By Anya Shah ’25
Choate has spent the past few years reconsidering and updating their approach to student wellness on campus to better accommodate student needs. The most recent school-wide efforts to improve student mental health have included implementing “Wellness Days” once per term, reconfiguring the daily schedule, and making changes in the counseling department.
Another major adjustment is the mandatory wellness blocks held twice a week for third-formers. These classes are taught by Health and Wellness Educator Ms. Leah Dullea, Associate Dean of Students for Health and Wellness Ms. Alexandra Copeland, and fifth-form dean and Health and Wellness Educator Ms. Aliya Cox. Each group has around 25 students, which is larger than a typical academic class of around 10-12 students.
Wellness classes include interactive team-building activities, which help create an environment where students feel more comfortable discussing their mental health with each other. In one class, for example, students separated into groups based on how much sleep they got. They discussed the importance of sleep, especially upon entering their first years of high school.
Instituting wellness blocks for third-formers allows them to develop good habits early on that they can carry with them for the rest of their Choate career and beyond.
Students discussed healthy lifestyle changes in wellness class, such as executive functioning, eating habits, sleep, and exercise, in their wellness blocks. “It’s helped me make sure that I’m productive with my time and that I can get things done as quickly as possible,” Jason Schmidt ’27 said.
The third-formers also participate in a variety of reflective work: they spent a week tracking their sleep, exercise, and eating patterns.
Not only have students talked about the importance of practicing wellness, but they also have applied real-world examples to their learning, like creating a balanced meal.
However, some students felt that the information is repetitive and hasn’t changed their approach to self-health and mental wellness. “The things they talk about are the things we already know, like eat healthy food and get more sleep,” Cindy Tian ’27 said. “I get why they’re talking about this, but I don’t find it that helpful.”
Other students still appreciated the School’s effort to improve their mental health through wellness education. Katie O’Meara ’27 said “it was interesting to hear the actual statistics and facts” in wellness class.
On the other hand, Madeline Baldwin ’27 would prefer if the wellness blocks did not take up time in and out of the school day with assignments. “They assign you videos to watch and you have to write journal entries about it,” Baldwin explained. “You have to write two to three pages.”
Despite the extra work that wellness blocks create, their purpose stands to educate and support freshmen during their first term at Choate. Francie Millstone ’27 said, “I think the wellness blocks created a good community where we can all support each other.”
