School can be a stressful place. We all know the feeling of having assignments pile up on our to-do list or having to cram during finals week.
The Mental Health Club is a resource during times like these, relieving stress and talking to students going through similar things. They work on various initiatives, such as their recent assembly, to promote the well-being of students.
India Haberkern, a Form IV leader of the club, shared, “It’s a place to strive for new improvements to Fieldston to make it a safer place that is more catering to students’ mental health.”
“We do our best to be representatives of the student body at Fieldston throughout all the grades and to report back to school heads and external resources at the school about how they can help students at Fieldston,” explained Palazzolo, another Form IV club leader.
All four grades attended form meetings on mental health this past week. However, each one was a bit different. The club leaders worked to specialize each assembly on issues important to their respective grades. The Form III students filled out a survey for Jed, an organization that focuses on suicide prevention. The Form V meeting discussed mental health concerning ACTs, SATs and the college process. The Form VI meeting centered around leaving home for college and how to cope with the transition.
The Form IV meeting, led by Palazzolo and Haberkern, focused on the differences between anxiety and stress along with depression and sadness. There were two brief videos on the conditions discussed regarding the aforementioned differences. Haberkern and Palazolo then presented coping skills for how to deal with emotions and conditions.
In addition, they shared two scenarios related to these topics. People turned and talked to each other about which one they thought the scenario exemplified and relevant coping mechanisms. One of the main ideas of the assembly was awareness. Palazzolo commented, “We wanted to let everyone know that it’s a very normal thing to be experiencing.”
“I think the most important part of the mental health club is destigmatizing talk about mental health,” remarked Haberkern.
Palazzolo shared that the club prioritizes “creating a safe space that [anyone] can rely on.”
Georgia Riina (Form VI) and Mila Kolevzon (Form VI) led the Form V meeting, focusing on the college process. They kept students engaged with candy and fun activities, like the positivity wall, which encouraged students to write anonymous notes of joy!
“Kids feel like they can’t talk about things they’re stressed about,” said Riina. “We want to create a safe and positive space, that’s our goal as a club”
Caitlin Neidow (Form VI) and Lily Cordon-Siskind (Form VI), led the Form VI assembly, targeting sleep, college decisions and the transition to college. Prior to the assembly, they sent out a Google form to the entire senior class, attempting to understand the most prevalent issues.
“Oftentimes students say that assemblies aren’t targeted to an issue that wouldn’t be a productive use of time,” said Neidow. “We wanted to make sure students felt that they were getting something beneficial.”
After attending the Mental Health assembly on Thursday, December 5, I gained new insights on anxiety, stress, depression and sadness. It is crucial to talk about these issues because everyone deals with them at some point. The Fieldston community has many resources like the mental health club, school psychologists and other trusted people to contact. The Mental Health assemblies simply highlighted these wonderful resources.
