St. Patrick School Creates Mind Over Matter Committee

Recent studies are showing that with the Covid-19 pandemic, many students are facing increasing issues of anxiety and depression, which unfortunately, had already been growing over the past decade even before the pandemic hit. Being aware of this increase in students struggling with mental health related concerns, St. Patrick School is daring to be different by creating a new group to face this challenge head on.

Our school counselor, Mrs. Jenny Garcia, working along with senior Emma Scheurer as a part of her senior Capstone project, have created this new group to work on boosting student morale, to problem-solve any challenges our students face, and to promote mental health awareness and a positive school culture.

We have ten high school student representatives and nine middle school students representing our school’s efforts to promote mental health awareness. Our mental health awareness group had the opportunity to create their own name, and they chose to be called the Mind Over Matter (MOM) Committee. The group will meet each Monday during lunch in our parish hall so they can properly social distance. The Mind Over Matter Committee will plan a variety of activities throughout the school year including our second annual Mental Health Awareness Week and other activities for stress relief.

The Mind Over Matter Committee has been brainstorming a number of events for the 2020-2021 school year. The first event will begin this week. Each grade, 6th through 12th, will decorate their hallway section in a fall themed decorating contest. The class that wins the hall decorating contest will get to smash pumpkins to relieve their stress and anxiety.

We are very appreciative to Mrs. Garcia, Emma Scheurer, and our Mind Over Matter Committee student representatives. We are excited to see all the educational, as well as fun and exciting events they are planning throughout the school year.

Randy Hodge is the high school principal at St. Patrick School.