by Sarah Paulus
Mental Health is a topic that has always been important to me. I have known people who struggle with it and have even struggled with it myself. It is a worldwide epidemic and most of the time overlooked. It affects everybody in one way or another, but I am blessed to go to a school that not only supports students caring about their mental health but even encourages it.
I am a junior at Hillsboro High School and the school, especially Clint Corby, the high school principal, have always done an amazing job showing the students how much they matter. Most students might not realize how much the school cares and vouches for all of the students. This has really shown recently in Mr. Corby’s support for a newly started mental help focus group.
For the past two or three years, a small group of students, myself included, has met a few times a year to discuss our own mental health inside and out of school. It has always been an amazing outlet for me and the other students involved. But I always wished we could meet more.
This year, with the help and support from Mr. Corby and Kirsty Andres, the school’s social worker, we’ve been able to meet every other week and have support to plan events. It has not only been a lot of fun, but it’s also causing change.
Our mental health focus group meets every other Friday during lunch. During our meetings, we talk about different aspects of mental (illness) health, as well as planning and organizing different things to advocate for students’ mental health. The group is open to anyone who is passionate or even just interested in learning more about mental health.
We just recently started our very own Instagram page! We know a lot of students frequently use social media, so what better way to reach students than that. If you are wanting more information on our group, or just want to start connecting to what’s going on in the high school, I suggest following us (@hhs_mentalhealth)!
We spent the first semester just building the foundation of the group. We took the time to have everyone share what’s important to them and even their own mental health stories. We knew it was important to build a strong foundation.
Just recently we took a Saturday to make a bunch of posters and hang them up around the school. It’s crazy how impactful a simple poster can be. Sure, some students might read one and think it’s dumb, but another student can look at that same poster and be inspired to keep going. It has been absolutely amazing to hear and see the effects.
We plan to continue to make changes in the school to help improve student, and staff, mental health around the school. We are currently planning a very exciting event that will take place in the next two months, and excited is an understatement.
If we can make an impact on even a single student’s life, it’ll all be worth it for us. Mental health is a huge thing that is so often overlooked, and we refuse to let future generations be afraid of talking about their mental health like the ones before have. And we are not a generation to take no for an answer.
