Making the Invisible Visible by Hannah

Making the Invisible Visible by Hannah - January 2024 Scholarship Essay

It is no secret to adults that Generation Z is a phenomenal generation of change and social influence as the first generation with unrestricted internet access growing up. Even in the age of information, adolescents struggling with mental health conditions or neurological variances are more prone to bullying and social isolation from a lack of awareness of neurological diversity and the mental health crisis. This causes those already struggling mentally to face higher rates of bullying and an inability to connect with peers. This type of bullying comes from misinformation, stigmatization, and lack of patience, empathy, and understanding due to poor conflict resolution skills. My little sister Charlotte struggled with countless obstacles from her various visible and invisible disabilities, the last thing she needed to deal with was bullying. As her sister, I knew all the ins and outs of working with disabled kids and even spent most of my free time helping them. This patience, empathy, and understanding I had for those of different mental and physical backgrounds was a skill that came naturally to me given my circumstance that unfortunately is not innate in most kids. Witnessing students in my grade who visibly mentally struggled with being primary targets of bullying and comforting my sister through the horrors of Middle School, I knew there was something I had to do.
My Girl Scout Gold Award project created three lesson plans for grades 6-8, distributed resources such as informational videos, purchased 28 new subject-relevant books, and established staff resources to learn more about mental health-related issues our Schools face. After a conference with the Superintendent, I lead the Mental Health sector of the School Wellness Advisory Council (SWAC) with staff across the district such as psychologists, nutritionists, principals, and more to implement and sustain my project. Discussing neurological diversity in the classroom with health teachers, I also created a lesson for the eighth grade's observation of Mental Health Awareness Day. This curriculum centered around teaching conflict resolution skills, out-of-the-box thinking, and directly addressing mental health stigma. Following hundreds of hours of meeting with psychiatric professionals on neurological diversity inclusion in a classroom setting, I provided the six Middle School Wellness teachers insight on accommodations for all students to provide a safe and equitable learning environment. This “teaching up” (GSEMA Gold Award Council) and flier distribution has had a lasting impact each year since.
By the end of implementation, over 600 age-appropriate awareness resource fliers were distributed through the classrooms, and students of all learning styles contributed to the discussion in class. Furthermore, I collected 23 books on inclusivity and diversity representing student experiences with transitioning genders, life with a service dog, overcoming disability discrimination, etc. School 1 distributed books to numerous kids in their stellar summer reading program. School 2 distributed my books to English teachers who annually recommend the texts to students they believe can benefit from the storylines. The principal and reading specialist of School 3 personally distributed these books to students whose stories matched the protagonist's; School 3 was particularly appreciative of the text Chester and Gus (from the perspective of a service pup) as they provided this book to their student with a service dog.
My lesson plan for the sixth-grade Wellness Classes and the eighth-grade Mental Health Awareness Day has been taught annually since 2020 in all three Public Middle Schools in my hometown (with each grade averaging 500 students). Lastly, the lesson plan I shared with the Wellness teachers on unique methods of physical activity while stuck at home in 2020 to help kids through online learning opened dozens of minds to non-traditional methods of engaging in ways to improve their physical health, even with so much out of their control.
Reflecting on the impact I was able to have on these kids, one story especially comes to mind. As my curriculum was critical thinking and discussion-based, there was room for my teachers to mention the origins of their lesson plans. One teacher mentioned the story of my lesson plan to her sixth-grade girls, inspiring two Scouts in class to pursue the Girl Scout Gold Award themselves in High School. I could go on to share mental health statistics and bullying prevention tactics for ages. However, nothing means more to me than inspiring two young Girl Scouts to follow their dreams and make a change in their community. Implemented in the fall of 2020, nine middle school grade cohorts have graduated the eighth grade having been exposed to my curriculum. Shortly following this project, I had numerous requests from teachers of ages 10-15 requesting I help them implement a similar curriculum. Today, I work for a High School program in NYC supporting low-income students socially, emotionally, and academically with aspirations for College placement. With years of studying, planning, and executing, I proudly graduated High School in 2021 confident I left my community better off than I found it.