Located on the first floor of Stent Family Hall in the Student Center near the Learning Lab, the Wellness Center is a place where students can come to unwind before, during, or after school. Students can stop by for tea and other hot beverages—offered free of charge—and take advantage of bean bags and comfy couches to snuggle up on as well as coloring books, blankets, games, and stress toys.

Senior Walter Li spearheaded the project. Walter previously served on the youth board for mental health at the Children’s Health Council where he learned of other schools in the area offer similar spaces and initiatives. He immediately thought it was time for Menlo to create one of its own.

“There is a stigma around a lot of mental health spaces, says Walter. “The opportunity to create a space that wasn’t stigmatized intrigued me. By creating a space on campus dedicated to re-centering, a space that was warm and friendly, I hoped to chip away at this misconception and instead challenge people to have a constant awareness of their mental health,” he said.

In order to jump-start the project, Walter worked with the School’s Mental Health at Menlo club as well as Upper School Counselor Tracy Bianchi and former counselor Nina Keebler. “People were really interested in the idea,” he shared. “I created a proposal along with the counselors that I shared with Mr. Lapolla. It took a lot of time to get the project off the ground, but by second semester we committed to opening it by the end of the year. We created a design proposal and finally got a budget. I met with facilities and worked with Mr. Lapolla to get everything we needed to bring the space to life.”

The main purpose of the Wellness Center is to be of service to the students, but also be subtle enough so it’s just a place where people can come and go. With that goal in mind, Walter has received a lot of positive feedback. “I’ve gotten a lot of acknowledgments of the positivity of the space. Some of the feedback comes in the form of people just using the space—you see people using the blankets and the tea…I’m just happy that they are using the resources available to them.”

For final exams in December, the Wellness Center offered an activity where students could write messages of support and place them on the windows, encouraging students throughout the sometimes stressful time.

The Wellness Center now also serves as the official location for the Chat n’ Chew student discussions (previously called Community Circle), held periodically throughout the year as it allows for a comfortable, safe space essential for those sometimes challenging topics and conversations. There is also a dedicated area in the Center where students can get resources and tips about clinical support as well as a second area that has information about helping to combat the mental health stigma.

“I hope that, in the long term, this space and the efforts of the Mental Health at Menlo club, in general, can create a culture where people reach out and get the support they deserve.”