This past October, the XQ Institute published an editorial entitled, “5 Ways to Support Student Mental Health” – you can find a copy on their website. Like our Cristo Rey Network of schools, XQ promotes their own educational model that rethinks the high school experience. They differ from Cristo Rey in that they focus on charter and public schools. XQ has 22 schools and school-within-a-school programs around the country, so they certainly have direct experience to back their assertions.
Mental health for students has been a top-of-mind topic this year as schools continue to adapt to the challenges brought by the ongoing pandemic, including much of the fallout from the last two years when students and teachers experienced extended periods of isolation, remote learning, disruption of their structured schedules, as well as the sometimes-overwhelming fear, uncertainty, anxiety, and stress we all have known.
XQ’s five strategies encouraged in their editorial to support student mental health are:
- Learn: Empower Students Through Transformative Learning Experiences
- Listen: Seek and Elevate Student Voice
- Create: Promote Healing Through the Arts
- Invest: Use Covid Funds to Support BIPOC students (Black, Indigenous, Persons of Color)
- Innovate: Adapt COVID Protocols to Support Mental Health
Regardless of the differences in our models and operations, it is amazing how closely their recommended steps resemble several initiatives undertaken at Cristo Rey St. Martin.
LEARN
CRSM worked diligently and creatively to keep students connected and learning throughout this pandemic. In March through May of 2020, CRSM (like much of the rest of the world) went completely virtual. Because our school had begun the practice of issuing every student his or her own Chromebook a few years earlier, we only had to make sure students had Wi-Fi access at home and we were fully operational. Student attendance during that remote time was still better than 90%. Summer school in 2020 was full-time in-person. Because of distancing requirements, the 2020-2021 school year shifted to a hybrid schedule where students could attend classes in-person twice a week. Since the beginning of summer school in 2001, CRSM has been running full-time in person. By maximizing in-person learning experiences, we maintained a strong sense of community and attachment, minimizing many of the pitfalls extended remote experiences produced.
Additionally, our Corporate Work Study Program (CWSP) shifted its focus in early summer – from trying to contract paying jobs to simply ensuring that every student had a job. We prioritized our students’ in-person work experiences over the need for paying jobs. Obviously, that means we currently have many more students working at non-profit organizations than usual, which hurts CRSM financially, but students are interacting and contributing while in-person in professional environments and have been for the entire school year. The only students working remotely this year are being paid by their job partners. What program are you aware of that is a more “transformative learning experience” than the CWSP?
LISTEN
CRSM continues to monitor the social/emotional status of our community, being especially alert to changes in student behavior from prior to COVID until now – counselors reach out to students (electronically, by phone, and now face-to-face); teachers check-in with students at the beginning of their classes; campus ministry offers opportunities for reflection and prayer; teachers and staff visit informally with students during study halls, at lunch, and even afterschool. More teachers and staff are regularly eating lunch together with the students in our cafeteria than even before the pandemic. Our students are also looking out for one another – attuned and empathetic to struggling classmates, at times referring friends to counselors. The antidote for mental and emotional trauma is community and community is CRSM’s strength.
CREATE
Before COVID, CRSM began a fledgling fine arts program and, this school year, shifted it into a higher gear. An Introduction to Fine Arts elective is now offered as well as an Introduction to Music Theory. The Art Club meets during lunch/flex time and afterschool, and the number of participating students expanded dramatically. In the coming weeks CRSM will host both the Cristo Rey Network’s Annual Meeting and the first in-person Founders’ Dinner in three years. In anticipation of these events, our Arts Club transformed the school’s library space this week into a professional art gallery – an incredible display of student talent in the form of sketches, pastels, paintings, computer-generated graphics, photographs, origami sculptures, and poetry.
Arts offer students alternative forms of expression and intermittent escapes from stress and anxiety. Drawing, for example, requires complete focus – keeping stress or worry at bay. Participation in the arts at CRSM is expanding dramatically – literally! Our theater program performed four productions of “Bram Stroker’s Dracula” this weekend, a first for our new stage in the gym. Over 17% of the student body is involved in some way – acting, directing, lighting, sound, scenery, props, ushers, and concessions! Acting can be both an escape and a chance to discover more about oneself by assuming another personality – it can even promote empathy. Being part of the production is being on a team – working together as a cohesive unit to prepare and realize live performances. The Art Show and the play recognize extended efforts that foster community, encourage deeper expression, and improve mental health.
INVEST
CRSM accessed funding through the CARES Act and spent it on improving the building’s HVAC system by installing Ultraviolet air filters. Known to kill other viruses like the flu, we could only postulate they would be effective against COVID. It wasn’t until after our installation was already underway that a UK research team published research confirming Ultraviolet exposure also killed the Coronavirus. The extra funding also allowed CRSM to purchase rapid tests as soon as they became available, permitting daily testing of students and staff before entering our building. These actions helped create an environment supportive to safe in-person gatherings and gathering together allows us to do everything else.
Well before the pandemic, families from low-income communities were forced to endure limited access to quality education and healthcare and fewer options for stable employment. COVID only magnified and expanded these inequities; CRSM’s mission is to reduce and eliminate them. All our resources are devoted to this so, when additional pandemic funds became available, it only made sense to devote them to that same cause.
In the U.S., income functions as a surrogate demographic for race. When XQ suggests a focus on BIPOC students it is akin to CRSM’s mission to reserve our educational opportunity for low-income students.
INNOVATE
Cristo Rey began as an innovative approach to education that harnesses corporate America and private, Catholic education to create a team to plow through an unequal playing field. It continues to do so. We have proven our ability to innovate in the past, but we are more acutely aware than ever that cannot not rest on those laurels. The world is changing – adapting is the only way to survive and flourish. The challenges of this pandemic force us to continue to innovate everywhere and all the time… and we will do it – in community and with deep compassion.