Announcer (00:01): Highlighting the amazing stories from inside the North Clackamas School District, this is the Proud To Be NCSD podcast hosted by longtime principal and current community relations director Curtis Long.

Curtis Long (00:15): It's lunchtime at Adrienne C. Nelson High School and the usual sound in late May of shuffling shoes squeaking along with chomping chips and crunching cookies slowly builds as the springtime crowd of hungry hawks flows into the cafeteria with the end of the school year just around the corner. Many of these tireless teenagers have just one thing on their mind. Summer break. However, it's no secret that the state of mind for many teenagers here at Nelson, other North Clackamas high schools and adolescents across the country isn't always sunny. In the past decade, teen suicides have risen nearly 30% among students aged 15 to 19 and are 3% higher among males than females. But the stories of lives saved often don't make the headlines and neither do. The powerful prevention efforts of fellow teenagers who know firsthand what it's like to be a teen on the edge and better yet, how to pick up on signs that one of their peers might be headed in that direction. That's why once a week Nelson High students, Imani Lewis, Delanie Woolcock and Natalie Sangasy take time out of their lunch break and host wellness activities like taking selfies with friends, painting window murals or like today where they're stapling together a giant paper chain where curious students are writing names of trusted relatives or mentors who support them.

Nelson Student (01:29): Put your uh, family member that supports you or a mentor that supports you on one of these strips. And we're gonna make a huge chain out of it and it's gonna be hung up with our hawk.

Curtis Long (01:40): Once students add a link, they spin a wheel for prizes, including gift cards from local coffee shops and restaurants. While the donated prizes act as bait to gain their classmates attention, the hook is in the message they want everyone in their high school to hear.

Imani Lewis (01:54): It's really helped us all connect. I've definitely got to like get to know some of my peers or get to know people I've never really talked to before through this. And I think people are really starting to take mental health awareness and health awareness overall more seriously.

Curtis Long (02:07): Imani Delanie and Natalie are charter members of a first year group at Nelson called Sources of Strength. The group's goal is to prevent suicidal thoughts by promoting positive mental health that trained peer leaders organize events like today's cafeteria raffle to increase hope, health and strength in their high school community. Today on the Proud To Be NCSD podcast, we sit down with these super students who are making May's Mental Health Awareness Month memorable at Nelson High.

Nelson Student (02:37): What'd tickets? Two tickets. Hey, would you get a better chance of winning raffle

Curtis Long (02:41): And making sure students who feel they have no way out, always have an in with classmates who care about them. Imani Lewis, Delanie Woolcock, Natalie Sangasy, thanks so much for joining us today. First off, as we always do here on the podcast, let's have each of you introduce yourselves and tell us what you love most about being a student at Nelson High School.

Natalie Sangasy (02:59): Hi, I'm Natalie. I'm in ninth grade and my favorite part about being in the school is having a community with me.

Imani Lewis (03:07): Hi I'm Imani and I'm a 10th grader here at ANHS and I just love being able to be a part of a community.

Delanie Woolcock (03:13): Hi, I'm Delanie and I'm a 10th grader at Nelson. I love being supported in our community and just having the ability to talk to my peers.

Curtis Long (03:24): Sources Of Strength is a new group this year at Nelson. Tell us about why the group was formed and why you decided to join.

Natalie Sangasy (03:29): Well, at the beginning of the year we got like a call slip to one of the counselors office. In my defense, I did think I was in trouble at first <laugh>? No. Oh <laugh>. But when I got there I realized if I wasn't and it was like a permission student I guess, to like join this peer leader group of sources of strength and we had to go through an entire day training.

Curtis Long (03:50): So I imagined some adults in this school, maybe the counselors thought you would be a good fit to be a part of this group. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. So that had to make you feel pretty good.

Delanie Woolcock (03:56): I believe that we were picked from our teachers. Mm-hmm <affirmative> as our teachers were given an email and they suggested students but I know we were picked because of our leadership roles in the schools and just being able to support others

Curtis Long (04:11): And Imani, is that your understanding too? How did you end up in this group?

Imani Lewis (04:14): Uh, yes. I remember my teacher, he told me that he had recommended me for a peer leadership role and then I got a call slip and then next thing I know I'm here and helping students.

Curtis Long (04:25): All of a sudden you get a call to the counselor's office, <laugh>, but then you find out what this program is and it looks like all three of you jumped at the chance to be a part of it. What is appealing about this program to you? Why be a part of this group?

Delanie Woolcock (04:37): I just love being able to support others and our activities throughout this month have been really fun to do. Whenever I look at other people and they're always smiling, talking to their friends whenever they do our activities. Our first week was our window drawings and I believe that was everybody's favorite thing to do. They're still up in our school and it's pretty cool.

Curtis Long (04:55): And we're gonna talk about those activities a little bit later. Now. Do you guys have regular meetings for your sources of strength group and how do those work?

Natalie Sangasy (05:01): We do, we have one every other week. So we have two a week every Wednesday.

Delanie Woolcock (05:06): Two a month?

Natalie Sangasy (05:06): Yeah, two a month every Wednesday.

Curtis Long (05:09): We know what you meant. You said two a week. That's okay.

Delanie Woolcock (05:12): <laugh>, <laugh>. I was like wait a second.

Natalie Sangasy (05:14): Hold on. Every other week

Curtis Long (05:15): We know what you meant.

Natalie Sangasy (05:16): Two, two a month And it's either during school or after school. Mm-hmm

Curtis Long (05:21): <affirmative>. Oh, so sometimes it's an afterschool commitment? Yeah.

Imani Lewis (05:23): Okay. Just so it's available for people who can't make it during class or vice versa. Gotcha. People can make it after school.

Curtis Long (05:29): So what kinds of things happen at those meetings? Is it planning for future events? Is it talking about what's going on in the school? What happens at those meetings of sources of strength?

Delanie Woolcock (05:37): Usually in the meetings. It depends on if we've decided our topic. Like our first topic was just getting the word out and that's where we really discussed of what activities we were gonna do and when. So yeah, it's a lot of planning but then after we finished our get the word out, we had to pick a new topic. So we also have those discussions.

Curtis Long (05:55): A topic for like an upcoming month of what you want your peers and your student body to know about or activity.

Delanie Woolcock (06:00): Yeah. Okay.

Curtis Long (06:01): Mm-hmm <affirmative>. How are those meetings structured? I'm sure they're not just show up and find out what's going on. There's gotta be some structure to them. Tell me about the structure.

Natalie Sangasy (06:07): When we walk in we kind of have like a little sit down, we like a little snack talk for a little bit and then just about what we've been doing outside of school and then we play a game. The last game we played was like trying to get out of a string.

Curtis Long (06:20): You guys were all connected together with a string?

Imani Lewis (06:22): Yeah, it's like team building activities. Uhhuh.

Curtis Long (06:24): Okay. So it's a lot of team building getting to know each other. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. Now you three are in separate grades, right?

Delanie Woolcock (06:29): No. So Imani and I are in the same grade. Yes. And then Nat's a freshman

Curtis Long (06:32): And Natalie's a freshman. So it's a lot of probably people you've never met before. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> or just getting to know, that's gotta be kind of cool that this group has come together and it's people from all different grades.

Imani Lewis (06:42): It is. I remember like our training when I came in I expected just to be students and then us having to listen to teachers. Sure. But I instead it was like all equal and we were able to work with the teachers like side by side.

Delanie Woolcock (06:54): Like it was kind of like an equal playing ground. It wasn't like you're my teacher, I'm your student. It was, we're both people we work side by side together.

Imani Lewis (07:02): Right. And like it made me see them as like more than just a teacher. We were all like just learning together and we were also doing those other team building games together during that training. And I think that's very important.

Delanie Woolcock (07:13): We didn't just build connection with the other students. We built connections with the teachers. Mm-hmm <affirmative> and Mr. Harris, our principal was able to come and join our training day, which our trainers, instructors, whatever you wanna call 'em, had said that was a first his, they have never had a principal come in and join a training day.

Curtis Long (07:29): Well we know Mr. Harris is very involved for sure.

Imani Lewis (07:31): And that's great.

Curtis Long (07:32): So it must be nice to be on the same, sounds like everyone was at the same level. Whether you're a teacher or a principal or a student. Mm-hmm <affirmative>, you're all there for the same purpose and that's to build community in Nelson High School and make sure that kids know that they have support here at school. Yes. And we'll talk about that a little bit and I wanted to get into that a little bit cuz it's certainly a heavy topic that deserves a lot of attention. Why do you think thoughts of self-harm enters students' minds, especially when they get to high school?

Natalie Sangasy (07:54): Well what I think is that they don't wanna feel like the pain emotionally so they do it physically. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. And so it's not like an emotional pain that's like stuck within you. It's like physical pain. Like you can actually like feel Right.

Delanie Woolcock (08:07): You can attach something to it. It's not just like floating around in your head.

Curtis Long (08:11): Now I know this uh, and you don't have to answer this, this is kind of a sensitive question, but have any of you had friends or family members admit to you thoughts of harming themselves?

Delanie Woolcock (08:19): I have. Mm-hmm <affirmative> one of my best friends, she's not in our district anymore cuz it was best for her to stay home. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. But she had anxiety attacks and thoughts of harming and it was really hard for me to help her but I was able to

Curtis Long (08:34): And that probably attracted you to this group or did that happen after you joined this group?

Delanie Woolcock (08:38): After because um, we had done the training kind of early in the year and I didn't really find out till later.

Curtis Long (08:44): So were you able to use some of the skills you've gathered in sources of strength to help your friend? Yes. How about either of you two, any friends or family members that you've had those difficult conversations with?

Imani Lewis (08:53): Yeah I did in middle school. Back then I didn't really know what to do because you know in health class you learn like the basics of it but you don't really know what to do when it really happens. So back then I didn't know. But I'm glad to be a part of this group because I feel like now I've really learned like I can help.

Delanie Woolcock (09:08): You can also teach others to know what to do in that situation. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. Right.

Curtis Long (09:12): And Natalie, how about for you?

Natalie Sangasy (09:14): I definitely have had a couple of friends who do self-harm and have talked about it and this training has also like helped me know what I can do to help them and what I can't do and how to help them with that. So I think it's a really like good resource of this program. Mm-hmm <affirmative> for our school because there are some kids out there who like don't share with other people but want help so it's also good for them. Mm-hmm

Delanie Woolcock (09:38): <affirmative>, it's not always their choice. Sometimes they feel the need to do it because they need a way to get it out.

Curtis Long (09:45): And for our listeners who maybe are just tuning into this podcast or looking at the description and thinking, oh teen suicide, that doesn't happen in our area. There aren't kids at Nelson High School that way. All three of you would say not true.

Imani Lewis (09:56): Not true. Yeah definitely.

Delanie Woolcock (09:57): A lot of people don't really realize how hidden students can be about this kind of stuff. Mm-hmm <affirmative>, they don't want to feel bad about it or get in trouble because they are doing it so they usually don't come up about it. And that's, I feel that sources has really built connection and community between all of the adults and students so that they feel that they can come up and have a trusted adult to go to in these situations.

Imani Lewis (10:22): Yeah I think that's why it's important that it's peer led and like we said before, like everybody's equal like student, adults and students. I think it's important cuz it's easier to talk to a peer rather than just an adult. And there have been stuff in Happy Valley that has happened. There was a boy who was black and he had gotten bullied for also, I think he was adopted, I don't know the full story but he did commit suicide. And so I think it's really important that people do know that this does happen in our communities. It's not just stuff we see like in certain areas or on tv. It happens here.

Curtis Long (10:53): And my next question, Imani you kind of touched on it. We have had it happen in our community. I know as a former principal, I know the student that you're talking about. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. And I was going to ask you why is this such an important topic to you? And you started to touch on a little bit because it really kind of hits home for all of you. All of you have had these difficult conversations and you just never know what other people are going through, right? Mm-hmm <affirmative> down the hallway from you.

Delanie Woolcock (11:13): Yeah. It can be really, really hard sometimes as a high school student. Finals are coming up soon I feel the stress and it can be really hard. So coming to these meetings, going to sources, I get to connect with other people and let that stress go. It's a way that I can get a relief from it is I socialize and I talk about my stress with my peers. Mm-hmm <affirmative> and I feel that I can do that with sources.

Imani Lewis (11:38): Yeah. Nobody actually knows this but like the day before our training I had somebody pass away. Mm-hmm <affirmative> and then going to our training it was like the best thing cuz I got to like relieve stress and talk about it with everybody else and I felt very welcome. I made more friends, it was very like helpful.

Curtis Long (11:55): So I would think being a part of sources of strength is pretty nice for say high school kids because you get a chance to talk with your peers about problems that you're having or it might be a little more intimidating or not as engaging to talk with an adult. You get to talk with your peers. That's gotta be a nice feeling.

Imani Lewis (12:10): Yes. I think sometimes also people feel scared to talk to adults cause they may feel like they'll get in trouble or they just won't help and tell them to do something else. But I think talking with your peers who just can help you because they also may understand and maybe going through the same stress and problems as you.

Delanie Woolcock (12:26): To add to that, all adults in the building are mandatory reporters. So if like a student goes and talks to one of the adults in the building and the adult takes it the wrong way cuz they don't connect on that like same level of stress and everything like that, they can just go and like report it to places or parents or anything like that. And then it's like oh now I'm in trouble cause my parents are sitting down having this conversation with me. I did not want that to happen. I didn't feel comfortable with that being shared. It's just like being able to talk to my peers, having other people talk to me is just like I can find a way to help them as well as help myself.

Natalie Sangasy (13:05): I think it's more of like a trust thing cuz with teachers and like counselors and stuff, they have this like code of conduct that they have that they have to follow. Like if something does come up you do have to report it but like with yours it's a lot easier cuz sometimes you just wanted to get off your chest and nothing to like sometimes really happen. Say if one of my friends were like doing self-harm, if they were to tell a teacher that they'd have to go through this whole big thing but if you were to tell like one of your peers they would be like oh maybe I can help you with this and make it not such like a big deal for them and make it a lot easier.

Imani Lewis (13:35): And I think that what we try to promote with the sources wheel. Yeah the source. Sorry.

Delanie Woolcock (13:40): Yeah the sources wheel.

Curtis Long (13:41): We'll talk about that a little bit later on. Uhhuh

Imani Lewis (13:42): <affirmative> And I think that just making it fun and engaging to students so they can also learn like how to deal with this or like who they can talk to and everything like that. And I think this really helps us like really connect with one another. I think it's, even though we haven't done too much since we were first starting out but I know like it's really helped us all connect. I've definitely got to like get to know some of my peers or get to know people I've never really talked to before through this. And I think people are really starting to take mental health awareness and health awareness overall. It's more seriously.

Curtis Long (14:11): And the great thing about podcasts like this is we get to hear student voices like yours express these kind of views. I was researching sources of strength and Amani, you brought this up a little bit and I see that it utilizes peer leaders like you to spread messages of hope, health and strength. Your positive influence spreads throughout the whole school. How do you go about doing that?

Delanie Woolcock (14:29): Our activities mostly.

Curtis Long (14:31): Let's talk about some of your activities now. I was at Nelson's lunch period last week and they were making a chain where students were writing down trusted mentors that they know they can count on for support. Tell us about your activities that you do to make sure there's a positive vibe going through Nelson and to let people know that they have peers they can talk to.

Natalie Sangasy (14:47): Well we talked out two assemblies. We talked about one with the source's wheel and who we are, like what we do. And another was about

Delanie Woolcock (14:57): So it was getting the word out and then our second was

Natalie Sangasy (15:00): Who we are and what we are. What do we do? Yeah. The trust adult campaign was to see for like other students who didn't have like a trusted adult they could go to. We have like this big hawk of kids who wrote their tress on a feather and put it on our big hawk and like the little feathers are the feathers of the entire hawk.

Curtis Long (15:16): And we have a picture of that in the description of this podcast. So you've done that, like I said before, you had the chain going on. Did I see that kids were drawing on the windows?

Delanie Woolcock (15:26): Yes.

Curtis Long (15:26): Tell us a little bit why it looks like there's graffiti in your cafeteria.

Delanie Woolcock (15:28): Our window art activity, that was our first activity for our mental health awareness may month. We decided that it was the best idea to let students express themselves through art. And I believe our two pieces of the wheel that we used was mental health and physical health. A way that they can reduce or relieve their stress is what they were supposed to draw on our window.

Curtis Long (15:55): This window into Nelson High School's sources of strength program continues to give us eye-opening views into life as a teenager and the overlooked stresses that can often come with it.

Delanie Woolcock (16:05): One of my best friends, she had anxiety attacks and thoughts of harming and it was really hard for me to help her but I was able to,

Curtis Long (16:14): So far our three kindhearted helpful hawks have explained why they think thoughts of self-harm enter classmates minds.

Natalie Sangasy (16:21): They don't wanna feel like the pain emotionally so they do it physically. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. And so it's not like an emotional pain that's like stuck within you. It's like physical pain that you can actually like feel

Curtis Long (16:31): Still to come. Why do they believe their biggest source of strength is simply lending a listening ear to friends in need?

Delanie Woolcock (16:38): I'm just glad that students feel comfortable coming up and talking to us about everything kind of that's happened.

Curtis Long (16:44): More comfortable conversation with Nelson High school's inspirational student leaders right after this.

Commercial Voice (16:50): Hello, I'm Mitzi Bauer, chair of the North Clackamas School District School

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Commercial Voice (16:58): We are committed to listening and serving North Clackamas residents as we work together to provide the best possible learning environment for the students we serve.

Commercial Voice 2 (17:07): As members of the North Clackamas School Board, we believe it is our duty and responsibility to increase student achievement, recognize and reward quality and educators, empower school leaders through policy governance and professional development and communicate with the public legislators, business leaders, cities and parents.

Commercial Voice (17:25): We invite you to join us online at our bimonthly board meetings held on the second and fourth Thursdays of most months. For more information you can visit the North Clackamas District website

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Imani Lewis (17:48): And just add like this month that of activities that we're doing is each week is going to represent a piece of the wheel.

Curtis Long (17:54): All right, so we talked a little bit about drawing on the windows. Now all this is based on this wheel that some of you continue to refer to and Imani mentioned it before. Let's talk about this wheel that comes from sources of strength. So there's eight strengths on that wheel. Family support, positive friends, spirituality, healthy activities, medical access, mentors, mental health and generosity. Tell us how your activities have addressed that wheel so far. Cause I know you're kind of knocking out one wedge at a time as you go around that wheel. Tell us about how you're doing that.

Natalie Sangasy (18:23): Okay, so for each week of the month we have two of the wedges of the wheel. So our first week was healthy activities and spirituality. Last week was mentors and family support. This week is positive friends and generosity we're gonna do like take a picture with your positive friends, do something nice for them.

Curtis Long (18:43): So that's coming up this week is you usually do that on Wednesdays, right? Yes. Cafeteria. Let's talk about some of those things on the wheel and what some of those mean to you. How do you go about, for example, say positive friends. That's a big one on there, on that wheel. How do you go about finding positive friends when you're in high school? What characteristics do you think make a positive friend?

Natalie Sangasy (18:59): Someone I can trust with anything. Like I can tell them something and they won't judge, they won't be mean and

Delanie Woolcock (19:05): Also supportive. Yeah. Somebody who's like you always there're you can call 'em in the middle of the night and they'll pick up the phone and be like, Hey are you okay? Kind of thing. Mm-hmm <affirmative> because who pays a title?

Imani Lewis (19:17): Yeah. And who's honest? Cuz honesty is just the best even sometimes, even if you don't want to hear it, it's, it's nice to have honesty.

Curtis Long (19:24): And Delanie, I see that you have an Adrienne C. Nelson soccer sweatshirt on and that goes right into healthy activities and dear from all of you, why are healthy activities so important? Especially for teenagers healthy activities?

Delanie Woolcock (19:35): AIt's really big as a teenager, um, you can have a lot of stuff to do and again, this is another stressful labor is playing soccer for me is I can connect with my community, I can connect with other people but as well as enjoy the sport I've been playing since I was really young. So getting this chance to enjoy the sport and enjoy this activity with others is awesome. Mm-hmm <affirmative>,

Imani Lewis (20:00): It gives us a healthy body and also a healthy mind. I think that's why it's important. <laugh>

Delanie Woolcock (20:05): Thank you.

Natalie Sangasy (20:06): And it helps like help with like a lot of stress for like teens our age. They put a lot of their anger into sports. That's why we're so aggressive towards everyone. Like in sports, like for soccer, like you are running at people kicking a ball and

Delanie Woolcock (20:20): Almost getting hit in the face. <laugh>. Yeah. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. I personally play goalie for um, our Nelson soccer team and it can be aggressive,

Curtis Long (20:32): it can, of course they're trying to get by you. <laugh>,

Delanie Woolcock (20:34): And broke your foot

Natalie Sangasy (20:35): A couple of times.

Delanie Woolcock (20:36): I just sprained my foot. But it's just, I enjoy the sport and I love to connect with the people but it's also a way that I can relieve the stress that I I have or just get the frustrating feelings out without it being a dangerous or not like healthy way.

Curtis Long (20:56): Imani Lewis, Delanie Woolcock. Natalie Sangasy, you're doing such a great job and it's such a pleasure to talk to you and hearing real voices from real high school students write in our school district at Adrienne C. Nelson High School. We've talked about the activities you've done so far for Sources Of Strength. We've talked about what's coming up this week. So there are kids that are gonna be taking selfies with friends, they're gonna post those around but you're not done with all these activities. May is Mental Health Awareness Month, but you're not done. In fact, you have a big program coming up or a big culminating activity later this month. Talk about your activities so far and I know Imani has been itching to make sure she shouts out all the sponsors <laugh>, right? So we make sure we do that but, so let's do two things. Let's talk about what you've got coming up the rest of this month and then let's talk about the sponsors who have really helped you put on these cool activities with Nelson.

Imani Lewis (21:43): So, but for the last week of the month of May, we are going to be hosting a huge fair. Yeah, huge fair. Yeah. Yeah. With like multiple physical activities and that is one of the pieces on our sources of strength wheel and there'll be like basketball, corn hole and just other games to get students active during their lunchtime.

Natalie Sangasy (22:02): Also to like build community within ourselves. Mm-hmm

Imani Lewis (22:04): <affirmative>, We're drawing for our raffles from the donations that we got from Jamba Juice.

Curtis Long (22:10): All right, shout 'em out. Imani. Let's see.

Imani Lewis (22:11): <laugh>.

Curtis Long (22:12): So when kids come through the cafeteria every Wednesday and they participate in one of your activities that you are doing on your own time mm-hmm <affirmative> to help promote physical health, mental health, ways to connect with others. So they come to your table. I watched this last week, then they're entered into a drawing for all these different prizes. Yes. All right. So Imani, tell us about all the different prizes Nelson High School kids have the possibility of winning by participating in your activity.

Imani Lewis (22:33): So, uh, a free smoothie from Jamba Juice. Nice. Um, a $50 gift card to Coli, central Minigolf at Eagle Landing for four people. A free drink from BlackRock, a Visa gift card. A gift card to Cal San and top golf gift card and Dutch Brothers gift card.

Curtis Long (22:53): Okay. So you have a lot of raffle tickets in those

Imani Lewis (22:55): Bins right

Curtis Long (22:55): Now, those are all gonna be drawn next week at your fair. Uhhuh

Imani Lewis (22:58): <affirmative> at the on the 31st. Mm-hmm <affirmative> some of these students will be able to win a prize

Curtis Long (23:03): And they're all gonna be drawn at that event on the 31st. Is that the whole school coming to that in the gym?

Imani Lewis (23:07): Yes I think

Natalie Sangasy (23:08): So. Like it's three different lunches.

Imani Lewis (23:09): Yeah. So we hope everybody will show up. We hope that we can get start promoting it. I believe

Delanie Woolcock (23:14): That we're gonna draw them after the lunch and then announce them over our intercom system. Gotcha. Mm-hmm <affirmative> so that everyone can hear if they want our three different lunches it can be kind of hard.

Curtis Long (23:24): Okay. Imani, Delanie, Natalie, we've kept you outta class for a little while <laugh>, make sure you're not too disappointed about that. As we start to wrap things up, I want you to think back on everything that you've done so far as this new sources of strength group at Nelson High School. What are you most proud of as you look back at what you've done so far this year?

Imani Lewis (23:41): How many people have participated through this. You have to kind of estimate like how many students will participate, what'll get them to pay attention and just how many people actually get excited every Wednesday to get involved and have a chance to like yeah maybe or get a prize and participate in the activities. And also we had during our trusted adult, this isn't a part of the month but it was one of the activities we had when students were able to write a thank you note to their trusted adult. And some people wrote it to like their teachers and I think that also made the teachers feel very like appreciated. So I think it's just been helping everybody overall to feel really appreciated and seen and just feel like a community.

Curtis Long (24:18): Natalie, how about you? What are you most proud of looking back at what's happened in Sources Of Strength this year?

Natalie Sangasy (24:22): I think one of our most proudest moments are lunchtime activities because of just how many people who show up is really shocking. Cuz like when adults think of like teens, they're like, oh we're not gonna do this. We're lazy. We need to be like motivated, we need to be bribed to do something. But really we never really showcased prizes. They kind of just showed up. They're like, oh what is this? And we're like, oh well resources are strength. This is what we do and this is what we're doing. And then it also gets people wanting to come back, ask more questions about us. We did this assembly, we talked about our wheel

Delanie Woolcock (24:54): Nat and I did our uh, trusted adult assembly last month. We had like I personally had a lot of people kind of come up to me and be like, oh you're in sources. Can you like elaborate on that? I didn't know this was a thing. And I was like, yeah. And so I would always share a little bit snippet of our um, of what we do and I'm just glad that students feel comfortable coming up and talking to us about everything kind of that's happened.

Curtis Long (25:17): So I guess the most important question is based on what you've done this year, I've got two questions for you. One, how does it make you feel knowing that you are making a positive difference in your school and that people feel like they have trusted schoolmates that they can come to when they have feelings that maybe are going a little dark for them?

Delanie Woolcock (25:35): I'm just glad I'm able to participate in this cuz being there for other students has always been one of my goals. I very talkative person but I'm also, I'm a really good listener is what I've been told. I'm just glad I can be there for other students that need it and this opportunity has really made it a big option. At other schools it can be harder cuz we are the first school in the district to have sources of strength and it was kind of a challenge in the very beginning. But we got there and we've built connections with other students and I'll probably see the same students come up to and and do our activities. So it's really that participation. So I've built connections with people that I normally wouldn't have and I'm glad I get to do that.

Curtis Long (26:15): My next question for all of you, will you be back as part of Sources of Strength next year?

Natalie Sangasy (26:20): I want to be back. If I'm allowed to be back, I would and I think I am. <laugh>

Imani Lewis (26:25): <laugh>.

Natalie Sangasy (26:25): Yeah. I'm also like excited to build our sources of strength program because we're having a lot of incoming freshmen. I'm excited to like bring them into this and I'm really excited to just grow the community and our program, help more kids do more, more activities.

Imani Lewis (26:43): I agree. I think sports is a big thing here. That's what builds our community really. It's a big important thing in our community. I don't think I know I wanna be back next year for sure. I remember when I got called into Kaylee's office and sh I was like, oh, how long is this gonna be? I expected this to be like a semester or like just a year or something. They just asked me to do one time thing and she's like, you're gonna do it all through high school. I'm like, okay, I'll do it. I love it.

Delanie Woolcock (27:05): Yeah, I'm definitely coming back. This is one of my favorite things to do. I um, I look forward to our meetings every week or every other week. I'm a really social person. I love to talk and get to know others and this gave me that opportunity. I'm really glad I'm able to do this. During our eighth grader night, we had a bunch of eighth graders come up to us and we had the spiel <laugh>. Yeah. We got a lot of people to sign up.

Curtis Long (27:29): Oh good. So you have incoming eighth graders? Yeah.

Natalie Sangasy (27:31): Yeah. Like I think one and a half pages of people Wow. Coming up. Yeah. Knowing that it's not just teachers doing this, it's also like students and not just like seniors and juniors, it's like underclassmen, seniors, juniors, sophomores and freshmens. Like it's everyone And I'm excited to do that more and maybe we could expand this program into middle schools.

Imani Lewis (27:50): That would be awesome.

Delanie Woolcock (27:51): Yeah. I really hope that we can expand this throughout all the schools in the district because I feel that it has really made a change here. It's really important and it makes people like really see what mental health can transform into and learn how to help yourself basically.

Imani Lewis (28:07): Mm-hmm. <affirmative> it, uh, gives other people hope and just being able to spread awareness is just really important.

Natalie Sangasy (28:12): Yeah. Like to not have it be a taboo anymore.

Imani Lewis (28:15): And again, like the whole thing about like everybody's equal, we are all people at the end of the day. Doesn't matter what you look like or who you are and like we all have those ups and downs and I think it's important that we all treat each other the same.

Delanie Woolcock (28:25): And honestly as a high school student, it is really hard to make that connection of I am who I am and nobody can stop that. Yeah. That is really hard to do. And I believe that sources of strength has really broke that silence of this is okay. Yes, everyone has mental health issues at some point in time. Everybody needs help. It should not be a challenge to ask for help every once in a while, right?

Imani Lewis (28:47): Because it's okay to feel bad or it's okay to talk about it.

Curtis Long (28:52): Imani Lewis, Delanie Woolcock, Natalie Sangasy, it really is impactful to talk to you. We have a lot of guests on this podcast each week. This is actually podcast number 30 of the year and most of them are with adults. It's very rare that we have a chance to talk with students and what a treated has been to talk to three passionate students from Adrienne C. Nelson High School about a topic that, as you guys mentioned, is sometimes taboo. Mental health is something that some people think high school students never have to deal with, which couldn't be further from the truth. You've been so eloquent in the way you've explained that and what a wonderful thing you are doing for your school and your community by participating in sources of strength. And I know you have lots of people proud of you, including your counselor who has been off to the side the whole time nodding and smiling the entire time as he should be because I know she's very proud of you. And I know our listeners to this podcast because it is called Proud To Be NCSD. Imani, Delanie, Natalie, all three of you make us very proud to be NCSD for the work you are doing. So thank you very much for providing such a fun and inclusive atmosphere at Nelson High School. And thanks so much for joining us on the podcast today.

Speaker 9 (29:55): Thank you. Thank you for having us.

Curtis Long (29:57): Thanks for listening to The Proud To Be NCSD podcast. In North Clackamas, we know that education is a community effort and we're so thankful that you and your family are a part of our community. Until next time, remember, there are always great things to see wherever you go in nnc s D.