West Covina High School hosted this year’s Mental Health Youth Summit with different school’s wellness clubs from the district attending. Teachers and WCHS peer counseling students led different exercises.

The social worker for the district, Dr. Lily Flores, and the Director of Student Services, Dr. Devon Rose, along with a committee of teachers and counselors planned the summit with two speakers, Jeffrey Martinez and Anel Lee, and the activities.

WCHS students led the icebreakers at the beginning and a meditation session to end the summit.

“Leading these events kind of make you see how similar and alike you guys are, you originally wouldn’t see that outside on campus,” said Maya Reyes, president of Wellness Club.

Senior Alexa Arauz, Wellness Club member, acknowledges that mental health is a struggle that many can relate to.

“Everyone is not alone, you have a lot of other peers that go through the same thing that you do,” said Aruaz

With mental health being a more normalized and important topic with the younger generation, having clubs and programs such as the National Alliance on Mental Illness and Wellness ensures students get the right resources.

“I think it’s amazing how mental health is no longer as big of a stigma. I think everybody is aware, I think everybody knows the importance of mental health,” said Ms. Jennifer Sun, the advisor for the Wellness Club.

Sun believes this summit helped her peer counseling students learn to be better wellness leaders.

“If they can do it with a small group of 130 kids from other schools, they could definitely bring that change to our campus and kind of spread that awareness too,” said Sun.

Sun hopes that in the future there are more peer counseling students and more periods open for the Wellness Center on campus.

Gallery • 2 Photos

Students participate in the human knot activity led by WCHS peer counselors. Photo by Salma Valle