Wellness = Success

By Jules Pizano

My education journey started when I grew up going to a religious school for middle school and part of elementary school as well. I ended up going to a public high school with over 2500 students where there was an apparent wealth disparity between kids. Going to high school in the richer part of my city, I always felt different from other kids because I grew up on “the wrong side of the tracks.” I remember kids naming other schools in the city “ghetto” or just looked down on them because they were in less wealthy parts of the city. 

The high school had a lot of students, where class sizes were large with 40 students per class, there were limited counselors for each student—counselors who we would only meet with once a year. If you weren’t in Honors/AP courses, teachers didn’t really care for students’ learning or future in higher education. There was also no school nurse or mental health professional on site so you would have to be on your own to deal with your own problems, or you would have to confide in a teacher who already had a lot on their plate. 

During my time in high school I joined the theater department because I wanted an outlet where I could be creative and shine my talents. As it usually goes, the theater department, however, lacked funding and support in comparison to sports. My high school spotlighted sports while theater, band, and other performing groups were given the cold shoulder. The theater department depended on student and parent volunteers to build sets, make costumes, and reuse older costumes, while sports programs got new uniforms every year and had much larger support and funding. The arts are important for students to express their creativity as it helps to get in touch with their artistic side and their passions, it should be supported like how we support sports!