School can be a stressful environment for students who feel pressured to perform well in their classes while actively volunteering and participating in clubs. The Academy of the Canyons, like many other schools, has recently been working to make a student- and staff-run wellness center that promotes a stress free, relaxing environment for students at school.
The Academy of the Canyons is a middle college high school, which means that all high school students take their classes at both the high school campus and the college campus, the College of the Canyons. This means that students tend to have more stress than that of a normal high school student, having to balance both college and high school work. In a survey of 10th and 11th grade students, most have stated that the stressful environment at school has affected their daily life, such as not being able to get enough sleep and having too much homework at college.
Teachers and students have discussed how to make the best use of a wellness room that will lower the overall stress of the students. Some of the options discussed included a room to relax and nap in, a room to socialize without technology, a quiet room to finish work, and a room that is occasionally filled with stress relief dogs during finals week. As the school has been bringing dogs to school during finals week for the past few years, this method has proved that playing with dogs helps relieve stress for many students.
The school has held a conference on promoting general wellness, talking about important school and social issues that are affecting students in both positive and negative ways. This conference has helped many students to learn how to be more productive, to relieve stress, and to use important skills to be well rounded students.
Already, the teachers have planned a new schedule during finals week that helps balance college and high school finals at the same time. This will prove to be the most effective for the sophomores and the juniors, who tend to have the most amount of classes by the end of the year.
By implementing these new schedules and by promoting better wellness of students, there could be a big change towards the students’ minds toward school and the environment.
