2022 Southern Region Student Wellness Conference

The pandemic has impacted everyone’s life, but of special interest is our youth, who have had to navigate school online - socially distanced from their peers, teachers, and outside support systems. To understand the health and academic effects of virtual learning on our students, we sent out a survey asking about both positive and negative impacts pertaining to online schooling, the effectiveness of their schools’ wellness centers, and ways in which schools and wellness centers can improve. Overwhelmingly, we found that students had a hard time staying motivated, juggling increased workloads, and finding supportive mental health resources from their wellness centers. In this workshop, we will present our findings and express how adult allies can use these results to amplify youth voices.

Objective 1: Participants will be able to explain at least 3 different issues students voiced were a concern during online learning.
Objective 2: Participants will learn how to use survey data results to create better learning environments through at least one advocacy action.
Objective 3: Participants will leave with a better understanding of youth experiences and with knowledge of at least 2 ways that they can support youth.