School Highlight: Longfellow Middle School

​At Longfellow Middle School, we're thrilled to spotlight an innovative initiative at one of our partner schools. Under the leadership of therapist Jennifer Valdivia, we've launched "Mental Health Mondays" to foster a supportive environment for students. This was Jennifer’s idea she brought forward to me in supervision after seeing a need for a larger school impact on destigmatizing mental health. We took her idea to the principal who loved it and held a meeting with us and the rest of her administration team to work out the logistics to launch it this 2025-2026 school year. Jennifer felt empowered to share her idea and came prepared with her own thoughts and plans for implementation. Each month holds a theme that she has scoped and sequenced with a lead counselor at Longfellow.

​Together they set-up the table, bring in resources and engage students during lunch once a month. Her idea aims to destigmatize mental health by offering all the students access to resources, educational materials, and calming tools like fidgets to take away to help students manage anxiety in the classroom. Jennifer's monthly Mental Health Monday sessions have been met with enthusiasm and positive feedback from students and staff alike. We're excited to continue this journey and look forward to seeing the lasting impact on the school community and extending this idea to our other school sites. 

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Blog By: Eidit Choochage, Director of School Partnerships