The first day of school is always bittersweet. Sure, summer and relaxation come to an end, but we are also reunited with our friends and are filled with excitement for our new classes. The hallways are revived and our campus is no longer desolate. But this year, there was one reason in particular that made our first day back extra special.
Mr. Hicks assigned me to join a “group of dignitaries on our campus… including Superintendent Carvalho and some generous folks from Google.org who are going to donate 50,000 dollars for the school to use on DonorsChoose.” It was an enticing assignment and I found myself excited to get out of bed.
A couple of hours into the school day, I was redirected to Dr. G’s room. People who I assume were security lined the hallway, and that’s when I started to realize how important this was. It wasn’t until later that I saw that the glass cupboard across from her room had a poster that read “Welcome DonorsChoose & Google” in green and gray letters.
Dr. G’s room still had that wonderful collage of posters that I can’t help but feel attracted to whenever I pass her door. But, the structure of the room was different: the tables and chairs were replaced with clean, sleek, and white sets. They had planners with names, cups with writing utensils, and bins with cut-out pictures. The left wall had a wooden board with a decal reading Google on it. This decoration was surrounded by potted plants and a white curtain lay behind it, completing the setup.
I was greeted by Google’s event organizers as well as Communications and Public Affairs Manager Katherine Williams, who graciously provided me with a chair to observe the event. Soon, the lucky students who are a part of Dr. G’s homeroom started to trickle in.
Eventually, I met the executives in the room who are all from various important organizations: LaKisha Hoffman, the Senior Director of School and Community Programs at the Child Mind Institute, Tiana Brawnley from The Steve Fund, and Renia McCauley from The JED Foundation. As I got to know what everyone specialized in, I learned that these organizations’ missions were supporting and uplifting youth mental health.
I also had the pleasure of meeting LAUSD’s Board of Education President Jackie Goldberg- who is as lovely as she is spunky- and one of her assistants. We had a wonderful exchange about mental health and how it has been especially affected by the pandemic. I had similar discussions with some people from DonorsChoose’s communications department.
Dr. G started the event with breathing exercises and affirmations. Soon thereafter, the room felt even more welcoming and warm than before. She then gave the spotlight to Principal Steinorth. He mentioned his prioritization of mental health since becoming principal, and how he’s implemented programs with this focus. He highlighted Dr. G, who has been the leader in most of these projects.
Soon, he passed off the microphone to Google’s Dr. Megan Jones Bell, who explained the reason why this event was happening. Google is launching a 10 million dollar initiative to support 10,000 teachers and one million kids across the country with the funding they need for mental health resources at their schools. They had already funded all of the mental health projects from high school teachers that were published on DonorsChoose that morning and would continue to support any new projects, up to $500, that came after this announcement.
As mentioned before, our school received 50,000 dollars from Google.org, through DonorsChoose, as a part of the event. Our school was chosen specifically because of Dr. G, who as Principal Steinorth mentioned, is known as a mental health warrior on our campus. She runs organizations such as the Heart Team and makes herself a pillar for students to lean on at the Eagle’s Center. Dr. G also caught the initiative’s attention with the mental health projects she started on DonorsChoose.
Dr. Jones Bell then continued to go down the line of illuminated guests. Our first two were Senator Alex Padilla and his wife, Angela Padilla. Senator Padilla explained how teenagers' mental health has been so greatly affected by the technology we’re surrounded with and the pandemic, but how it has allowed us to speak more openly about it. He highlighted this in the Bipartisan Senate Mental Health Caucus he forwarded.
Angela Padilla, however, gave a heartfelt testimony about her mental health journey when she was in high school. The whole room sympathized with her deeply. The experience she shared with us is what motivated her to create FundaMental Change, an organization dedicated to providing resources to those living with mental illness or someone who has loved ones with a mental illness.
Afterwards, she gave the microphone to the First Partner of California, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, who is also an award-winning documentary filmmaker. She co-founded the gender equity organization, The Representation Project.
Siebel Newsom began by mentioning her 14-year-old daughter and how she and the Governor have had to learn how to prioritize her mental health given the conditions teenagers experience in the 21st century. Much like Padilla, she recounted her memories from high school and expanded, “There’s beyond the bad experiences.”
Following Siebel Newsom was Superintendent Alberto M. Carvalho. He echoed much of the thoughts that the other guests shared and spoke on his challenging childhood. After Superintendent Carvalho, Dr. G took the microphone once again and introduced a “special guest.”
There’s videos out there of celebrities coming into classrooms as a surprise, but I didn’t think that would happen to us.
So, imagine our excitement when Selena Gomez walked into the room.
She didn’t need any introduction. After our surprise had died down she proudly announced that her organization, Rare Impact Fund, would be donating an additional 50,000 dollars to ERHS. Rare Impact Fund is committed to expanding access to mental health services and education for young people everywhere.
Dr. G directed her homeroom students to open the planners on their desks and to start creating vision boards as the guests would be rotating around the tables to talk to us.
It was a pleasure to interact with these visitors. Our first rotation included Jennifer Siebel Newsom. I was so excited to meet her due to my prior participation in her organization, and she was just as kind as I expected her to be.
Then I spoke to Jackie Goldberg, whom I had introduced myself to earlier. She had jokingly said when she saw me, “Oh, I have to be careful! The press is here!” But, there was nothing incriminating about the conversation our table had: she chatted with us about her travel experiences, my personal favorite being that she visited Russia when it was still the Soviet Union.
Next was Selena Gomez. We spoke casually as we created our vision boards. We both had the goal to read more, and I thought that it was inspiring that even celebrities have the same goals as high school students. She was overall just a very transparent soul who thanked us after, saying that the mood of our classroom reminded her of her childhood days. So Selena, if you’re reading this, we’re so glad ERHS was able to give you a home away from home, even if it was only for a half hour or so.
Our last guest was Dr. Jones Bell from Google and one of her colleagues. But, we were cut short by an interview between Dr. G, Selena Gomez, and journalism’s own Kylie Sadsad. They discussed methods that anyone can use to prioritize their mental health.
Finally, we took a group picture with Gomez!
At the end of the event, every student in attendance was given Google branded swag bags that had a paired Google water bottle, notebooks upon notebooks, a set of pens, a card deck of coping skills, and a stress ball. At the bottom was a Rare Beauty selfcare bag.
Thank you to Google.org, the Rare Impact Fund, DonorsChoose, The JED Foundation, Child Mind Institute, and The Steve Fund for putting together this event and starting this initiative to support the mental health of teenagers! And thank you to Senator Alex Padilla, Angela Padilla, First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom, Superintendent Carvalho, and Selena Gomez for your presence in our classroom: your heart for mental health does not go unnoticed in the eyes of the youth.
And Dr. G: thank you most of all for the hard work you do for ERHS. On behalf of all Eagles, we all love and appreciate you!
If you’re a student struggling with mental health, you’re not alone.
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