There are so many amazing people, staff, and students that make up San Dimas High School, and this year two new wellness center interns are a part of it.

Amy Vinas is one of our new interns, who’s  here to learn everything and anything she can from working with students here through the wellness center. She originally wanted to be an English teacher, majoring in Literature, and even taught English to kids in Japan for a while. English is still her favorite subject, even though like many families, she was judged a lot for going to college for those interests and not for something seen as more of a stable pursuit. She enjoyed working in Japan a lot, especially when it came to helping students with aspirations of going abroad reach those goals.

“They were like, you don’t have blue eyes and you’re not blonde? They were surprised that I wasn’t white because most people from there expect everyone from America to be white even though there are so many people here.”

However, something about only teaching a subject didn’t feel right for her.

Currently, Amy is at La Verne University and she found this internship on her own.  Now she feels like this is her dream job, so her plans after are to have a job just like this one. It’s important to her to help kids stay focused through all the distractions that can arise in public high school, which is why she wants to be more than just a traditional guidance counselor.

Something she thinks is very important to remember while doing anything is “Have a growth mindset. I know it can be frustrating when some things seem hard to achieve but the only way to achieve is to have a growth mindset. No matter what’s happening in life, whether its happiness or sadness, everything goes, so just live in the moment and enjoy in the moment. Happiness lasts so enjoy. And sadness goes so forget about it.”

In regards to the first Mental Health Club Meeting where everyone made bracelets, Amy sees it as really exciting because there were a lot of boys, and “guys don’t typically show up for events like this.”

PC: Amy Vinas

The other intern’s name is Masa and she is a first-year clinical psychology M.S. student at CSUF. She graduated from the University of La Verne with a bachelor’s in Psychology although she originally was pursuing a creative writing degree and has a great love for poetry.

Originally a philosophy major, Shah has switched majors quite a few times going from creative writing to literature.

“I think that once I got into psychology, I knew that I wanted to do counseling, so yeah, I am where I expect myself to be right now when it comes to seeing students every day and figuring out how to help through their high school journey,” Masa says.

While pursuing creative writing, Masa enjoyed reading many different kinds of literature and being able to express herself in a way that she felt comfortable with along with being able to read a diversity of other’s people’s works. This farther opened up her curiosity for wanting to work with different people’s perspectives.

She admires and agrees with the way San Dimas High School has the Wellness Center as a support system for students since an area like this isn’t really a traditional area that is part of most high schools. Because of this, there is more of an option for students to truly be able to figure out who they want to be and work for it instead of being forced to suppress and stay confused about themselves for a longer period of their lives.

But when it comes to improvement, “Helping students out with being stressed about college is honestly something that could be worked on.”

It is true that along with all the support systems our high school provides, there are also many resources to help with college information. However, college is not the only option for what students can do after high school and it would be nice for information about that to be highly encouraged as well. As much success that college can bring, it is not the only and immediate path for after high school and she hopes to help implement this knowledge as she furthers her work in counseling.

Describing this current internship Shah says, “I was hoping to learn more about what’s going on with teenagers these days. Just people that have depression and self harm and how I can help them, especially considering all the limitations that come with being a minor and needing parental consent to receive help for serious things like this.”

Because of the challenges that are the limitations with needing parental consent for a lot of the help that can allow students to perform better in school, Shah finds teenagers the most rewarding to work with, due to being able to learn with coming up with creative ways to get around these limitations.

As much as teenagers have been an enjoyment to work with, she plans to explore counseling with different age ranges first before committing to high school counselling.

A helpful piece of advice to remember through life is that “There isn’t going to be a permanent state of happiness and sometimes we just have to accept that life can be a little painful and honor those negative emotions.”

Rather than using negative emotions as something to fall deeper and deeper into, it’s better to acknowledge it, figure out why they are being caused and come up with something to allow more contentment.

PC: Masa Shah