Back to School Newsletter

2021-22

Back to School

A John Hughes classic from 1986 starring Matthew Broderick as Ferris Bueller, a popular high schooler who fakes an illness to get out of school. He used his uncanny skill of cutting classes to “borrow” a Ferrari and embark on a journey through Chicago. Filled with a performance of “Twist and Shout,” Ferris Bueller’s Day Off takes you on a high school adventure.

Based on the real-life adventures of Cameron Crowe, Fast Times at Ridgemont High follows a group of high school students growing up in Southern California with a standout performance by Sean Penn as a Jeff Spicoli surfer-type stuck in a feud with the stern history teacher Mr. Hand.

Nadine Franklin, played by Hailee Steinfeld, is an awkward 17-year-old high school student who forms a bond with her teacher Mr. Bruner. Nadine struggles to live in the shadow of her popular older brother. When her best friend Krista starts to date Nadine’s brother, Nadine can’t take the fact that her brother took the only good thing in her life.

Movie Ideas

Olive, a clean-cut high school student, tells a lie to make her boring weekend seem a little less boring. When the lie spreads, Olive becomes notorious for all the wrong reasons. With callbacks to older Rom-Com’s such as Can’t Buy Me Love, Easy A takes the “Scarlet Letter” into a new era.

Adapted from William Shakespeare’s play The Taming of the Shrew, Ten Things I Hate About You follows Bianca Stratford, a sophomore who is not allowed to date. However, there is one exception to this rule: Bianca can date if her older sister Kat does as well. Featuring a performance of “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” by Heath Ledger and an iconic poem.

John Keating, played by Robin Williams, is the new English Teacher at a preppy boarding school. The all-boys school known for its ancient traditions and high standards is shaken up by Mr. Keating’s unorthodox teaching methods. Against the administration’s desires, Mr. Keating uses poetry to embolden and inspire the boys to break out of their shells.

Pet Feature:

Hi! My name is Maggie Purcell and this is my puppy Riggins. He recently turned 1 and loves to play in the mud...my family was not very happy about it!

Favorite Snacks

Trail mix
Fruit
Peaches
Peanut butter rice cakes
Nature’s Bakery fig bars
Yogurt
Stay hydrated!
Apple chips

Trail mix

Yogurt

Peanut butter rice cakes

Apple chips

Advice for School Anxiety

It is important to remember that you are not alone with the stresses that come from school.
Talk about your feelings with others
Make a plan to get organized!
Take deep breaths
Practice self care
Remember, your teachers and faculty are nervous too
Communicate with your teachers on what you need to be successful
Prioritize mental health over school, take a break if you’re feeling overwhelmed
Remember, if you're feeling this way, so are your friends. It's helpful to just open up and normalize the conversation.

Youth SOS

Headline: San Mateo County-based Youth SOS Team will serve as a new outlet for youth

Subheadline: Branching from StarVista’s Crisis Center, the Youth SOS Team will add on to the digital revolution of mental health resources and will encourage teens to self-advocate and seek the support they need

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, teenage mental health has shifted indefinitely to a new format. While some were negatively affected by being stripped of their social connections that they crave, others have had their struggles alleviated from not having the pressure of social interaction. Even so, everyone had seen a shift in their wellness as they waited for news of a vaccine or any other hint of normalcy. With this change came a need for more outlets and places that teenagers could go for help. Crisis Hotlines, such as those at the StarVista’s Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention Center, have become instrumental for some teenagers in order to seek the help they need during this confusing time.

The San Mateo County-based Crisis Center is working on a new service that has been years in the making called the Youth Stabilization, Opportunity, and Support Team (Youth SOS). This service aims to provide in-person or over the phone support for anybody under the age of 25 who is struggling with a mental health crisis. This team was created as a resource for teenagers to be able to use on their own to advocate for their own mental health without hospitalization or professional intervention.

The Crisis Center, which is a part of mental health nonprofit StarVista, provides “high-impact crisis services to the community” through hotlines and programs.

The Crisis Center’s Mental Health Clinician Brook Pollard has been heavily involved in the process of developing the Youth SOS Team and bringing it to life.

“I would hope that with our mission in mind, we have better support in our community for young people because we usually only see a few options for teenagers, like going to the school counselor or being sent right to the hospital,” Pollard said. “There are different levels of intervention needed, and we help de-escalate them from whatever they're feeling.”

Pollard herself started working with the Crisis Center after hearing a speaker at her high school from the Crisis Center speak about supporting experiences that she herself had dealt with. Pollard feels that this project is important because it will provide teenagers an outlet to speak without necessarily seeking advice or intervention. In addition, unlike the crisis center’s other services, teenagers will be able to call directly from their own phones rather than needing a school counselor or outside therapist to call for them.

Since the pandemic, teenagers have been deprived of the social connections they need in order to grow as people, which has taken a toll on their mental health.

“I know from personal and professional experience that a lot of teenagers are hurting right now,” Pollard said. “We are all social creatures, and the teenage years especially are the time in your life where your friends have really taken over a lot of the familial connections. And so having not as much access to those types of support has really hurt a lot of teenagers.”

However, one positive outcome of the pandemic was the digitization of mental health support and increasing focus on virtual resources. Pollard mentioned that since the pandemic, the Crisis Center’s hotline had been receiving more calls in order to seek connections and support that had been made unavailable because of the pandemic. The normalization of digital mental health support has also led teenagers to become more willing to advocate for themselves.

“I work with some teenagers where there is a lot of social anxiety or there's a lot of fear around school and being in front of other folks,” Pollard said. “And so the pandemic has alleviated a lot of that for them and while they of course miss their friends a lot of the anxiety about being in a public space with eyes focused on you has been helped by having a computer in between them and the people that they're talking to.”

The increase in demand as well as need for teenage mental health support has given the Youth SOS Team the perfect opportunity to launch their mission and provide targeted support. Their 24/7 service will be available to residents of San Mateo County as of September, and can be accessed through their hotline, 650-579-0350.

Written by: Grace F., Junior, Nueva School, SYAB - Resource/Digital Media Committee

Our go-to back to

school items

Post-it notes

I am always worried that I am going to forget something so I write it on a Post-it note!

Glitter pens

Using these pens make me enjoy taking notes!

Muji Pens

It makes it easier for annotating and writing and taking notes becomes 10x more satisfying.

A planner

I forget things easily :’)

Highlighters

It makes it easier for annotating and highlighting important parts.

Colored tabs

I love to color code everything!

Cute erasers

They make me smile!

Personal organizer (w/ cute stationary)

I love staying organized!

Backpack

I love my Fjallraven backpack :)

Pencil

I could not live without a pencil because I like to play with it with my fingers when I get stressed.

Favorite Summer Memory

Hi, my name is Maggie Purcell and every summer since I was younger I spend 2 weeks with my mom's side of the family on a ranch in Oregon! It's a very special trip for me, especially since I have not been able to see them a lot due to Covid! We ride bikes all over the ranch and spend time by/on the lake! I look forward to it every year and can't wait for next year!

Hi, I am Bela and over the summer I got the opportunity to see some of my favorite artists at Rolling Loud Miami!

Hi, I’m Cate and every summer my family goes to Lake Tahoe with my dad’s best friends from high school and their families. My dad and his group of around 10 people all went to Menlo-Atherton High School and are still pretty close, and the trip is super fun because there’s so many families and we do a bunch of activities.

Feelings About Returning to School

"I am feeling anxious because while I am excited to see others and socialize, I am worried about the long days and finding energy."

"As I am looking forward to school being somewhat back to normal, and to socialize and be with friends, I am nervous to see how I will do with the long work days and the bigger work loads. I tend to get anxious in situations where I feel uncomfortable so I'm hoping my transition back into school will go smoothly."

"I’m pretty nervous because there’s so many people I haven’t seen in a long time, and I’m nervous to take tests in person and do college apps. I’m excited to see my friends and learn better in classes."

"Going back into school for me makes me feel very nervous, and anxious. I’m excited but really nervous to go back to school."

"I know we all feel nervous, but I choose to have a positive perspective."

"I am super nervous about returning to school, even though it's my senior year and I know how the school works. I think missing most of junior year makes in-person school feel foreign and scary."

Advice from the Grade Above You

For 8th-graders:

Create solid study habits and do homework the day it's assigned to prepare yourself for high school. Stay organized and on top of everything.

For Freshmen :

It’s okay if you're nervous for high school. Just remember to be yourself and pay attention in class.
Be open to meeting new people
Join as many clubs, sports, and extracurriculars as you have time for because this will give you opportunities to meet new people from all different parts of the school you might have never known.
Try your best in school but don’t stress too much about these grades since you’ll have three more years to get to where you want to be academically

For Sophomores:

Start thinking about certain activities (clubs, sports) you want to devote your time too as school gets a little busier
With the clubs and activities you join, make sure they're ones you actually like, not just ones to fill your resume. Doing things you're passionate about will be both more enjoyable for you and will make writing about these things on college apps easier because you'll have an authentic connection to them.
This is probably the year you have the most free time so enjoy it!
Get comfortable at your school and get involved
Keep your grades up and don’t think sophomore year “won’t matter” - showing either consistency or improvement from freshman year looks super good!
I know it’s easy to get sucked up into the college pressure rabbit hole, but seriously don’t worry about it— you still have 3 years!! and make sure to spend time on what you love :

For Juniors:

Start asking for letters of rec at the end of your junior year/summer of senior year, because once everyone else starts, it’ll be hard to get a good letter written.
Also with letters of rec, make sure to establish a good connection with at least 1 or 2 teachers throughout the entire school year. So don’t only participate in class, but also go to office hours and talk to them about their life outside of school, not only academic things.
It’s okay to not take classes that your friends are taking especially in your junior year and you do not need to take 5 APs to get into a good college. Take hard classes only in subjects YOU like!
Explore things you’re genuinely interested in, not things you feel like you “should be doing” or that other people are doing.
Don't psych yourself out. Junior year has become infamous, but it is totally manageable. It is just like any other grade level.
Junior year is overwhelming; academics are hard, you start standardized testing, and college applications are just on the horizon. Find something that helps you destress and find a support system you can count on. For me, I made Sundays skincare nights and spent 30 minutes a day watching my favorite show, and I built a support system made up of one of my best friends and one of our school guidance counselors. Before you know it, you can be so burnt out and overwhelmed, so it's great to set this up early so you have coping strategies.
Everyone tells you that junior year is the worst, hardest year. It doesn’t have to be. If you don’t have time to do the things you enjoy, then you are overscheduling yourself.
Think critically about your current extracurriculars. Which ones do you truly enjoy? Which do you want to put more time into? Are there any that are creating clutter in your life? Don't be afraid to cut out ones that don't spark joy. If you're worried about colleges will think, don't—if an activity doesn't matter to you, it won't matter to colleges, and it can make it harder for admissions officers to understand you. Instead, continue the activities that matter to you, and pour your time into them. Most importantly, it will be better for your mental health as well :)

For Seniors:

Start early! Senior year fall has a lot of stuff going on, and any time you use over the summer to get a head start will pay off, especially with college apps and summer homework.
Don't slack off first semester - these grades can still be sent to colleges!
Make time for your friends and go to the cheesy school events, this is the last opportunity you'll have to do these things, make it count.
Spend as much time with your family and friends as possible, if you're going to college you'll be moving out in a year :(
Thank your teachers. A lot.
Enjoy your senior year, it will pass by quickly!

Guess the Mascot!

As we return back to school, here are the 24 schools SYAB members represent! Guess them based on their mascot :)

SafeSpace filmed in August!

Film 1: SafeSpace Overview......coming Oct 2021

Film 2: Disordered Eating + MH.....coming Nov 2021

Thank you!

We appreciate everyone who completed the surveys, attended the brainstorm sessions, and for being a part of the filming day. It's not over, we still need to edit the videos before we finalize them for the public.

Brought to you by the Communication Committee

We are always looking to improve and add new exciting updates to our SYAB newsletter. If you have any suggestions, you're welcome to join or visit our committee meetings on Mondays (check the weekly schedule) or you can reach out to us:

Anouschka: anobech@nuevaschool.org

Bela: isabeladuffy@gmail.com

Communication Committee: Anouschka, Bela, Brodie, Maggie, Suditi, Xamara, Shreya, Cate, Lila, Lucinda, Jane, Georgia

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