Pari Shah, a junior at Canyon High school and a Girl Scout Juliet successfully earned her gold award by implementing our innovative Brain-Based EQ program.
Our Brain-Based EQ program was implemented with three elementary schools in the Orange Unified School District: Crescent Elementary, Anaheim Hills Elementary, and Imperial Elementary.
Pari wanted to address the issue of mental health because…
“So many students are going through stress, anxiety, anger issues, and depression. Some of the fundamentals of Emotional Intelligence (EQ) are the ability for a person to be able to properly regulate, understand and communicate their emotions and most importantly, have empathy for what other students are feeling and going through. There are a lot of causes of stress and anxiety but some of the main ones include schoolwork, relationships, social media, family issues and etc. Students with EQ have the ability to understand and manage emotions to communicate effectively in difficult situations. Furthermore, EQ teaches how to empathize with others, allowing easier delusion to conflicts. These are key factors for a student to reduce stress and anxiety. Having less stress, anxiety, and anger issues will improve a student’s mental health, and will help a student to grow and become more resilient and successful in life.” – Pari Shah
The root cause of her issue was noticing how students had …
“lack of self-awareness and not having enough guidance and tools for healthy coping mechanisms. The coping mechanism will provide students to accept criticism and responsibility. They will learn the ability to move on after making mistakes, they will have the ability to say no when they need to, and to share their feelings with others. Lack of coping mechanisms can lead to stress, anxiety, and anger issues. Uncontrolled stress can also cause physical problems high blood pressure and heart disease. All of these uncontrolled emotions and thoughts can negatively affect mental health and make someone vulnerable to anxiety and depression, which takes a significant toll on their life.” -Pari Shah
She addressed the main issue (mental health) and root cause (coping tools) with our Brain-Based EQ program. This is what she learned…
“I taught the necessary tools to comprehend and regulate emotions to elementary students within grades 4-6. This program covered strategies to overcome flight or flight response, amygdala hijacks, growth mindset, using positive affirmations, vision boards, brain anatomy, positive body language, and more! I made all these lessons appropriate for an elementary school student, and more importantly, engaging! The data collected from the pre-survey, before the program began, and the post-survey, after the program ended, shows that students learned the necessary skills to regulate their emotions in various situations. For example, students are now equipped with tools such as breathing and counting to 10 when their fight or flight response is invoked.” -Pari Shah