Amid flurries of stressful MAs and hectic schedules, Nueva students can sometimes find themselves falling behind academically. Given the stressors that students face, administration has to think through how to build safety nets that support students.
Nueva takes a holistic approach to student support through its wellness team, which consists of staff members who are involved in non-academic aspects of student life: administration, school counselors, academic support staff, health staff, and THRIVE coordinators.
The goal is to create a place where different perspectives on student wellness can intersect.
“Nueva has been trying to gather interdisciplinary bodies to think about how to support students and how to support the school,” said Upper School Lead Counselor Aviva Jacobstein. “There’s an academic council where every academic discipline has a department chair and they meet [bi]weekly. I think of the wellness team the same way.”
Every Thursday, the team meets to go over new submissions collected through a “Student of Concern” form, where teachers and advisors flag questions or observations about students who might need additional support. The team then collaborates to determine how best to provide each student with the support they need. Each member brings their own unique perspective to understanding what might be affecting a student’s performance.
As a counselor, Jacobstein emphasizes the importance of considering students’ mental health while supporting academic success.
“When we’re looking at ways to help faculty support students, I’m holding the mental health lens for kids and thinking about what might be going on for a student if they’re struggling academically,” she said.
Lead school nurse Phoebe Wargny provides a physical health perspective to discussions: “Being the nurse, I contribute information that I might know about someone who has a physical health condition that might be affecting their academic performance,” Wargny said.
Upper School Lead Learning Specialist Cathy Robinson focuses on neurodivergent students: “My role is to bring a perspective of students’ ability to learn and access curriculum if they have a learning difference. [I] make sure that student rights and privileges are not being violated.”
This multi-pronged approach to student wellness was spearheaded by Upper School Division Head Liza Raynal. Before and during the Covid-19 pandemic, wellness was led by grade-level deans. As the workload became untenable, Nueva expanded its wellness team and shifted responsibilities to full-time learning support and counseling professionals.
“[We used to have] three different people who [were] only looking through their own lens of how they care about kids. Sometimes they were all meeting with the same kid and they weren’t talking to each other,” Jacobstein said. “[Now,] it’s the right people in the right roles in the room, and hopefully they can help.”
These days, the wellness team continues to evolve. Shortly before winter break, Raynal invited I-Lab Director Angi Chau to do a “design sprint” and evaluate the wellness team from an outside perspective. Chau interviewed each member of the team and sat in on meetings.
“One thing that kept coming up over and over when I interviewed people individually was that they were wondering what other schools do,” Chau said. “So, I gave them homework: everybody had to interview at least one or two other schools and learn what their processes are, then report back to the group.”
For many members of the wellness team, those conversations highlighted what makes Nueva’s approach to student support so unique. Where other schools tend to keep their support services more separate, Nueva encourages open communication between disparate departments.
Upper School Academic Support Coach Gretchen Kellough, who interviewed schools across the Bay Area and in Hawaii, returned from her research feeling optimistic about Nueva’s model.
“I came back feeling really good about how we approach wellness because most of the other schools I talk to are more siloed,” Kellough said. “[It’s] made me feel really good about the more holistic approach that Nueva takes.”
As Chau wraps up her work with the wellness team, she emphasizes that success won’t always be immediately visible.
“Students [may not] see a lot of background work in terms of how teachers and the entire faculty support students,” Chau said. “[Yet] ultimately, if the wellness team is successful, students should say, ‘oh, everything’s working great!’”