The main update to my Signature project this October is my shift of focus from expanding the club to other schools to instead developing a mental health curriculum for high school health classes. While this is still in the tentative planning stage, I think this change will allow my project to have a more long-lasting impact.
There were also a few roadblocks that I faced that also affected my decision to change this focus. I tried to reach the coordinator of the student leadership conference at the Rensselaer by email and phone multiple times, but did not get a response. This was going to be my main method by which to recruit members of other schools to start their own branches of the club. I could have gone back through the Rensselaer school district to then have the Superintendent's office call the coordinator, but given my enthusiasm for the alternative plan for my Signature project (and my lack of time because of college applications), I decided to go with my second plan. This is an especially timely given that the Mental Health Education in Schools bill, signed by Governor Cuomo in October, will require schools to start teaching mental health in the currently mandatory health class starting in 2018. I'm hoping that maybe this could help me encourage Emma Willard to also adopt a more comprehensive mental health curriculum (which ideally could become part of my Signature. More to come later!)
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Mental illness is nothing to be ashamed of, but stigma and bias shame us all. -Bill Clinton
Katherine WallaceEmma Willard Class of 2017. Archives
May 2017
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