The Wellness Center is a new campus facility operated by employees from the Santa Clara County Office of Education that aims to serve as an early intervention resource to prepare students for long-term emotional resilience, Wellness Center liaison Storm McNerney said. Having opened in early February 2023, the center is ready to meet students’ needs, she said.
The Wellness Center currently operates on the west side of the MHS Library, with entrances either through the front library doors or through its main entrance adjacent to the cafeteria. The facility is open from 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m., McNerney said.
“I’m the one who checks in with them (the students) to get a general idea of what brings them in and how I can support them,” McNerney said. “If they’re needing more support — being connected to a resource or a counselor — I help them with that. The goal is after their visit here, they leave feeling better than when they came in.”
If a student feels that they need wellness support, either through downtime activities or speaking to someone about their issues, they are able to stop by the Wellness Center at any time during class — with a teacher’s purple pass — or break for a 15 to 20 minute session, McNerney said.
“We have a little reading corner, breathing resources, puzzle stations, art stations, so it’s very intentional,” Mental Health and wellness specialist Mireya Coronado said. “Santa Clara County has been very aware of the transformation that’s been happening: the schools are transforming into places where the community can receive support.”
Even though the Wellness Center can be used for short-term activities like art projects and counseling sessions, it also serves as a hub for connecting students with crisis services to help with housing, healthcare, and food resources, Coronado said.
“All school-based services are short-term because, as you can imagine, having 3000 students, there’s a big caseload,” Coronado said. “The students that can get better with short-term services will get better. For those students that need more, we’ll continue to support them.”
Although McNerney is not a therapist or counselor herself, the staff members at the Wellness Center are there to support students in a safe space, McNerney said. Once students leave the center, they fill out check-out forms, she said.
“On the surveys, I see that, ‘They made me feel comfortable.’ ‘They made me feel heard.’ ‘I was able to ‘Say how I felt.’ So that’s what warms my heart,” McNerney said.
Though sophomore Alina Ly sees the Wellness Center as a genuine safe space for students, whether or not it is worth making a visit is still dependent on academic workload, especially considering its currently discreet location, Ly said.
“If the lesson isn’t important, and the notes are already posted, then I would definitely go,” Ly said. “ (Students) might not even try to reach out because they don’t want to take the time to try to find it, and just walk around in a place that you’re unfamiliar with.”
Ly was surprised to learn that the Wellness Center was receptive to her suggestions when she visited and felt the staff were genuinely interested in helping students, Ly said.
“I was shocked at how they actually took in student’s opinions because I asked for a little tent where students can have some privacy and maybe to get a nap, and they actually put a tent in there.”
While new outreach measures to boost the Wellness Center’s impact on campus are still in the works, Santa Clara County’s movement towards more socio-emotional learning is a positive step for high school students, McNerney said. Up to 155 students have made visits to the facility since their February opening, she added.
“My goal is to be the person that I wish I had when I was their age,” McNerney said. “Schools would usually wait for students to fail first, and then they would help … now it’s different.”