Meeting the Students’ Needs
Throughout this school year, Serena and Vanessa met with the junior high and high school students every so often, which served as a space to discuss students’ questions and concerns, and express what kinds of topics they would like workshops to address. As part of this, they also implemented anonymous mailboxes, one in the library and one near Serena’s desk, for any student to submit anonymous notes, suggestions, and concerns, if needed. They got both some cute and serious ones!
In anonymous surveys, many junior high and high school students requested to learn about stress, mental health, and conflict resolution. In March, TeenLifeline came for a set of three workshops to talk about stress and coping skills (JH and HS), conflict resolution (JH), and suicide prevention (HS).
College and Career Support
Serena took older high schoolers to a college fair last month. To aid in the college application process, Serena also created a 10 page guide to applying to college that is featured on Kino’s parent page on the website. It includes information about tests such as the PSAT, finding a school and major, the application, financial aid, and school resources. Serena also collaborates with Vanessa about the students’ post-graduation plans, and is always available to help students and families through the application process, whether it’s for college, technical education, or jobs.
Another major focus of Serena’s is making sure all kids are receiving age-appropriate comprehensive sex education. Since there is no sex education teacher and class, for older kids this largely took the form of a set of various workshops and presenters. In the fall, the Southern Arizona Center Against Sexual Assault (SACASA) came to talk to both JH and HS about consent and sexual assault, then Esperanza Dance Project (EDP) came for a powerful multimedia presentation about similar topics just for high school. A graduate student studying human sexuality came to talk to both JH and HS about anatomy, identity, sex, and sexuality. Southern Arizona Aids Foundation (SAAF) came for two workshops just for high school, the first talking about STIs and HIV, and the second about safe sex and contraception.
We are so grateful for all that Serena does for Kino! 😍