ETHOS WINTER 2013
Psycho-educational Programs: The SLWC is involved in running a yearlong prevention of bullying campaign, as well as planning, designing, organizing, and supervising various activities, presentations, and events for Wellness Month. Student Activities: Activity Clubs and Interests Groups: The SLWC is involved in planning, coordinating, and carrying out the activity kick off day, as well as coordinating and supervising the activities all year long. Leadership Workshop: The SLWC is involved in planning, designing, and executing a leadership workshop which provides training to all Executive Student Council members and all Student Council members regarding the importance of leadership, and helping students cultivate good leadership skills and knowledge. Honor Code: The SLWC encourages and guides our students to be exemplary citizens of their community by “doing the right thing when no one is watching.” Academy Elections: The SLWC is involved in planning, managing, conducting, and supervising Academy Student Council elections. Salutation & Buddy Programs 2-12 grades (Helping Students Transition into the New School Environment): The salutation program is designed to help new students adjust and transition smoothly into the new school environment. Four to six group sessions are conducted for each grade level, with two school counselors within the first few months of school. Additionally, students in the Elementary and Middle Schools have continuous sessions throughout the year to ensure a positive adjustment. New students are encouraged to discuss any difficulties they are experiencing with the transition, while support and guidance is provided for any concerns brought up. Furthermore, the student handbook is discussed in detail with the students to ensure a clear understanding of school policies and behavioral conduct expected at school. Training & Research: Psychology Intern Program Master’s and Doctoral Research: The SLWC is involved in the training of interns that come from a variety of universities and backgrounds. Dr. Sax heads the training program, whereby she places interns in compatible placements and each intern receives both individual supervision from their direct supervisor and group supervision once a month with her. The goal of this program is to provide a comprehensive, well-grounded experience to future providers of mental health services. One of the main goals of the Student Life and Wellness Center is to provide a safe and positive environment to all of our students, faculty/staff and parents in order to acquire the appropriate care and guidance that is needed on any issue. It is also the place where practicing holistic, harmonious and meaningful experiences in our ACS Athens community can be shared and modeled by one another. Keeping in line with this principle, the maintenance of one’s health can also be viewed
through this lens, as it has been a primary concern throughout history across a wide variety of cultures and exchange of medical ideas between the East and West for centuries; even dating back to Hippocrates, the Greek founder of medicine (460-375BCE). Today, health is best understood as one’s capacity to function in effective and productive ways influenced by complex personal, behavioral and environmental variables that can change quickly (Telljohann et al., 2007). The most enriching definitions of health clarify independent strength, as well as the interaction among six influential elements: the physical, mental/intellectual, emotional, social, spiritual and vocational domains (Telljohann et al., 2007). When one lives his/her life in a way that is orderly, successful, and true to what is in his/her best interests, the elements of health are balanced and contribute to the well-being of family, school/work and community. All cultures value balance within their own set of beliefs and behaviors. The Hawaii culture for example, depicts the concepts of balance, unity and harmony as “lokahi”. This concept is referred to in the Lokahi Wheel which expresses this ideal. The Lokahi Wheel illustrates the importance of maintaining balance within each dimension of health: physical/body, thinking/mind, feelings/emotions, friends/family, spiritual/soul and work/ school (Telljohann et al., 2007). During the business of each and every day, sometimes we forget as individuals to stop for even a few minutes to remind ourselves of the positive aspects of our lives. Putting into practice each element of the “Lokahi Wheel” on a daily basis, we may be reminded that life is really worth celebrating!
References Telljohann, S.K., Symons, C.W. & Pateman, B. (2007). Health Education. New York: Mc Graw Hill. ■
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