I’m a new student from MYP 5B who is excited to attend her first Personal Project exhibition. I’m Akshara Meruva and my passion right now is about the hidden effects the environment has on mental health.

I grew up learning martial arts and swimming because I knew the effects of exercise on your mental health and physical health, reading and writing stories, inspired by the conversations and situations around me. While exploring many books centered around trauma and different kinds of relationships I began to look into my own life and observe if my actions and personality are affected by the environment and relationships around me like the character. This led to the initial spark that urged me to learn about the impact of the environment on our minds. Therefore, to understand me and the people around me better, I decided to first understand the effect on the environment, from something as simple as the lighting and cleanliness of the area to the people, has on my behavior and my mind.

To better express my feelings and learning, my understanding is organized in the form of blog posts to inform the readers about the effects of the environment on human behavior, and to spread awareness on possible outcomes of an individual reacting to their environments. Such knowledge leads to a better understanding of ourselves, and everyone around us like I initially hoped to.

As I complete my product and learn more about myself, I slowly find myself applying my learning and understanding so that I can be empathetic and helpful to those around me and use my newly developed skills to improve and help myself. With my development in research skills which I gained to gather and organize information, and my communication and writing skills, I was able to have effective and mature conversations with the mental situation of me and my family and use my skills to improve the quality of my work in subjects like English, Design (EP) and humanities. I hope that the information I share will also expand the knowledge and connection between individuals.