From Nov. 13-14, 2024, the Youth to Youth (Y2Y) organization hosted its annual conference by California School-Based Health Alliance in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.. Rebecca Wulff, a counselor at Foothill Technology High School (Foothill Tech), and the adviser of the Wellness Peers, stated that the goal of the conference is to, “empower youth” and furthermore, to, “bring high school students from across the state together to network.” Foothill Tech’s very own Wellness Peers attended this conference and presented a slideshow about layering mental health resources and integrating them into school more efficiently, utilizing an analogy with a cake.
The Wellness Peer program is only over a year old; however, the Wellness Peers and Wulff, have already made their mark on the school.
While at the conference, the students can network with other programs from different schools and attend workshops hosted by fellow peers to help improve their wellness programming. This networking allows the peers to learn from other presenters about mental health topics and give them ideas for new activities to incorporate into the Wellness Center at Foothill Tech.
Foothill Tech’s Wellness Peers have hosted events at Foothill Tech such as a petting zoo and Unity Day. This conference will strengthen their knowledge of important mental health topics which they will then use to come up with new event ideas for Foothill Tech. Olivia Brightly ‘25, a Wellness Peer attending the conference stated that she hopes “to meet new people and gain some new skills and learn new activities to help improve the Wellness Center.”
Before attending the conference, the Wellness Peers had to prepare their presentation on the cake analogy, which they beautifully presented to a number of other peers. They also included an interactive activity that involved building a layered cake out of Play-Doh, engaging their audience and getting the message across. Naomi Schwartz ‘26 stated that “the goal of the presentation is to share our ideas and past experiences with certain events.” This concept not only allows participants to create their own layered events but also encourages them to work with other participants.
Overall, Y2Y’s annual conference for high school wellness centers was a success. Foothill Tech’s Wellness Peers ended the day on a high note after achieving their goal of reaching other students by sharing their experiences and accomplishments of the year so far. This group of young mental health advocates walked away from this conference having gained new skills from workshops presented from other schools. These skills will surely be implemented into their ongoing schedule of engaging mental health activities that will make Foothill Tech an overall safer space to communicate, share thoughts and feelings.
