As the final days of school approach, it’s no surprise that AP exams and finals are affecting students’ mental health. We are in the home stretch of the 2024-2025 school year, however, this is the hardest time of the year for a lot of students. With most of the school year under our belt and only a couple of weeks to go, it’s hard to find motivation especially when many are overwhelmed. With the stress and schoolwork, students are attempting to find an escape. The Wellness Center is a free, convenient place to visit when it all becomes too much. But how much can the Wellness Center really do?
Mental health is a topic that Campolindo has shown that they care about in students and have made an effort to provide students with tools that they can use to improve their wellbeing. Stephanie Sliwinski, the school secretary, notes, “I appreciate the fact that my child goes to a school that has a Wellness Center.” She believes that the Wellness Center is an important resource for Campo: “I wish every high school in America had a Wellness Center.”
Senior Sophia Perrella agrees, “I think it is, ideally, a good tool for students to recharge after having a bad day and it’s very accessible.”
Yet students still have a stigma around bettering themselves and going into the Wellness Center. People tend to avoid getting help for themselves because it might be deemed as ‘embarrassing’. An anonymous student* testifies, “I feel like whenever someone brings up the Wellness Center, it feels kind of cringy to go there.”
Wellness Coordinator, Jenna Wrobel explains something they are working towards is to “reduce the stigma to get mental health help as it is just as important as physical health.”
Another student who chose to remain anonymous* said, “When I go in there, I’m being judged by the public, and once I’m in there, I’m being judged by the workers.” Having a welcoming place to go to, in arguably the toughest time of a person’s adolescence, is crucial. Perrella says she would go in there more often if “the people’s demeanors were less judgy.”
Along with the stigma, the Wellness Center is not taken as sincerely as mental health should be. Senior Curtis Smith-Wilde agrees and says when you want to go to The Wellness Center “a lot of teachers don’t take it seriously.” It is important for teachers to have faith in their students and believe that The Wellness Center is improving mental health for it to thrive within Campo. If the people within Campo, such as the teachers, don’t see importance in visiting The Wellness Center, it decentralizes the importance of bettering mental health in students’ minds.
Sophomore Viviana Sanchez says, “One of my teachers put on my progress report that I was ‘a good student, but went to the Wellness Center a lot,’ which was not true. But it felt like he was implying that going there was a problem.”
Wrobel said, “To support students when they’re in need and help them get back to learning is the Wellness Center’s goal.” Teachers understanding that the Wellness workers are actively trying to help students with their priority, mental health to get back to class is essential for the Wellness Center to operate.
Smith-Wilde says something that seems to be the consensus of the students at Campo: “I think [The Wellness Center] is a good concept, but it’s not executed very well.” For a high school to care about students’ mental health and allow them to have access to resources to help is a great first step, however, if the students believe that it is executed poorly, then that is a setback.
The big question is how can The Wellness Center improve? Wrobel mentions that they “receive generous funding from MEF and the parents club.” Some of the funding goes towards the amenities in The Wellness Center such as the toys, snacks, tea, and other necessities. However, Wrobel said, “Most of the funding goes towards activities like Wellness Wednesday and the giveaways.” If the funding is focused on giveaways and activities similar to that instead of other services specific to students’ mental health, then the funding is not being maximized to the potential it could.
The second anonymous student mentioned, “I feel like they keep [the activities] under wraps and low-key.” If most of the funding continues to go to these activities, there needs to be more advertisement if students don’t notice it, or it needs to improve on genuinely helping students’ mental health.
While it’s a good start that Campo has tools to improve the wellbeing of the student body, there are obvious improvements that need to be made. But they should start by reaching out for feedback from the students that need the Wellness Center but do not utilize it because of these flaws. While there is the potential for improvement, there are also steps that students need to take such as not being embarrassed for caring about their wellbeing. Campo is on the right track by understanding the importance of mental health, but these improvements need to be confronted rather than pushed away and ignored.
*Some students decided to remain anonymous and the reporter has checked that their sentiments are shared by other students who declined to be interviewed.
