By Lucy Thao & Evan Villar, Clarion Website Managers

Point Break, a workshop that helps youth engage in social issues and to interact within those issues, was held at John F. Kennedy for Freshmen on November 7 and 14, and took up the whole school day. According to Student Support Center Intern Geneva Stevens, Point Break is a big workshop serving the youth. The program’s goals are to help students explore the community, build their skills, and be aware of diversity within school grounds.
Point Break in general, focuses on the environment of the school campus and the students attending. In previous years, the focus has been upperclassmen (juniors and seniors), although they recently started to branch out the underclassmen, mainly freshmen.
The workshop centers around being a mental health break session. Participants are encouraged through games and activities to slowly grow vulnerable and tread towards speaking about touchy subjects surrounding their personal lives outside of school. Through this process, students are able to express themselves if they feel like they have been silent, finding a window of opportunity to open up to peers.
Point Break doesn’t happen every year, so school districts must request and have the available funds to be able to host the program on campus. The Student Support Center brought the idea through the school in order for freshmen to become more involved with the school during their first year.
The Coordinator of the Student Support Center, Christina Harris, organized this year’s Point Break. Kennedy’s 9th grade Coordinator, Dr. Siobhan Reilley, also took an active part, along with 17 other Kennedy staff members. After the event, staff can follow up with students who need extra help, and all school staff are already mandated and trained to report suspicious or concerning activity.
Dr. Reilley, believes that this year’s Point Break was a positive experience for students to share with each other and know that they are seen and aren’t alone in what they struggle with. Students are able to know more about each other and build empathy.
Around 360 freshmen participated in Point Break, and were split into two groups which branches the workshop into 2 separate days. Students at Point Break aren’t just immediately being mentally vulnerable, throughout the day – they do more activities to build trust with family groups, which are composed of around 10 students with a staff member.
Comments