By Andrea Xu ’25
In the middle of an exceptionally warm Saturday morning, St. Mark’s hosted its second annual Wellness Day on December 3rd, 2022. After school meeting ended, students had the choice of attending either “Minding Your Mind,” during which the speaker shared her experience overcoming mental health struggles, or Rita Kapur’s presentation on how yoga and meditation led to her journey to Mount Everest Base Camp. After the key note speakers event, students took a 20 minute break to get to their next breakout session. The Wellness Fair held at the Taft Hall. There were assorted student led activities, including Finance Literacy kahoot, Meditative Drawing, Shred 4 Sustainability, Gratitude, cookies and hot chocolate, and World Cup live streaming. Following the fair there were a myriad of breakout sessions led by St. Mark’s faculty, ranging from Mr. Davey’s conversation on Men’s Health to Ms. Ames’ workshop on Women Leadership and Sports.
Wellness Day is a safe environment to engage students in wellness conversations and discussions to learn more about skills that can help with their mental health in the future. At St. Mark’s, we live in a competitive environment where we are expected to stay on top of our academics, extracurriculars, and social life at all times. The Wellness Day is an opportunity to prioritize our social, emotional, and physical well-being and take time to care about ourselves. Mr. Corazzini, the Wellness Director at St. Mark’s, shares his thoughts in hosting the Wellness Day: “My role as the wellness director gives me the ability to teach every student in their time at St. Mark's. I thoroughly enjoy the individual interactions that I get to have with each student. The students are the ones that make St. Mark's so special. Also, I still struggle with stress and anxiety, but now I have the tools, language, and skill set to look after myself. I hope that I can pass that on to our students.” Along with Mr. Corazzini, the student wellness committee and Ms. Martin also partook in choosing the wellness theme. The student wellness committee wanted to touch on topics such as a sense of belonging, trying to be perfect, and living in the present.
Indeed, with the assessment week coming up in a week, the lions need a Wellness Day to revitalize themselves in order to be prepared for the busy December. Luckily, Christmas is on the horizon!