Michael Clifford Boyes

 As we chart our way forward at the Fusion Collegiate Charter School, we are very pleased to be working with Mike Boyes, PhD from the University of Calgary. Mike is a developmental psychologist who over the course of his 30+ years in the psychology department at the University of Calgary and continuing as an Adjunct Associate Professor has worked on issues related to identity development among teens and emerging adults (18- to 29-year-olds). This has included looking at how young people take up the identity tasks of figuring out who they are, what they are going to become and how they are going to get there. In addition, Mike has worked on the developmental and experiential aspects of emerging adults’ transitions from secondary school to their post-secondary lives, trying to understand what is driving recent alarmin increases in anxiety and stress among teens, and at the kinds of skills and experiences they can use to prepare for and effectively manage their post-secondary life transitions. 

As part of his work in this important area, Mike developed a University of Calgary psychology course called Psychology For Everyday Life (Psych 203) and has been teaching it to high school students since 2015. Like other academic dual credit courses, students completing the course get credit for Psych 203 on a University of Calgary transcript along with 5 - ‘30’ credits added to their Alberta Education secondary transcript. The university course credit can be part of a University of Calgary program degree, or it can be transferred via the University to Calgary transcript to any other Canadian (or international) college or university. In addition to providing dual credit students with first-hand experience with what post-secondary/university courses and university participation involve, the course provides a general introduction to some of the areas of psychology that contribute strongly to psychology’s role as a hub science by informing and guiding research and practice in a broad array of areas (e.g., Education, Business, Medical Sciences, Law, etc.) and introduces students to the value that taking a bit of psychology can provide. Based on current and ongoing research looking at student post-secondary transitions, the course also contains assignments that have students engage in a number of exploratory and reflective activities that can help them gain some traction in their preparations for post-secondary transition. 

Mike will be working with Fusion Collegiate not only to make the Psychology for Everyday Life course and its University of Calgary experiences available to our students but also to look into developing additional dual credit opportunities in psychology and in other disciplines and to develop other ways to optimize our students’ readiness and preparedness for their transition to post-secondary life.