Daily Bruin: STRIDES program steps in to promote physical, mental and emotional health
Program founded by two graduate students promotes having positive self-image at a local high school
Giant puddles covered the ground, but the 10 students pushed onward, their shoes squelching on the rain-soaked dirt track. By the end of the class, they had all run two miles.
“All of them were complaining; they didn’t want to get their feet wet, but they had all finished by the end, and they were smiling, so excited,” said Anne Sutkowi, co-founder of STRIDES, a health promotion and suicide prevention program created at UCLA. For her, seeing the students jogging after a rain shower was one of the most memorable moments of her time teaching at Olympic High School.
Two times a week, second-year public health graduate students Ashley Roberts and Sutkowi carpool to Olympic High in Santa Monica to teach a health class as part of the pilot program STRIDES, which they developed in a two-quarter program-planning class at UCLA last year.
Inspired by research done in the class, the project aims to promote physical, mental and emotional well-being through physical activity, stress relief, and development of a positive self-image. Because there is a link between suicide rates and emotional health, the ultimate goal of the project is to prevent suicide among the students, Roberts said.
“Many high school students know someone who has thought about suicide and even committed suicide,” she said. “After the tragic string of suicides recently, hopefully this program can help reduce their risk and help others dealing with suicidal thoughts and risk factors.”
While most students in their classes were not able to execute the final product of their course, Roberts and Sutkowi were able to put their plan into action after receiving support from the Albert Schweitzer Fellowship, which aids leaders working to address the needs of underserved communities.
Most of the students at Olympic High School have faced great difficulties battling homelessness, divorce and deaths in the family at a young age, said Marcia Gecht, the students’ health teacher. Due to such hardships, education becomes a lesser priority.
“(Olympic High is) a continuation high school that channels success, so they can get real comfortable and create a good community,” Gecht said. “It’s a second chance for whatever reason they had not been successful at a traditional high school.”
During each class session, Roberts and Sutkowi lead students in stretches and jogs on campus, hoping that they will integrate running into their daily lives, Roberts said.
“One of the reasons we use running is because it’s inherently both an individual and team sport,” she said. “We encourage them to encourage one another, but it’s a solitary thing that they can do by themselves for stress relief.”
The 10-week project will culminate in the STRIDES 5K Run/Walk, an event at Dockweiler Beach, in which students will have the option of running alongside members of the local community.
“The most important thing for me is to feel that the kids have support in the community, who don’t think they are failures and encourage them to keep setting goals because they can achieve them,” Sutkowi said.
Olympic High School junior Kia Walker said the activities inspire her to set goals and change her lifestyle. Walker, who had never run or jogged prior to the health class, now aspires to finish the entire STRIDES 5K Run/Walk in November.
“I get to jog, and I get to be outside, and I feel pretty good after each jog,” Walker said. “I hope to be a little more healthier after this.”
Roberts said while she was originally intimidated by the students, her ability to eventually win their trust and appreciation allowed her to see the impact of persistence and optimism in their lives.
“These are tough kids to win their respect,” she said. “Having some who have gotten so far in such a short time is rewarding. We had a student come in the second week, who said, ‘This is the reason why I love coming to health class on Mondays and Fridays.’”
Sutkowi, too, said she looks forward to each session.
“This is what I want to do when I graduate, and it is a reminder for me every week why I go to classes at UCLA,” she said.
Photo credit: Shoshee Jau
Santa Monica Daily Press: Health class tackles teen suicide October 16, 2010
OLYMPIC HIGH — With teen suicide a growing concern across the country, students at Santa Monica’s Olympic High School are getting an added amount of attention, courtesy of a couple of UCLA graduate students with plans to make a difference in the mental health field.
After being awarded an Albert Schweitzer Fellowship, Ashley Roberts and Anne Sutkowi, both master’s degree students in UCLA’s Department of Community Health Sciences, co-founded a program for youths they call STRIDES.
Launched a month ago as a pilot program at Olympic High, the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District’s continuation campus, the goal is to give kids at risk of falling into bad habits that can eventually lead to suicide new strategies for dealing with stress and depression.
The curriculum, which is taught twice weekly during students’ regular health class, has both a psychological and a physical component. Lessons focus on topics from goal setting and stress management to things like nutrition, anatomy and old fashioned physical fitness.
“We hope that this program will bridge that gap that seems to exist in most high school health classes that focus on physical health but don’t incorporate mental health as much,” Roberts said.
The co-founders’ ambition is to do their part to prevent suicide — the third-leading cause of death among teenagers — but they also hope the lessons they’re teaching will have a broader impact on promoting healthier lifestyles.
“The class is technically a suicide prevention program, but all of the issues we’re talking about are relevant in these kids’ lives,” Roberts said.
To Marcia Gecht, a teacher at Olympic for 35 years, welcoming STRIDES into her health class is an example of how curriculum flexibility at the continuation school benefits students.
“It’s always good to have additional programs that come to us without costing money,” she said.
While the subject matter may not seem earth shattering — and indeed, Gecht said she’s taught similar lessons to health students before — it can have a big impact.
One 17-year-old in the class, she said, had never gone on a jog until she was encouraged by Roberts and Sutkowi to participate in group runs.
The students, she said, have responded to their teachers’ enthusiasm.
“[The kids] actually look forward to it, because they’re making them rise to the occasion,” she said.
Another of STRIDES’ goals is to raise awareness among the broader public that teen suicide is preventable.
Toward that end, the course will culminate with a 5K run/walk event on Nov. 21 at Dockweiler Beach in Playa del Rey that is open to the public. Organizers said 200 people are expected to participate.
For Roberts, who hopes to continue the program after the initial 10-week course at Olympic, there have already been personal growth benefits to the project as well.
Getting a skeptical group of high school students on your side, she’s learned, is a difficult undertaking.
“They don’t necessarily welcome you with open arms,” she said. “It’s been a challenge trying to break through and build that trust, but it’s really rewarding when they do come around.”
For more information about the STRIDES and the 5K event, go to www.strideslosangeles.blogspot.com.
nickt@smdp.com
