Health & Wellness

During the School year, the Director of Health Services, a Registered Nurse, is on campus every week day from 7:30am to 3:30pm dedicated to students who are in need of temporary health care, first aid, or medication administration. Located in the academic building, the Health Office is situated across from the school’s Main Office. This convenient location enables the Director to get to know the students, and provides easy access to health care services.

The Health Office coordinates closely with the Dining Services Staff to support a healthy food services program. SAGE Dining is dedicated to allergy awareness and reaction prevention, and caters to the specific dietary needs of our students.

St. Sebastian's Wellness Curriculum promotes healthy behaviors and encourages conversation about issues and ideas important to students’ social and emotional development. The curriculum is tailored to help students at various grade levels manage the emotional, academic, and social challenges of adolescence.

 

Welcome to Counseling

All 7th graders and new 8th graders participate in a group-based introduction to counseling with Dr. Ed Zadravec, our consulting psychologist. During these group meetings students learn about counseling supports at St. Sebastian's and have an opportunity to ask questions about counseling and other wellness topics. The goal of these meetings is to normalize the idea of receiving emotional support and to remove barriers for students who might need this support at some point.  

 

Peer Education

Led by ten seniors and two juniors, the peer education program’s guiding principle is that students are more likely to relate to and trust their peers than professionals. This is a student-led and faculty-guided group. Our peer educators present topics to our younger students and often break into small group discussions to share thoughts and perspectives on the topic being presented.  Peer educators have given presentations on kindness, chirping, exam preparation, alcohol use, procrastination and goal setting, and social media use.

 

Food for Thought

Food For Thought, a program for our 8th graders, focuses on one important topic per month which directly affects teenage boys. FFT is taught by Dave Hinman Wellness Coordinator, Jen Joyce, RN, Director of Health Services, and Dr. Ed Zadravec School Psychologist. Topics include friendships/relationships with peers, self-esteem and confidence building, sleep and nutrition, self-care, and more. The boys are provided with lunch and drinks. 

One Love Workshop

All members of the St. Sebastian’s class participate with the senior class at Dana Hall School in a workshop run by the One Love Foundation. The One Love Foundation is the national leader in educating young people about healthy and unhealthy relationships. The aim of the program is to teach young people what healthy behaviors look like and change the statistics around abuse, sexual assault, and harassment. The Escalation Workshop is a film-based experience that educates about the warning signs of an abusive relationship, creating a safe zone for discussing an all-too-common problem. The students watch the film, Escalation, and then break into small groups for a discussion focusing on the key scenes from the movie and talking about the warning signs and actions that could have been taken. 
 

Guest Speakers

A key component to our Wellness Curriculum is the guest speaker series. Experts in the field of Health and Wellness present to the entire St. Sebastian's community about important topics that our students face on a daily basis.  After the presentation, the peer educators often break the students up into small groups to further discuss the messages of the presenter.

Individual school-based counseling is an important component of the Health and Wellness Program at St. Sebastian’s. While emotional support is embedded within all relationships between students and faculty, there are times when it is helpful for students to speak with a mental health professional. Our Consulting Psychologist, Dr. Ed Zadravec provides direct support and interventions to students and consults with teachers to develop support strategies. Dr. Zadravec also consults to students’ families around support strategies at home and to coordinate needed services with outpatient providers.  

St. Sebastian’s has two certified Athletic Trainers on staff responsible for the athletic care of all of our athletes, covering every practice and game for all of our teams. The athletic trainers provide evaluations of injuries to athletes to determine safe participation status, preventative taping and bracing methods, and in-school rehabilitation to any athlete with an injury.

Our team of dedicated professionals have backgrounds in physical and mental health, academic and social-emotional support, and sports medicine and conditioning. The Health & Wellness team works closely with school leaders, faculty, advisors, and coaches to support the unique needs of each boy during his time at St. Sebastian's.