Autumn's Processing Boards
Autumn knows what anxiety and stress feel like and she
knows what helps her deal with them. For her Silver Award project,
Autumn learned that 20% of the kids at her middle school have special
needs, including stress and anxiety disorders, and that there aren’t
enough resources to help all of them. Autumn decided to create
Processing Boards that would be available for students to use
throughout her school whenever they were feeling anxious or stressed.
Autumn worked with her guidance counselor, school principal, as well
as other teachers, to determine what should go on the boards and where
they should be placed.
The Processing Boards craeted by
Autumn include items such as stress balls, note cards to write
positive messages, fidget spinners, and other objects that help
alleviate anxiety and stress. The boards also included instructions on
how to use each object to lessen these feelings. Additionally, Autumn
worked with the school’s Parent Teacher Organization, which agreed to
maintain the boards, both financially and physically. She measured the
impact her project was having by tracking the number of students that
used the boards and then compared that with data she received from her
Guidance Counselor regarding behaviors caused by stress and anxiety in
students before and after using the boards.
Autumn’s
project was so successful that other organizations reached out to her
asking her to create additional Processing Boards for their patients
and clients. Autumn says that she learned she can accomplish great
things when she puts her mind to it and she advised other girls
working on their Silver Award to ask for help and don’t give up.
Silver Award Girl Scout, Autumn Wellington
25 Mar 2020
