Winsor News

Reaction to Mental Health Survey

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. ☐

Semi 2021

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 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. ☐

By Katya Agrawal ’23 and Gigi Chu ’23 Banner Staff

As most Winsor students prepare for their usual winter and spring seasons of papers, indoor sports, and the beloved hot chocolate machine, others are readying themselves to embark on a different journey: an exciting semester away in a new city. Semester away programs are typically offered to juniors as an opportunity to explore a different country or school within the United States. The programs that partner with Winsor are The Mountain School (TMS), School Year Abroad (SYA), and The School for Ethics and Global Leadership (SEGL). However, students may, upon Winsor’s approval, take a semester away at another program. Abby Glynn ’23 will be going to Vermont in the spring semester to attend TMS, which houses 45 high school juniors every fall and spring. In addition to a rigorous academic schedule, students also work on the Mountain School’s farm and learn environmental skills. Glynn said, “I think I am going to learn a lot more about the environment and nature. They require an environmental science class, and you have multiple chances to spend time or do activities outside such as hiking and skiing.” Sarah Loose ’22 confirms these predictions, and speaks on her time at TMS from last spring. She talks about the daily schedules and having “classes on logs or the fields outside when the weather allowed it, our environmental science class took trips to analyze the landscape and researched how to tell the history of the land... we worked with the animals and the crops twice a day during work period...we had study, dinner, free time after dinner for watching the sunsets, seeing the animals, stargazing (the lack of light pollution made stargazing amazing), and hanging out with friends.” Currently, Cate Anderson ’23 is studying at SYA Italy in the city of Viterbo. SYA gives students the opportunity to stay with a host family and study in a new country. Students also take weekly field trips to complement their academic schedules. Anderson comments, “I love it here. I think it is one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had the opportunity to do… every week we have what are called fieldwork days on Wednesday, which means that we don’t have normal classes, but we have an activity related to being in Italy. One Wednesday we went to pick grapes, and we started making wine.” She also loves the SYA community saying that, “I think that for SYA specifically, staying with a host family has been one of the best parts. Not only do I fully feel as if I have a family right now, but I know that after this I will always have two families.” One student who went on a semester away last year was Ava Hawkins ’22. She shares her experiences from her term at SEGL South Africa, also known as ALA. For her, birthdays were a highlight and a memorable tradition. Hawkins says, “Birthdays would always begin with friends running into your dorm room at 12:00 am and singing the Kenyan happy birthday song to you at the top of their lungs. Immediately after the serenade, everyone would pick you up and bring you to the shower for a special birthday shower, with the coldest water possible... Oftentimes, it can be hard to be away from family on such special occasions like a birthday, and so the ALA community really makes sure that people feel loved and appreciated on their special day.” Semester away programs are great ways for students to make new connections, travel to new places, and immerse themselves in a different learning environment. As Hawkins put it, “The world is truly such a large place. In our Winsor community, it can be so easy to become absorbed in the daily life to which we are accustomed, but it is so important to take a step back and look at the world in a broader sense.” ☐

Welcoming New Faculty to the Community!

By Gia Bharadwaj ’24 and Suzanne Pogorelec ’24 Banner Staff and Contributing Writer

The October issue of the Banner introduced three new faculty members to the Winsor community: Mr. Dauphinee, Ms. Tu, and Mr. Vierba. In this issue, we will introduce Ms. Valenza, Ms. Valenzuela, and Nurse Su. After working from home for two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Ms. Valenza is excited to join Winsor and return to the art studio in person. Learning with students in the workshop is, as Ms. Valenza put it, “like a dream come true” and she “feels like [she’s] back home” in the art rooms. Previously, Ms. Valenza taught elementary aged students at Kingsley Montessori School, and she now shares her expertise with both Lower and Upper School students at Winsor. At Kingsley, Ms. Valenza said that she “helped students prepare art portfolios to apply to Winsor” and was consequently “very curious about the programming” at the school. In her classes, Ms. Valenza loves connecting with her students and said that she has been “impressed with students’ maturity and artistic skills.” In terms of her favorite classes to teach, Ms. Valenza loves sharing her knowledge surrounding animation, ceramics, and printmaking. When she’s not in the classroom, Ms. Valenza also loves spending From left to right: Ms. Valenza, Nurse Su, Ms. Valenzuela time cultivating plants and experimenting with ingredients in the kitchen. Ms. Valenzuela is eager to begin teaching at Winsor. She previously taught biology and created a new health curriculum at Northfield Mount Hermon in Gill, Massachusetts. Her work included extensive teacher training, curriculum planning, and providing support groups for students. Upon arriving at Winsor, she was impressed with the strong foundation behind the health courses at the school and was excited that the school has “the structure and the resources and the commitment.” She is “really happy to be here” and believes that with the current design of the wellness program at the school, “Winsor is ready for more.” She is particularly interested in exploring the question of “What is wellness?” and hopes to continue conversations about prioritizing mental health in a high-achieving environment. Nurse Su was interested in working at Winsor because she had been an administrator at her previous job, but did not work with students. Winsor balances Nurse Su’s administrative duties with student interaction, making it her “perfect job.” So far, Nurse Su’s experience here has been really good. She says, “I get to see a lot of different things, and I get to help with a lot of different issues.” Winsor’s sense of community and inclusion has stood out to her, especially after SASA’s assembly Winsor performance for Diwali. “I don’t think anyone has ever even acknowledged Diwali as a celebration,” she explained, “and Winsor was just so open to it… that was really special to me.” Nurse Su has always worked in health; she particularly enjoys being a school and summer camp nurse because she can offer support without enduring the sadness of a hospital environment. Outside of her work in health, Nurse Su has a passion for dance, which she and her friends use to connect with each other. Ultimately, she appreciates the inclusive environment that Winsor offers and looks forward to helping students as much as possible. We are grateful to have new faculty members at Winsor. ☐

The Tales of the Working Women at Winsor

By Abigail Stephenson ’24 and

Charlotte jones ’24

Contributing Writers

As our community settles into the school year, we strive to balance sports, classwork, extracurriculars and, for some, jobs. Calla Walsh ’22 and Ainsley Wang ’24 detailed their schedules and strategies for keeping on top of both school work and their jobs. Walsh, a current senior, has been working for “as long as [she] can remember!” At the moment, she works at both a jewelry store and a frozen yogurt shop in Harvard Square. She has also “earned money through political consulting, paid internships, and teaching a class on youth organizing,” and she believes the experience of working “has profoundly shaped her class consciousness and helped [her] better understand the conditions of the working class in America.” Walsh also feels that she’s been able to enhance her “street smarts,” and now “understands that all labor requires skill and our economic system simply chooses to value certain workers less by paying us abysmal wages.” Walsh typically works on Friday nights and from 10:00 am to 11:30 pm on Saturdays, and as a result, “often feels too exhausted to start [her] homework!” After struggling a bit with balance and maintaining her grades, Walsh says she has “really improved her time management skills this year and [has] been able to practice more self-care.” Despite the challenges she has faced, Walsh is grateful that she “gets to meet some interesting people '' and learn from interactions with coworkers. Since the school year began, Wang and Hannah Mu ’24 have been working at the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) in a program called Curatory Study Hall every Wednesday from 4:00pm to7:00pm. After being referred to the program by Gwen Castro ’24, and her softball program, BBASE, Wang says, The program has a focus on photography this year which has fed Wang’s passion for photojournalism, and she’s especially enjoyed talking with artists who have visited and are showcasing in the MFA or elsewhere. Wang’s favorite artist so far has been a MassArt student, Vanessa LeRoy, who works with cyanotypes of family photos, using her art for activism. Wang also notes that having collaboration opportunities–– has been a massive benefit of the program and an excellent outlet for social interaction outside of the Winsor Community. With her extra time spent in the MFA, Wang feels “a lot more connected to art in general,” carrying her newfound knowledge into her and Mu’s conversations with Ms. Macaulay and their Advanced Drawing and Painting elective course this semester. Besides missing Wednesday volleyball practice and games, Wang has not had to give up much of her school involvement for her job and “definitely doesn’t regret anything” in joining this program. Overall, Wang values the “experience [she] will never get anywhere else.” To anyone who “wants to pursue a job or an internship,” Wang’s advice is to “definitely go for it, but to know exactly what the constraints are to schoolwork and extracurriculars.” Walsh recommends “finding a workplace that has other student or youth workers that you can befriend, and trying to unionize your workplace!” Winsor’s working students remain diligent, and strive to normalize having a job outside of school. ☐