With students anticipating the end of the year and AP exam season looming, they often need a boost to keep them going until the end of the school year. The PTSA sponsored Perfect Attendance Challenge and expansion of Wellness Wednesday satisfies it.

The PTSA is working with mental health-related clubs and other student organizations at McLean. These include Serenity Club, Sources of Strength, and the SGA

The Perfect Attendance Challenge will take place from March 11 to April 12 and enter students with perfect attendance— missing less than three hours of class in a day—into a raffle each week. Excused absences are considered missed days, according to co-president of Serenity Club, junior Lana Al-Saloum. Class-based prizes will also be awarded.

“At the end of the competition, the grade with the highest number of perfect attendances will win an ice cream social,” Al-Saloum said.

The new Wellness Wednesday initiative is an expansion of existing weekly stress-reducing activities that student can participate in during lunch. Each day of the week will be devoted to a different activity and the schedule will be repeated until April 12—Minds Matter Mondays, Terrific Tuesdays, Wellness Wednesdays, Theater Thursdays, FroYo Fridays.

“Wellness activities are intended to target students who may feel large amounts of stress on a daily basis,” Al-Saloum said. “Whether this is due to the immense amounts of homework they receive on a daily basis, or extracurricular activities.”

Implementing these days was not a strenuous process, according to Al-Saloum. Reducing stress through small, inclusive student-centered programs like these is the goal of many of the organizations involved in the new programs.

“While it did take a couple of meetings and planning sessions, we were able to come up with the best ways to implement these programs at McLean. We…took some quality insight from a senior themselves, who told us what incentivized them,” Al-Saloum said.

All year the organizations responsible for creating these programs have worked to reduce stress at McLean.

“We hope that these programs will truly allow students to realize that high school, while it may seem stressful, should not be causing negative ramifications on one’s mental health,” Al-Saloum said. “By implementing the aforementioned programs, we hope to make a difference in people’s perspectives on high school, making it brighter and healthier.”

Be on the lookout for more information about the programs on social media and around McLean. If you would like to diminish stress around school join any of the listed student clubs accepting new members.