To assist students with personal matters of stress, the Minds Matter club is  managed and run by students volunteers this year.

“The club involves improving students’ mental health and well-being,” said club sponsor Beth Werfel, the school psychologist. Minds Matter is designed to assist them with coping and stress regulation. Typically, the students will work upon strategies for success in their home and social lives in order to ultimately improve their emotional status. As a result of being an active participant, these students have  improved upon their grades and schoolwork.

“Each month, the club focuses on a certain theme, which is carried out by the student leaders,” Werfel said. Themes typically relate to students’ personal mindsets or real world surroundings, and the student leaders use these themes to create the activities for each meeting. In October, the club is focusing on “stigma reduction,” or neglecting their personal/mental downsides, which follows up September’s theme of “resource awareness.”

“So far this year, the club has gained about 16 members, which is more than the club started out with last year,” Werfel said. Anyone is welcome to join, she said, and there’s a strong possibility that more students will join throughout the course of the year. Eventually, the current and future members of the club will be needed to take the positions of the current club leaders when they graduate.

“The club is run by the students and other volunteers every Thursday after school in room S116,” Werfel said. The student leaders include club presidents, seniors Jack Reed and Annie Przypyszny, who’ve been a part of the club for most of their high school careers. Besides Werfel, the other two club sponsors, including Social Worker Marly Featherson and English Teacher Shannae Neal, also take a role in the management of the club. These club managers typically involve themselves in running the club’s events and meeting plans, which will be held next on Oct. 12.