"I've been studying psychology intensely probably since I was 14," says Alves, "particularly the existential works."
Michael Alves, of Ludlow, developed an unusual interest in psychology at an early age. Alves will pursue his bachelor's degree this fall at UMass' Commonwealth Honors College.
HOLYOKE - At an age when teenagers should be reading Harry Potter, Michael Alves was reading Carl Jung.
"I've been studying psychology intensely probably since I was 14," says Alves, "particularly the existential works."
He also studied a lot of philosophy - Nietzsche, Sartre - and the works of the Russian writer Dostoevsky.
At Ludlow High School, Alves started a philosophy club. At 16 he was giving lectures on existentialism, Cartesian dualism, Taoism. He conducted Socratic dialogues with fellow club members. Group talks touched on theoretical physics.
"I covered anything anyone wanted to talk about," he says, "anything people would listen to."
After high school he continued his study of psychology at Holyoke Community College. On June 1 he was awarded his associate's degree at the school's 66th commencement exercises, graduating with high honors.
In September, Alves will transfer to Commonwealth Honors College at the University of Massachusetts, one step closer to his goal of becoming a clinical psychologist.
"I'm one of those people who decided what to do early on," says Alves, who is 20 and lives in Ludlow.
Alves was born in Bermuda, the son of a mother from Pakistan and father from Portugal. "Growing up I got a lot of both cultures," says Alves. "They're very different."
The family moved between Massachusetts and Connecticut before eventually settling in Ludlow and running a smoke shop in Springfield.
Alves' interest in psychology has been influenced largely by personal experience. He was diagnosed with depression and psychosis at 14. After two years of treatment, he recovered completely, he says, but the impact remains.
"It's an illness where there's not a lot of empathy," says Alves. "It's very difficult for people to relate to it."
To that end, Alves founded an HCC chapter of Active Minds, a national organization that works through students on college campuses to destigmatize mental illness.
The group works closely with HCC Counseling Services, distributes literature and sponsors events, such as a documentary about eating disorders that was screened on campus this spring. Alves has talked to classes about mental illness and consulted with professors on their class projects, including one about famous people with mental illness.
"There are so many misconceptions about mental illness," says Alves. "It's much more difficult to help someone with mental illness because of the discrimination they face."
He remembers the feeling. "It's a very complicated and touchy situation," says Alves, "particularly for a high school student."
In addition to his work with Active Minds, Alves is a member of HCC's Green Key Honor Society and Psi Beta, a national honor society that recognizes students involved in projects or activities related to psychology.
For the Commonwealth Honors Undergraduate Research Conference at UMass, Alves presented a paper about the relationship between anxiety and media coverage of dramatic events that he had written for his Honors Colloquium, "The Power of Nightmares: The Manufacturing of Fear and Conspiracy in American Society."
"I pulled together a lot of research and posited the argument that exposure to news media over a long period of time appears to incline consumers toward the same major symptoms that characterize general anxiety disorder," he says. "Indirect exposure to events like 9-11, for instance, leads to heightened rates of trauma symptoms in populations that weren't directly affected by the attacks."
Outside of school, when he's not studying - or reading for pleasure graduate research texts on cognitive behavioral therapy - Alves works for his parents in the family business, Smokin' Deals, a tobacco shop on Boston Road in Springfield.
He's also into music. He played drums and guitar for the now-defunct band Bad Chemistry, which traveled the circuit of small bars between Northampton and Boston. Alves spends the rest of his time writing, mostly poetry, and has been published in literary journals including The Northampton Review and Meet for Tea, as well as HCC's own Pulp City.
Before heading to UMass, he will be working this summer as the music director at Camp Starfish, a New Hampshire camp for children with emotional and behavioral disabilities.