something even more beautiful.”

Kirkley and Wetschler began Plume three years ago with a sign on a therapist’s door in Colorado Springs supplemented by a Facebook post saying “stop by.” Since then, Plume has expanded to 42 states and has served around 16,000 patients.

“It’s truly a ‘pinch me’ moment,” said Kirkley.

With numbers comes opportunity

The high population of transgender individuals being served presents Plume with opportunities not typically affiliated with a telehealth app — one of which is informing policies on the rights of transgender and gender-diverse people.

Having so many patients allows Plume to gather important data. They partner with legislative offices to share their data and consult based on their results.

"We can show that 50,000 transgender people participating in a particular way of receiving care — gender-affirming care in particular, gender-affirming hormone, therapy or access to surgery — actually results in life-saving moments and improving mental health. That becomes incredibly hard to argue with,” Kirkley said.

Kirkley and Wetschler also recognize an opportunity (and challenge) to deepen Plume's understanding of intersectionality within the transgender community. Kirkley acknowledges that transgender people are not a monolith, and there is room for even more levels of representation in Plume’s serviced offerings. While over half of the staff is trans-identifying, the company is expanding its mission to provide more levels of representation.

“When it comes to other elements of background, whether that’s race and ethnicity, religious, spiritual background, neurodiversity — the list goes on. So having all those people be a part of the process that is thinking about our clinical workflows, that's actually providing care to patients, who are on our operations teams,” said Kirkley.

She said Plume considers intersectionality in every element of the staffing process, from recruitment to hiring and support. They’re also considering these elements in access and outreach.

Currently, Plume does not accept insurance. They are hoping to expand the community they serve by creating alternative payment options and ensuring insurance compatibility. And while providing access to gender-affirming care itself is proven to improve the mental health of different populations within the transgender community, Plume is working to deepen that experience for patients by providing depression and anti-anxiety prescriptions, as well as peer support groups.

KEY POINTS

• Some facets of ADHD reflect the 'hunter' or 'explorer' brain.
• Some settings are not conducive to those with ADHD and result in negative schemas.
• Specific styles of meditation may be useful for those with ADHD.

Perhaps you've found yourself at a red light, watching your takeaway coffee roll down the windshield, because you left it on the car roof, again. Maybe you feel like a magpie as you're frequently distracted by 'shiny' new projects, careers, or organizational systems (none of which become implemented). Yet, when you get stuck into something, you go deep for hours - rarely surfacing to eat, drink, visit the toilet or even sleep. All of these are signs you're a hunter living in a farmer's world, and this is the month to celebrate: Attentional Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) Awareness Month (October 2022).

The Hunter Brain

Hunters often meet the criteria for an ADHD diagnosis, an utterly misleading name. An ADHD brain can propel you to success in the right environment; you see, ADHD brain traits have survival value in a hunter-gatherer culture:

• Noticing changes in your environment is vital to catching prey and avoiding threats.
• Slow decision-making leaves you open to becoming a tiger's lunch.
• Complete immersion in a hunt without concern for time or bodily functions is vital for success.
• Being drawn from the safe and mundane toward novelty opens new territories and opportunities. We might call the 'hunter' brain an 'explorer' brain, as our ancestors were spurred to cross oceans and lands.
• The challenge for adventure-seeking hunters is that we live in a farmer's world. In fact, we have clinically termed these explorer traits: distractibility, impulsivity, time blindness, hyper fixation, and risk-taking.

A pervasive sociocultural expectation is that you shouldn't be distracted by your environment or become bored by repetitive tasks or slow moments. Instead, you must focus on the long-term, pay attention to all details, and be risk-averse. Sure, in a lot of settings, these are indeed valuable skills!

However, there are many areas in our world where hunters excel. For example, entrepreneurs, creatives, and sales folks, to name a few. These hunter minds were likely the 'secret sauce' of Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, Salvador Dali, and more recently, Simone Biles and Richard Branson. So you can see, our world needs these adventurous brains.

ADHD in the Classroom

Unfortunately, formative life experiences of ADHD'ers often result in developing negative core beliefs about themselves or maladaptive schemas – namely, a sense of low self-worth.

Exhibit one: the classroom. An environment where children are expected to sit under fluorescent lights and direct their attention to whatever the teacher is teaching, regardless of interest, while resisting the urge to fidget, run around, or daydream.

Some children with ADHD internalize the sense that they are failures, to be abandoned if they ask for what they need, and that nobody will ever understand how they feel. If If you're a person with ADHD, you might feel an ever-present sense that, at some point, everyone will find out just how flawed you are. This is evidenced in the significantly higher number of stress-related disorders experienced (i.e., anxiety and depression).

Psychoneuroimmunology and Meditation

Psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) has demonstrated that both stress and how you think influence your health. Many people are therefore impacted by both neurophysiological and neuropsychological experiences.

Meditation cultivates attentional control, bolsters mood and decreases anxiety. A hallmark of the ADHD is the default mode network (DMN), the part of the brain that is active when you're not fully engaged in the present moment. This is because those with ADHD have trouble being here, now. Meditation is one of the best tools to cultivate such present-moment awareness.

Chances are you've heard of mindfulness, which is frequently taught as an open-awareness practice. Specifically, you are open to all your senses: sounds, smells, sensations and the like, along with awareness of your private experiences such as your thoughts, feelings, and urges. This style of meditation is beneficial. However, it is not the top recommendation for people with ADHD.

Focused-Attention Meditation

Focused attention is a more practical choice for some with ADHD, because the mind is focused on the breath, a sound, a sensation in the body, or repeating a particular word or sound. This is a very different experience from the quickly-shifting attention of the ADHD brain and improves attentional control and focus.

Yoga

The moving meditation practice of yoga is also helpful. Various movement forms support you to practice coordinating a movement goal with sensorimotor feedback while engaging in a mindful exploration of the physical movement experience. Yoga also offers an opportunity to enhance vagal tone through stretching and contracting movements.

The vagus nerve is the largest of the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS), responsible for regulating internal organs. Essentially, it evokes a 'relaxation response' after sympathetic arousal. Heart-rate variability indicates that those with ADHD may have reduced cardiac-linked parasympathetic activity. This means that the emotional reactivity associated with ADHD is indicative of ineffective parasympathetic responding: Normal levels of emotions or physiological arousal are experienced as more difficult to manage.

Enhancing vagal tone has long been prescribed as an intervention for immune disorders like rheumatoid arthritis. Such conditions have high comorbidity with ADHD. This may reflect shared genetic profiles. Regardless, enhancing immunity and mood are helpful.

Additionally, the multitude of sensory experiences in physical yoga suits the ADHD brain in maintaining attention. Increasing the heart rate offers an additional benefit as exercise is vital.

Community Connection

One final tip: practice in community. This may not be all the time, but it helps you plant the habits that are harder to cultivate at home, on your own, with ever so many distractions. If you can get into a meditation hall or yoga class, you'll be one step closer to harnessing the power of your ADHD mind.

Remember, the intention is to sharpen the ADHD brain, not to get rid of the ADHD. Hyperfocus, creativity and adventure are beautiful skills. So adventure well, and we'll dive into a more detailed PNI exploration in my next article.