Homework, tests, expectations, grades. Students can often be overwhelmed by the pressure that comes from school, extracurriculars and personal issues. In response to this predicament, Aragon recently introduced a new Mental Health and Wellness program designed to help students, parents and staff deal with stress and to improve their overall wellbeing. Along with a new Mental Health therapist, Jillian Ma, and Mental Health intern Staysha Veal, Leadership has created a new Health and Wellness Commission to promote self-care among Aragon students.
The program is being introduced as a support system for students. Ma says, “School can be a hard place sometimes, and the pressure from school and family and teachers and college and work can all get overwhelming, so we are here to really help students to do as well as they can in school.”
One aspect the wellness coordinators are focusing on is ensuring that students who need support are getting it, even if they might not be actively seeking help themselves. Veal says, “We have a system where once they go through their academic counselors, we take notice of some of the students that might have some challenges.”
The program is not only important for students, however. Coordinators will also help to improve the mental health of adults in the Aragon community. Wellness facilitator and Health teacher Barbara Beaumont says, “If your teacher is happy and healthy, if your parent is happy and healthy, then that is going to make everybody else around them a little bit more happy and healthy. We have a program called Mindful Schools, an online education program and training for mindfulness practice, so that is what we are promoting for staff and parents. And the GATE parent group has signed a contract allowing all of the San Mateo Union High School District staff and parents to take these online courses involving mindfulness practice, so it teaches them how to cope and deal with stress and also how to use their words and actions to be a little more mindful in their daily lives.”
Leadership will also an active part in helping students relieve stress. Commission head and senior Soraya Valdez-Frick says, “We are the ones in charge of destressors, like dead week destressors, [to improve] health within the Aragon student body.”
The commission plans to facilitate wellness improvement through a series of activities during the school year. Commission member and senior Haley Sunga says, “We are trying to unite everyone in healthy ways, and by doing so, we are making them active — making them do more physical things, such as big games that we are planning, and also focusing on the mental part of it, such as brain games to make [students] think.”
One of the first events put on by the commission was the “Don Ball” game in center court during lunch on Sept. 16. Students stood atop the cement blocks located near the main office in center court, and threw balls into trash cans placed around the lawn, with points assigned based on how far the trash can was from the blocks.
The game set itself apart from normal rally games because it allowed any student to participate rather than a select few. “This event is a little less intimidating, so kids are more willing to do it,” says senior Emily Paras, “Also, you aren’t in front of the entire school, and you [don’t] have to know someone in Leadership to get involved; you can just go up with friends.”
“Don Ball” encouraged students to be active, an integral part of wellness. “It was just people having fun in a lunch event and seeing that being active is something you can do everyday,” says freshman Andrea Hernandez, “you don’t have to run or exercise to be active, you just have to be moving around and having fun.”
Veal believes that student participation is crucial for the success of the program.
“I believe that if we can implement this successfully and get the support of everybody in the community, it will have a huge impact,” she says, “Overall, kids will feel more supported, and that will affect their academics, which will affect their social and emotional functioning, which will affect their wellness. It will ultimately affect them positively, if we can get everybody on board and get everyone’s support.”
