Wellness Week Alleviates Senior Overwhelm

In light of the crazed anxiety of November 1 college application deadlines paired with the day-to-day stress of being a high school student, the Wellness Center debuted its 1st Senior Wellness Week November 1-5.

In the hopes of easing student stress, Wellness staff put together a week of self-care activities, including mandala coloring, Vitality Bowl smoothies, restorative yoga, therapy dogs, watercoloring, spa water, yogurt parfaits, and a culminating raffle drawing.

Wellness Coordinator Jenna Wrobel said, “Starting in October, we started to hear about a lot of stress, especially with seniors, particularly around college applications. In the last 5 to 10 years, that early application deadline has become more and more prominent. We very specifically, though, didn’t highlight college applications in Senior Wellness Week, just because we wanted to make sure that it was all inclusive, so not just for students that are applying to 4 year colleges. So that’s kind of what spurred it on, just knowing that all seniors were needing a little bit of support.”

After submitting her college applications, senior Allison Neff said, “I feel like it was helpful, but it could have been maybe more helpful the week before applications were due.”

As expected, Wrobel noted that she thinks the activities “that involved food and dogs were probably the most popular.”

Neff said, “I had the Vitality Bowl, breakfasts, and spa water. I think the therapy dogs are my favorite because I just love dogs and I think we should have them everyday.”

Because she participated in multiple activities throughout the week, Neff was entered in the raffle and won the wellness package. “It was the best day of my life. I’ve never won a raffle before, I’ve always entered in them and never won. And honestly, I’m not even going to lie, I didn’t really want the wellness package, at first I wanted the candy. But this 1 was just pretty sick.”

Included in her prize package was a squishy, putty, and other stress-relieving fidget toys.

While the week’s activities were catered to seniors specifically, the Wellness Center plans to address each class’ needs individually. “We’ve taken an opportunity to focus on each of the classes, so we worked with the freshmen PE classes in August, we visited all of the HSD and semester electives in late September [and] early October, and then we’re going to work on something for the juniors in the spring semester,” said Wrobel.

With the high levels of participation from seniors, the Center plans to continue with wellness week in future years. While college application season can feel daunting, rising seniors can look forward to a rewarding week of relaxation in 2022.

Wrobel said, “I think we’re going to continue with [Senior Wellness Week] in some way, shape, or form.”