Challenged Coordinator De-Stresses School Aids

Many of our Coordinators face enormous challenges when they try to bring the HealthCorps curriculum into a new school. Coordinators can feel downright frustrated and demoralized, but sometimes when least expected, a bright moment can erase those feelings.

Erica Rodas is a HealthCorp Coordinator at Aviation High School in Long Island City NY. She was finding the academic school schedule daunting, often times interfering with her own efforts to schedule student and faculty classes. One day recently, she was unexpectedly asked to run a stress management session for the school aides. Upon entering the professional development session, she found the aides voicing issues that demonstrated feelings of being overworked, underappreciated and disrespected. Erica sensed they were "working entirely on overload."

She decided to guide them through an exercise that would allow them to focus in on breathing and visualization, trying to help them to remember a positive person or influence in their lives. Her hope was to empower them, and in fact, the session allowed the participants to feel calmer, by channeling their negative feelings into a powerful positive release. Some of the participants had an emotional re-connection with happier moments in their childhood, which allowed them to escape the ongoing stress they were routinely experiencing, if for only a moment. Erica received a lot of positive feedback after the session, with several requests to "do it again." The session and its outcome helped her to recognize the value of her presence and guidance, despite the scheduling challenges she continues to face.

Just another positive story in the life of one of our Coordinators.