by Bhavya Natarajan ('27)
Each year the Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA) include a Mental Health Promotion (MHP) competition as part of its competitive events program. The MHP involves creating a project that raises awareness, educates the public, and promotes strategies to improve mental health.
The teams consist of a group of HOSA members with a specific mental health topic for the year. They develop their project, promote it in their community, and evaluate the success and positive outcomes. Teams compete locally, and top performers advance to the next level. Finalists from states compete at the International Leadership Conference (ILC).
This year, South Brunswick High School's MHP project is called Beyond the Burnout (BTB). The project is organized by six sophomores: Kethana Kasipathy, Aarushi Patel, Ishana Dudi, Meghana Koduganti, Urja Kandale, and Diya Suresh.
Beyond the Burnout is a social media campaign designed to help students and individuals, encouraging self-care and combating burnout and stress.
Suresh said, "Our campaign aims to help high school students understand burnout, not just as stress but as a real issue that affects their well-being. Many students feel overwhelmed without knowing why, and we want to give them the knowledge and tools to manage it."
The team has four different positions, with Dudi and Suresh as outreach coordinators, and Kandale and Patel as social media coordinators. Kasipathy is the project manager, and Koduganti is the secretary. Being students themselves, burnout is a topic that is close to them.
Kasipathy said, "We chose burnout as our topic because we have seen and experienced it firsthand in our lives and in our community. Burnout is very common in our community and we wanted to raise awareness to it, as many people and students are not aware of the effects it can have on a person's mental health."
Beyond the Burnout has used many platforms to raise awareness, mainly using Instagram as well as having a podcast called "No Sweats," streaming on both YouTube and Spotify. The MHP team also hosted an event at Board and Brush South Brunswick, a local art studio, where many students attended.
Sophomore Trishna Ramarao said, "It was really fun and I got to talk to a lot of friends, and it was a good way to destress during a hectic week."
BTB also organized a spirit week, with each day correlating to mental health awareness. Their podcast goes in-depth on their personal experiences with burnout, as well as ways to combat and prevent it.
Activities and strategies like “No Sweats” and the Board and Brush event positively impacted the community, and Kandale said,
"About 40 people attended with varying ages! Our main focus for this event was to allow people to experience self-care through painting and having their friends or just other people surround them to battle against one of our risk factors: isolation."
BTB has made a difference in the community, and as they continue their journey competing in HOSA, Beyond the Burnout hopes to inspire more students to prevent burnout and prioritize self-care. Their mission and motto are clear: burn bright, not out.
Dudi added, "The people we surround ourselves with, the tasks we complete on the day to day, and the overall way we treat ourselves greatly influences not only mental health, but health overall."
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