A new club at DeSales High School that’s focused on mental fitness has quickly gained traction, especially in the junior class.
The Mental Fitness Club, spearheaded by a pair of juniors, aims to reduce the stigma around mental health issues and empower students to prioritize their well-being.
It also encourages students to support one another, according to juniors Miguel Cummins and Daniel Ortega Vazquez. They lead the club with the help of school counselor Jill Bowman and a number of other mentors.
Cummins said during a recent interview that he was inspired to start the club after he began experiencing anxiety and depression during his freshman year.
“I personally was doing great the first semester, and towards the tail end, I really started to wake up exhausted and tired. I was really worried about tests that I’ve never worried about before. I was really struggling, and I couldn’t figure out why,” he said.
“Our ultimate goal is to normalize conversations about mental health, educate others on the importance of mental health, and lastly, to let everyone know that they are seen and they’re not alone when they struggle with mental health.”
— Miguel Cummins, junior at DeSales High School
When the feelings of depression and anxiety weren’t going away, he said, he decided to speak with his parents, school counselors and a therapist, before discerning that he had underlying “chemical depression and anxiety.”
“I had to learn a lot on my own and thought that education about the subjects could not only save lives at DeSales, but help normalize conversations about mental health,” he said. “When you’re dealing with mental health, and especially at an all-boys school, there’s definitely a stigma.”
The club began last school year as the Mental Health Club, but after constructive feedback from the principal, Dr. Anastasia Quirk, it shifted to a focus on mental fitness.
“You know, you take care of your personal fitness. You go to the gym, you lift weights,” said Cummins. “You need to do things for your mental health, and so that’s where the change came from.”
He noted the club now incorporates athleticism into its activities, including group walks and weight lifting.
Co-club leader Vazquez said the club encourages students to stay active, “not just in ways that are physically enduring,” but with hobbies, too, like music and art. He took up photography as a coping mechanism, which he said helps keep his mind off of stressful things.
It also offers a platform for struggling students to be open and honest with their peers, noted Cummins.
“Our ultimate goal is to normalize conversations about mental health, educate others on the importance of mental health, and lastly, to let everyone know that they are seen and they’re not alone when they struggle with mental health,” said Cummins.
School staff members who help with the club see additional benefits.
Bowman, the counselor who helps facilitate club meetings, said the club gives students hands-on tools to help them cope with struggles when they’re on their own.
It also helps students get to know each other better and strengthens the bonds of brotherhood outlined in DeSales’ mission, according to teacher and club mentor Martaevis Witherspoon.
Club members agreed.
“I’ve built connections with guys around school who I didn’t even know before now, and that’s something I’m really grateful for — and those connections wouldn’t have happened if they never participated,” said Vazquez.
“If this continues, it could be a great thing for DeSales and for the brotherhood. If it brings people together like this now, just at the start, I can only imagine what it’s going to achieve in the future,” he added.
Andrew Bowman, another club member, said he only knew one other student when he started at DeSales.
With the help of the club, “I know pretty much everybody. I’ve talked to everybody in the junior class, and I actually feel like I can be open with some of them and know that they’re going to be there for me, and that I’m not going to get ridiculed or embarrassed,” Bowman said.
Drew Dietz said the Mental Fitness Club has effected a real change in the junior class.
“Freshman year, it was, like, super segregated, basically,” he said. Sophomore year wasn’t much better, Dietz said, adding, “There were clear differences where people were, and I think this year literally, everyone is like the ‘same’ as each other.”
Vasquez added, “When someone becomes vulnerable around you, it really takes a weight off … and just having that within the Mental Fitness Club, … it means a lot to me.”
Student club leads to
school-wide mental health week
DeSales High School’s Mental Fitness Club has seen such success that a school-wide Mental Fitness Week was held last month, offering introductory mental health lessons to all students, not just those in the club.
Supplemental lessons that week focused on mental health, and at the end of the week, students were given a chance to reflect on what they learned.
School counselor Jill Bowman said students involved in the Mental Fitness Club are already excited about next year’s Mental Fitness Week.
“They’re already thinking, ‘What can we do to make this even better than it was this year?’ ” Bowman said.
One of the club’s leaders, junior Miguel Cummins, said a long-term goal is to create a “mental health conference,” drawing delegations from area schools to hear speakers and attend workshops.
“We want it to be something where students get value from it. … And really learn about mental health and talk about one of the most pressing issues of our generation,” Cummins said.
Daniel Ortega Vazquez, a junior who leads the club with Cummins, said he hopes such an event will help students “break that tension between, like, rival schools like St. X, Trinity.”
He said he hopes it will help students to “be vulnerable with each other,” he added. “To come together and just break that wall down of, like, ‘Oh, I’m better than you.’ ‘You’re better than me.’ ”Schools interested in working on a mental fitness collaboration, may contact DeSales High School counselor, Jill Bowman by email at jill.bowman@desaleshs.com.
