From high school dropout to prize-winning researcher

Mélanie Letendre Jauniaux was a high school dropout who became a young single mother. 

Now, her graduate research is developing a publicly available training program for trauma awareness education. 

"I'm a survivor," Jauniaux said. "Like my parents, I grew up in poverty and chaos." 

These were Jauniaux's opening words as she presented her research at the annual Storyteller Showcase of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.

The council, a federal agency that funds research coming out of Canadian universities, held its 12th annual contest for young and emerging researchers, who presented their council-funded work at the event in Fredericton

The showcase was held this month at the University of New Brunswick, where an audience of nearly 100 heard 17 research presentations. 

Jauniaux, a graduate student at Bishop's University in Quebec, was one of five winners of a challenge. Each got a prize of $1,000. Jauniaux also received the Storyteller Engagement Prize, valued at $1,000, for effective and creative promotion of her  research. 

Jauniaux's research grew out of her own experience, and the program she developed is aimed at helping people learn about their trauma, become better informed about their behaviour and patterns, and live happier lives.

The half-day training consists of three components: learning the science of trauma, understanding what being trauma informed means, and being able to put these elements into action. 

"People come away with a lot of interesting insight," Jauniaux said. 

She has trained people who came to the program for professional training but left feeling a lot of personal growth and understanding.

Jauniaux's trauma education research is an example of the knowledge mobilization and accessibility that the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council strives to produce, one member says. 

Tara Lapointe, vice-president of the council, said its objective is to fund relevant, timely and compelling research and to make it available to the public. 

"The storytellers [here] spoke to the research that we need," Lapointe said. "That we need to better understand about the human condition so that we can make better choices moving forward."

Lapointe said that social sciences and humanities research is relevant to more than just the academics who specialize in the area. It is important for the public to be able to easily access and make use of the research too. 

One of the other winners of the challenge, Maddie Brockbank from McMaster University in Ontario, said the experience for the researchers was about more than just showcasing their own work. The challenge created a space where the students could all learn from each other. 

"What was so exciting about this is that nobody's research was the same, it was all so diverse and exciting and I just felt like it was such a co-learning space."