Looking Towards My School Community

Hey guys! So this week, I have been continuing my studies with the Science of Wellbeing for Teens course. Genuinely, it has been super interesting to learn about all the different phenomenons experienced by our brains and begin to notice myself doing them. One major impact that I have noticed this course having on me is that I am savoring the positive experiences in my life a lot more. Whether that be spending quality time with my family and dog, or simply sharing a smile with my classmate, I have been more mindful of every moment. Gratitude works wonders.

As we get farther into April, I need to begin thinking towards my culminating project in this study. How do I take what I’ve learned from this Yale course, from analyzing the Authentic Connections Survey, from my preliminary research on mindfulness, exercise, and yoga, and apply that to my school community? Well, the way I started approaching this is to view my school from three perspectives: intrapersonal techniques, interpersonal relations, and school cultural views & values. Intrapersonal techniques essentially means one’s own mindset towards themselves as well as one’s own mental and physical practices. These could include soccer, reading, cooking, or even scrolling on TikTok. Interpersonal relations encompass peer, parent, and teacher relations (but for the purpose of my independent study, I hope to focus on peer and teacher relations). Finally, cultural (could be school culture or greater societal culture) views and values include how societal norms in general affect one’s own views of themself and others, and what one values in themself or others.

Now that you have a greater understanding of my categories, here’s my tentative plan:

Intrapersonal focus: Gratitude and mindfulness strategies

Examples:

• once a week or once a month in advisory, advisees have a free write for 10 minutes about their day, and five minutes to write down everything they are thankful for. these journals could be kept in advisory specifically for this purpose. we could have a reflection on this activity senior year to see if students incorporated these strategies outside mandated advisory time and to see if they would continue this past high school.

• Incorporate mindfulness meditation into more classes at the Upper School—five minutes before each class. teachers could have a choice of either learning how to voice meditation or they could play a meditation video through an approved website and/or app (in this case, they could participate in the meditation as well). To make it easier on teachers, this could rotate by subject—one month english teachers, one month math teachers, and so on. Ultimately, this could improve both student AND teacher wellbeing or focus skills.
• Incorporate videos from or like those found in The Science of Wellbeing For Teens into the Health and Wellness course.

Interpersonal Focus: Fostering Kindness

Examples:

• In advisory, we could do a gratitude exercise in which we write a letter or small note to one person in our school community who we are thankful for and deliver it to them
• Reward small acts of kindness (I believe something like this is already coming back in the form of something similar to ODA’s (from middle school)
• Teachers and other role models could model what kind behavior looks like for students
• Overall, strategies in the intrapersonal category could carry over and create a more kind/generous community due to the “feel-good, do-good phenomenon” (if confused about that term, read my previous post!)

Communal Focus: Transparency and Student Involvement

Examples:

• While the Student Life Advisory Board works a tremendous amount with Mrs. Frasher and the Student Life Committee, perhaps making the work that is being done through SLAB more transparent/accessible to the greater DA community could improve the general student population’s knowledge of what is being done. It would be amazing to receive updates or have a space for many students (not on the committee) to input their own ideas.
• When new wellness programming does arrive, maybe provide a quick survey to run the programming past students. This could be done in advisory
• Encourage (or keep encouraging) every student to be their authentic selves…despite what you might think colleges, other peers, or adults want. Everyone who truly cares about you wants you to be yourself! This is an important and universal message that should be expressed often at DA!

These are just preliminary ideas, and I am planning to talk them over with my content advisors soon! I hope you enjoyed this post, and feel free to comment any feedback you have on how my study is going so far. Thanks so much and have an amazing day!