Join our host Elias Kilbridge as he explores wellness and wellbeing with Clayton’s wellness coordinator, Jennifer McKeown. Learn about the wellness center and its upcoming initiatives, gain valuable advice from Mrs. McKeown, and, most importantly, enjoy the podcast!
Kilbridge: Hello, and welcome back to the orbit. I’m your host, Elias Kilbridge, and today I have Mrs. Jennifer McKeown, our school’s wellness coordinator. Thanks so much for joining me.
McKeown: Thanks for having me.
Kilbridge: So, for those who don’t know, Clayton High School has recently implemented a new wellness center. This has also been combined with a wellness youth council that has worked in tandem with Mrs. M and other staff members to curate a space for students to come and just have a place to relax and regenerate, and reset throughout the day. So, do you just want to speak a little bit to the Wellness Center?
McKeown: The Wellness Center, like Elias said, is a safe space for students. Our Wellness Youth Council, which Elias mentioned, is kind of the youth piece to our student piece that drives the Wellness Center. They helped create, they helped design, and now it’s here for students. So a lot of the things that you can do in the Wellness Center, we’ve gotten advice from students about what helps you relax, what helps you be able to take some time for yourself, what are some tools and some resources that you would like to have in here? So, a lot of these, if you come into the moment center, you will see a lot of activities, a lot of supports that students have told us that they want to have in there. So that’s a big piece, and again, you can come for, you know, if you’re having a big emotion and a big feeling, all the way to just saying hi and getting connected. I know our wellness youth council also has been really working this year in kind of addressing some of the trends and some of the mental health kind of topics that they are kind of seeing, that are important to them.
Kilbridge: So you mentioned the Wellness Youth Council, how is that process really working with them? Are they, you know, just giving student input? Are they student representatives? How is that really looking?
McKeown: Yeah. So, Ms. Grace, our wellness outreach specialist, has taken on leading our wellness youth council this year, and students were able to apply at the beginning of the school year. Our leaders last year from the Youth Wellness Council were invited to continue the work [from last year] and be a part of the group this year and a lot of them continued that work. So a lot of our Wellness Council members from last year are continuing working with our new Council and are leading some of the initiatives this year, and then we have new, you know, students that are really passionate about teen health and wellness and that are joining and kind of leading the effort as well. So they just have to apply and show some interest in helping out the Wellness Center.
Kilbridge: Perfect. There’s a new initiative that the Wellness Council/Wellness Center calls “More Than.” Can you just explain a little bit about what that is?
McKeown: Our students and the Council kind of have wanted to explore the topic of like being at school, there’s a lot of stress and academic pressure, and a lot of times you are recognized, you know, either from your peers, from your um your friends, you know, from your parents and your teachers as kind of just being about your academics and about, you know, kind of your representation here at school is just kind of about your grades and your academics. But the students are kind of like, we’re more than that. We’re more than just how we perform here at school. We do other things. We are friends, we are, you know, supports to others, we are athletes, we are more than kind of what um what our academics say about it. And we don’t have to just be in the academic world and be seen by that. So, that’s one that the council, you know, is kind of tackling, that topic of academic pressure and how it affects students, but also kind of recognizing that you know, we wanna be seen for who we are as individuals and you know, and we want to kind of spread the word about that.
Kilbridge: I think that’s a really key point, especially, as you know, I myself am a senior and my classmates are going through the college process, and oftentimes it very much seems like you are just a name on a stat sheet alongside your GPA, your test scores, whatnot. So I think that’s a really cool way to kind of get students to recognize that they are able to act outside of that and really be their own personal identity and really embrace that. So I think that’s great. What are the, you know, individual initiatives that our Clayton students could be looking forward to?
McKeown: Next week, February 3-7, you will see some posters and promotion of some events, so throughout the week, the Wellness Youth Council is gonna have some nice notes, so you can take a note, and we’ll have some locations to be determined where those kind of boxes are, but you can take a sticky note, um and just kind of leave a positive message for your peers or if you need to take one for yourself, you can do that too. So you can do that all week and just kind of reinforcing that you are seen, that people are there that support you and that you’re seen not just for your academics, but that you can get through this, you can do this, we see you, you’re amazing, you’re awesome, and so those notes will be [available] throughout the week as a kind of an event or a campaign that you can participate in. We’re gonna have a collaborative art piece that students can work on through the Wellness Center that, again, location to be determined where that will be; it might be down by the Wellness Center, it might be in a more centralized location, but you can leave your mark, and you can draw and create art and kind of collaborate with others to do that art piece. Then we’ll have a speaker, a highlight of this week, coming in and talking to students about that academic pressure and kind of being more than just your academics and that topic. We have a mental health professional coming in to talk with students on Feb. 6 during lunch/Greyhound time. So hopefully [you can come] if you’re interested in learning more and hearing that speaker; there will be treats there too, so you can come, grab a treat and hear from a speaker about that. Then we’ll have some interviews from students that will kind of be out in the digital world through our Instagram and maybe on the website, where you can hear a little bit more from the students about this, too.
Kilbridge: For sure. I mean, definitely be on notice and on the lookout for all the things that the Wellness Center is pushing out. If you were going to give one last piece of advice to Clayton’s students about wellness, what would it be?
McKeown: Take time for yourself. I know that wherever you are, in life, in high school, that it’s really, really hard, whether it’s academics, friendships, home, you know… take time for yourself. Whether that be, you know, going for a walk, coming in and seeing us, grabbing a cup of tea, we are here for you and it’s okay to take some time in the busyness of life for you. And just know that that’s important, and it will serve you in your relationships, in school, and in life in general.
Kilbridge: Very profound. That’s a very important thing for people to recognize, not even just Clayton students, but anybody that’s listening, put yourself first. Ms. M, thank you so much for joining me today. This was wonderful. Thank you to our listeners. Stay tuned for wellness events and everything like that. So thank you so much.
McKeown: Thank you.
