Sophomore students at Hoover High School handled their anxiety and stress head-on, Wednesday, by leading their first self-care fair.
About a hundred 10th-grade students spent the past four months researching therapies to help improve their mental health.
Their project-based learning started in science and English classes, looking at the physiology and social causes of childhood anxiety, depression, and isolation.
Ivanna Ramirez, 15, is a straight-A student. She proudly admits to using animal therapy to help with attitude adjustments.
"Keeping a dog can literally make me more sociable. It always makes me more optimistic," Ivanna said.
She hosted a booth using cute stuffed animals to educate her classmates on the mental health benefits she enjoys.
Valerie Woodfill is one of the veteran teachers who guided the project work.
Woodfill said, “I think we all need reminders of techniques we can engage in to help our mental health. (That includes) everything from meditation, aroma therapy, breathing techniques.”
Five hundred Hoover students, from freshmen to seniors, passed through the school's gym throughout the day to experience the options available to them for healing and help when they need it most.
“Therapy is just helping myself, make sure that I’m doing good and just finding a way to help maintain my stress," said Chanel Giron, one of the student organizers of the event.
Other therapies featured at the fair included intense exercise, sensory slime-making, and the use of ice-cold water. Tania Garibay, 16, dipped her hands in a bowl of freezing water to improve blood circulation and lower stress levels.
“All you think about are your hands and what your cold hands feel like," she said. "It helps you get your mind off of things. It really helps you.”
Self-care is not often taught in the traditional curriculum. But, Hoover High is a community school which makes it a perfect setting for new ideas and solutions.
A community school has partnerships with outside organizations to provide resources for the specific needs of students and their families.
All the students on campus are survivors of COVID-19 shutdowns and the resulting consequences.
Nattiya Saree, 16, is another of the sophomore organizers.
“I think it made everyone feel like they were in their own bubble and very isolated. So, that carried into here where we kind of struggle with talking about our feelings and finding a way to deal with stress," she said.
