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In spring 2007 a team of MSJHS administrators, teachers,
parents and students, recognizing the increase in stress
related incidents within the Mission community, wrote
and applied for a grant to be part of the Stanford-based
Stressed Out Student Project.
Mission San Jose High School joined 160 schools that
have participated in Stanford’s SOS project over the
last five years. The schools, both public and private,
have formed a network of institutions committed to
creating data based solutions to reduce academic stress
within their student communities, with the support of
Stanford University’s School of Education. All are high
performing schools. All have witnessed an increase in
stress related behaviors within their communities. All
have chosen to support achievement while reducing
academic stress, by helping to improve the health,
school engagement and academic integrity of their
schools.
The MSJHS Stressed Out Students Team (SOS) attended the
spring 2007 SOS conference at Stanford University and
went to work.
At
the conference they generated a Mission Statement that
defined their path to reducing academic stress at
Mission San Jose High School.
Our Mission Statement
Our mission is to support a school environment that
nurtures
integrity, academic engagement, connectedness and well
being.
Then they really got to work, making a list of what they
saw happening at Mission and what the root causes were
at the heart of this problem. From that list they chose
two initial goals for the first year of Mission: SOS:
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To develop a stress education program for the
students
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To develop a stress education program for the
parents
Since the original Stanford SOS Conference led by Denise
Pope, the Mission: SOS team has grown to include a core
of a dozen students, and an equal number of
administrators, parents, and teachers.
Mission: SOS has raised funds, planned 4 evening events,
visited and begun networking with other area SOS schools
and developed a strong campus presence. We are
researching options, gathering data, and as a community
over time we will lower academic stress at Mission!
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