Each student faces thousands of decisions in their Upper School career.
One missed step, and it all could come crashing down.
Health and Wellness Councilor Dr. Mary Bonsu’s goal is to guide students down the right path, and she has the monumental task of teaching every single sophomore and freshman the correct principles to live by.
She teaches students a variety of topics ranging from stress management and sleep to drugs and alcohol. But her curriculum is constantly evolving.
“Health and wellness first started out with a curriculum that was already somewhat formulated, you know, and it was around what we call social and emotional learning,” Bonsu said. “Now it’s evolved to really trying to coincide with the rhythms of what you’re experiencing in Upper School. So at the beginning of the year, we focus on academics and academic skills.”
By going with the flow of Upper School, Bonsu tries to make her curriculum as applicable as possible. And she constantly tries to improve her curriculum by learning about new problems, new trends in the community. She learns about students’ sleeping habits, their study habits and all of these factors that play a role in the lives of students.
“I am always listening to either a podcast or getting some sort of professional development on what teens are experiencing and what’s the latest,” Bonsu said. “Like, oh, that could be a good topic for a class. So if it’s happening on Tiktok or Instagram or whatever, I’m hearing about it.”
She also learns all about what new trends are popular with peoples’ phones and with drugs.
“There are studies that come out that say, this is what’s happening with teens, or, you know, this is what’s happening with them on their phones, or just the drugs that are being marketed to them or whatever,” Bonsu said. “I try to stay in the know, so that I continue to remain relevant to what you guys are seeing and experiencing.”
Another interesting aspect that Bonsu would like to add to her curriculum is looking from the perspective of students elsewhere. For example, at an all boys school, the perspective of women is not represented very often.
“I think it’s great that in an all boys school we can focus on how this applies to boys,” Bonsu said. “But then I think it’s also interesting to see, could there be a difference in the way these experiences occur among girls?”
Either way, Bonsu has so much material to cover, and a limited amount of time. After all, she has to teach students how to live their lives, how to navigate through every single decision they will make.
