Winsor News
Pa g e 4
T he B anner / Panel
Reaction to Mental Health Survey Semi 2021 By Annie Fisher ’24 Banner Staff
Last spring, Winsor partnered with Authentic Connections, an organization committed to improving school environments through data and feedback collected from students. Winsor has been working closely with the organization to identify areas for growth within the school and to consider what changes need to be made in order to better the community in years to come. Suniya Luthar, co-founder and Chief Research Officer of Authentic Connections, began her research of student resilience with a focus on youth in “at-risk” situations. When using well-funded suburban schools as a control group, Luthar discovered that students exhibited similarly high rates of anxiety, depression, substance abuse, and rule-breaking behaviors in comparison to the “at-risk” schools that had previously been her subject. In observing these parallels, Luthar realized that academic pressures pose challenges to students’ mental and physical well-being. Expanding her outreach, she has since developed a peer-reviewed survey which allows highachieving schools to gather longitudinal data, compare patterns to the results of other schools, and determine correlation factors. Winsor students took the survey in the spring of 2021, when the stress rates of most high-achieving schools were higher in comparison to pre-pandemic levels. According to the survey results, Winsor students exhibited higher rates of anxiety, depression, and rule-breaking compared to other girls schools and regional norms. 60.4% of students said that Winsor has a high amount of work. However, 20.1% of students,
which was considerably lower than other schools, said that the work has low relevance. Overall, the student’s main areas of concerns with respect to school were in regards to high academic performance, COVID-19 health concerns, and college applications. With these results in mind, some areas of improvement are volume of assignments, faculty emotional support for students, and faculty flexibility. Following school closures last year due to the pandemic, drop in rates of anxiety and depression were observed in the majority of high achieving schools. Because the Winsor survey results were measured against norms that included the lower percentages from the spring of 2020, the benchmark unfortunately doesn’t accurately address the stress levels of Winsor students in comparison to other schools last spring. For this reason, the school will be distributing the survey again this spring of 2022, hopefully with more conclusive norms for comparison. Regardless of the survey’s potential shortcomings, it is important to recognize improvements that can be made and to appreciate the support that the Winsor community has to offer. Shortly after the presentation was given, co-chairs of the Wellness Committee, Maita Mungah ’22 and Uche Ogbue ’22, hosted a forum during lunch for students to share their thoughts and concerns about the survey results. Ogbue commented, “The forum opened up a safe space where students could be honest about the different factors of Winsor that affect their mental health. It was a space where everyone’s voices were heard and appreciated.” Students raised questions about how this new information would be received by the faculty and what would be done to further explore the issues discussed in the presentation. Because this is the first Authentic
Connections survey that the Winsor community has taken part in, it can be difficult to pinpoint the root of the issues concerning mental health, whether it is specific to the grade level, the year, or other circumstances that may impact the results. Ms. Labieniec, Winsor’s Institutional Researcher, said, “Even though I want to react to this and make sure... we’re taking this data seriously... I don’t want to jump to over-action from one data point either, because we could wind up trying to solve the wrong problem.” The faculty’s central focus appears to be trying to understand the source of these issues and to identify trends in the survey data. In terms of immediate action, Ms. Labieniec shared, “to process the survey, I’d want to talk to the faculty as well as other student leadership groups. The student equity board is a great group for that conversation, as are others. In fact, an update is that Ms. Ramos, Ms. Santos-Valenzuela and I have recently met to talk about how to process the information and next steps.’” Change doesn’t happen overnight, especially when that change calls for a shift in culture. It can be intimidating to consider how the school can maintain the quality of a Winsor education while being aware of its students’ limits. Nonetheless, it is crucial that the school continues to ask questions, listen, and actively seek an understanding of its students that extends beyond their academic identities to include their individual selves. The Student Equity Board shared a positive take-away from the survey, saying, “Having [quantitative] figures helps us aim our work.” Although addressing the topic of mental health at Winsor may be a process that requires a great deal of patience, meaningful conversations, and hard work, it is absolutely essential. ☐
By Ella Pascucci ’23 Banner Staff
As December rounds the corner, Winsor students prepare for the annual Winter Semiformal dance, also known as Semi. Semi falls on Saturday, December 4, this year. Normally, all Upper School students congregate in the Winsor dining hall along with guests from Roxbury Latin, Belmont Hill, and other schools. However, COVID-19 has forced the administration to rethink some of the typical traditions, such as allowing guests. Recently, Winsor sent out a survey to get feedback on what the students would like to see at this year’s Semi and what they feel are most important in maintaining the essence of their long held tradition. The survey included four questions that asked students to rank the importance of certain aspects of Semi on a scale from one to five. The four topics included inviting guests, serving refreshments, separating classes into different rooms, and hosting a “traditional” Semi. In response to the question regarding inviting guests, Catherine Macenka ’23 shared that she is “worried about the Winsor to non-Winsor guest ratio… The whole point is to meet new people, and if it’s just plus ones, I think it will be very polarizing.” Similarly, regarding the question of separating classes, Coco FitzMaurice ’23 responded: “I think that all the classes should be together because Semi is a community event and a setting where students can talk to their friends from other grades. When I was a freshman, I loved seeing the people from my sports team at Semi.” Although most of Semi’s logistics are up in the air at the moment, more decisions will be made in the coming weeks! ☐
Interview with an Alumna Semester Away Students By Jaya Kolluri ’24 Banner Staff
The Banner is more than just another club at Winsor. It is a platform that gives students the opportunity to learn new skills, make new connections, and create long-lasting memories. The Banner allows us to expand our thinking about society and express ourselves in new and creative ways. “It’s so much more than just another commitment; it [develops] a new style of writing,” says Annie Adams ’21, former Banner Executive Editor and current freshman at Vassar College. Looking back at her time at Winsor, Adams fondly remembers her journey from a staff writer in Class V to becoming one of the heads of The Banner in Class VIII. Mainly working within the News Pod, Adams recalls how she enjoyed interviewing different people and sharing more about their experiences through her articles. The Banner is not just a platform for writing, it also turns out to be a vibrant community, offering lasting memories
Annie Adams
at SYA Italy in the city of Viterbo. SYA gives By Katya Agrawal ’23 and Gigi Chu ’23 students the opportunity to stay with a host Banner Staff family and study in a new country. Students As most Winsor students prepare also take weekly field trips to complement their for their usual winter and spring seasons academic schedules. Anderson comments, of papers, indoor sports, and the beloved “I love it here. I think it is one of the most hot chocolate machine, others are readying amazing experiences I have ever had the themselves to embark on a different journey: opportunity to do… every week we have what an exciting semester away in a new city. are called fieldwork days on Wednesday, which Semester away programs are typically means that we don’t have normal classes, but offered to juniors as an opportunity to explore we have an activity related to being in Italy. a different country or school within the United One Wednesday we went to pick grapes, and States. The programs that partner with Winsor we started making wine.” She also loves the are The Mountain School (TMS), School Year SYA community saying that, “I think that for Abroad (SYA), and The School for Ethics SYA specifically, staying with a host family has and Global Leadership (SEGL). However, been one of the best parts. Not only do I fully students may, upon Winsor’s approval, feel as if I have a family right now, but I know take a semester away at another program. that after this I will always have two families.” Abby Glynn ’23 will be going to One student who went on a semester Vermont in the spring semester to attend TMS, away last year was Ava Hawkins ’22. She shares which houses 45 high school juniors every fall her experiences from her term at SEGL South and spring. In addition to a rigorous academic Africa, also known as ALA. For her, birthdays schedule, students also work on the Mountain were a highlight and a memorable tradition. School’s farm and learn environmental skills. Hawkins says, “Birthdays would always begin Glynn said, “I think I am going to learn a lot with friends running into your dorm room more about the environment and nature. They at 12:00 am and singing the Kenyan happy require an environmental science class, and birthday song to you at the top of their lungs. you have multiple chances to spend time or Immediately after the serenade, everyone do activities outside such as hiking and skiing.” would pick you up and bring you to the Sarah Loose ’22 confirms these shower for a special birthday shower, with the predictions, and speaks on her time at TMS coldest water possible... Oftentimes, it can be from last spring. She talks about the daily hard to be away from family on such special schedules and having “classes on logs or the occasions like a birthday, and so the ALA fields outside when the weather allowed it, community really makes sure that people feel our environmental science class took trips loved and appreciated on their special day.” to analyze the landscape and researched Semester away programs are great ways how to tell the history of the land... we for students to make new connections, travel worked with the animals and the crops twice to new places, and immerse themselves in a a day during work period...we had study, different learning environment. As Hawkins dinner, free time after dinner for watching put it, “The world is truly such a large place. the sunsets, seeing the animals, stargazing In our Winsor community, it can be so easy to (the lack of light pollution made stargazing become absorbed in the daily life to which we are amazing), and hanging out with friends.” accustomed, but it is so important to take a step Vassar College Currently, Cate Anderson ’23 is studying back and look at the world in a broader sense.” ☐
for students and members. When asked about her fondest memory through her years in Banner, Adams said, “Our Banner layout lunches were the best, and everyone would be working on their separate [tasks] but always helping each other out. It really cultivated a strong sense of family.” The Banner continues to play an active role at Winsor, encouraging all of us to break through barriers and think out of the box. Now, Adams is pursuing her journey in journalism as the Layout Manager for the Vassar Newsletter, building upon a strong foundation laid by her experiences in The Banner. Now at Vassar, Adams says she still uses the skills she learned from working on The Banner. “It definitely gave me a different kind of writing to get used to, as writing an article can be very different than writing an English paper," she said. The Banner epitomizes Winsor’s commitment to developing strong, confident leaders. By encouraging students to explore creative styles of writing, The Banner continues to shape Winsor's future. ☐
