Meet the Peer Leaders

Ms. Nolan developed the Peer Leaders group in 2016. This was a new journey for HEC Upward Bound. Ms. Nolan saw a vision for student leadership. Ms. Nolan thought "Since we work with students and we want to help build their character then why not allow them to test and learn their leadership skills?" Her main goal for the Peer Leader Program is for the Peer Leaders to serve as the liasion for the students. Through this program students are able to voice their opinions and thoughts to the staff. HEC Upward Bound understands that education is more than academics. It's home-life and social-life as well. The Peer Leaders help the staff to understand and meet the students' needs. We try to develop activities based on the students along with College preparation. Peer Leaders also have the opportunity to serve HEC Upward Bound. They have created volunteer opportunities and student lead activities. 

Take moment to meet your Peer Leaders:

Miracle Baker, Soldan International Studies High School

Nylah Burns, Soldan International Studies High School

Ean Johnson, Grand Center Arts Academy

Samuel Lewis, Metro Academic and Classical High School

Kendra McCall, Metro Academic and Classical High Schol

Addressing Emotional Health

Emotional Health:

 

We live in a society  where everyone is always on the go. From parenting to coaching to school to cooking to working out to reading to mentoring to athletic teams to supporting friends to dinner with the family to sleep. Every minute of our day is literally on a schedule. 

But then...


When we do have a chance to rest; we feel bad for sleeping or occupy it with homework, hanging out with people, cleaning or completing all the chores and errands we just haven't had time for. We literally do not know how to sit still, rest and relax. 

However, we need rest. We need to take care of ourselves in order to take care of everything around us. Health is more than diet and exercise. It's a lifestyle. While the physical health is important; we can not correctly take care of our physical without the emotional health.


What is Emotional Health?  
According to Mental Health Foundation emotional health is defined as: 
"A positive sense of well being which enables an individual to be able to function in society and meet the demands of everyday life; people in good mental health have the ability to recover effectively from illness, change or misfortune."

How do I regulate my emotions?

Holly Nemec from Behavioral Health Response (BHR) and Robin House a school counselor from Stix Elementary came and spoke to our students about Emotional Regulation. Both professionals discussed how to regulate emotions for an every day life. According Nemec, regulation can be defined as "calm. focused or relaxed." It's a state where we can handle our every day life activities and the stressors in our life. Nemec described it as a window of tolerance.

What is dysregulation?
Nemec also described dysregulation as "the state of being out of the window of tolerance." We can see this when we are referred to being stressed out. 

 How to handle Stress?
Grounding- Grounding is a set of simple strategies to self-regulate, manage stress or detach from emotional pain. You can think of it as a distraction, centering, safe place, looking outward or health detachment (Truman Medical Centers).

Examples of Grounding (Truman Medical Centers)
Mental Grounding: helps focus your mind

• Count to 10 or say the alphabet slowly
• Describe your environment in details

Physical Grounding: means focusing on your senses

• Run cool water over your hands
• Stretch
• Focus on your breathing

Soothing Grounding: talking to yourself in a very kind way

• Say kind statements
• Remember a safe place
• Say a coping statement 

House and Nemec gave examples from their person life on how they handled stress and what they used to stress about when they were high school. They had a lot of barrier to overcome, but now they are both in fields where they are assisting other people to overcome their barriers. Both professionals brought different and educated outlooks on emotional health. 

HEC Upward Bound is very grateful for Robin House and Holly Nemec! 

HEC Upward Bound has taken a stance on learning and teaching about Emotional Health. We realize that our students deal with a lot of different situations when it comes to education and their lives outside of education.  Emotional health is not a subject that is taught often and if it is; there is a real basic knowledge of it. HEC Upward Bound hopes to provide the knowledge and opportunity for resources if the HEC UB Family needs it. Even if the HEC UB family does not exactly need it right now; we hope that you take the resource and know that you have it for someone else or for the future.

From Student to Staff Member

Please help the HEC Upward Bound Staff welcome our newest staff member:

Angel Lewis

 

Angel Lewis graduated from McKinley Classical Leadership Academy in May 2017. She successfully completed the HEC Upward Bound program. Angel was one of the top students who held a 95% attendance or higher.  She participated in the academic and summer components of HEC Upward Bound. Angel Lewis is a natural born leader with a sense of humor. She brings organization, smiles, and bright ideas to the team. Currently, Angel is attending Forest Park Community College studying Graphic Communication.

This is the goal of HEC Upward Bound. Our goal is not to get you to high school graduation to pass through college, but to help prepare you for life after high school. We're not expecting everyone to move out of St. Louis, get a 4.0 GPA, become president and give thousands of dollars back to us. 

No...

We hope to serve as your support system, encourage you, assist you, complete your FAFSA, apply to college and apply for scholarships, but also talk with you, share ideas, plan out your goals and discuss your health with you. College is more than academics; it's a time for you to figure out who you are and what you want to do in your life. HEC Upward Bound wants to help you with all of that. We are a family!

 We are so happy to add Angel Lewis to our staff member team. We are proud of Angel and all that she has accomplished. We look forward to watching her grow and pursue her dreams and aspirations! 

Learning to be Healthy

 TAKING CARE OF HEC UPWARD BOUND STUDENTS

HEC Upward Bound has some amazing leaders that go through this program. Each year the staff is impressed with the students we have recruited and the students who prospered through the program.



Our students have set such a high standard in our program. Students have come, been on time, kept in communication with the staff, they participate in all activities, have positive attitudes and bring new and fun ideas to the program!

 Health is a subject that we've been trying to express to our students and teachers. Our first parent meeting was October 21st, 2017. We called it our Health & Fitness Day.


Lo Blackwell is from the YMCA. She came and taught us a short and quick 30-minute workout that we can complete literally anywhere! We had so much fun while learning how to be healthy!

Afterwards, students said they felt strong, motivated and asked a lot of questions about eating healthy!



We had a blast!


It is very important to take care of your emotional health, but realize the effect that physical health on our mental and emotional health. Being active can help release stress and gain energy. Our body works together. When we take care of our body we are able to take care of everything else. Everything around us is connected.

TAKING CARE OF YOU

Lo Blackwell, Personal Trainer, YMCA