BATESVILLE — A new student wellness center at Batesville High School is providing students with a dedicated space to manage stress and anxiety during stressful times.
The Student Success Center, which opened after two years of planning and community fundraising, was designed with direct input from students. The goal was to create a safe space to pause, reset and receive guidance.
"It feels like you're going into a spa because everything about this space was intentional from the color of the walls, to the sounds that would come in, to the color of the fabric, the texture," said Lisa Tuveson, Wellness Coordinator for Batesville Community Schools.
See the new space that was curated with peace and tranquilty in mind:
The center features five distinct areas designed to support student mental health and wellness.
A smart lab allows students to use "Heart Math" technology to see in real-time how breathing exercises can reduce their heart rate and help them re-center themselves.
A community area enables the school to bring in partners from the community to provide specialized programming for students.
The center also houses three school counselor offices.
It also includes a small outdoor area, as research shows nature plays an important role in regulating the nervous system.
Watch what students like the best in the Student Success Center:
Junior Makena Moore spent time with fellow students to develop what students wanted in the space.
“We’ve been researching what could possibly help with anxiety or a lot of stress and we’ve come up with things like NeeDoh, which is a fidget toy, coloring books and an ice machine because we researched it was a reset for your nervous system,” Moore said.
The space was constructed out of two unused classrooms.
"When they were feeling anxious or overwhelmed or stressed, they wanted to find a space where they could find privacy, where they could go be by themselves so we knew it would be really important for them to have a privacy area," Tuveson said.
"Some of them even expressed that they were hiding in the bathroom or in the media center, and we wanted to provide a space that they could go and have privacy, but also be monitored."
The Batesville Community Education Foundation raised about $230,000 for the project.
The success of the wellness center has generated interest from other schools in the district, with other buildings now requesting similar spaces for their students.
The timing of the center's opening aligns with new research from Vanderbilt University highlighting the importance of protecting mental health during the holiday season, particularly for children and teenagers who may feel overwhelmed by seasonal changes and increased stress.
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