Correction: The original caption for the photo misidentified Ashley Roberts and Anne Sutkowi.
Giant puddles covered the ground, but the 10 students pushed onward, their shoes squelching on the rain-soaked dirt track. By the end of the class, they had all run two miles.
“All of them were complaining; they didn’t want to get their feet wet, but they had all finished by the end, and they were smiling, so excited,” said Anne Sutkowi, co-founder of STRIDES, a health promotion and suicide prevention program created at UCLA. For her, seeing the students jogging after a rain shower was one of the most memorable moments of her time teaching at Olympic High School.
Two times a week, second-year public health graduate students Ashley Roberts and Sutkowi carpool to Olympic High in Santa Monica to teach a health class as part of the pilot program STRIDES, which they developed in a two-quarter program-planning class at UCLA last year.
Inspired by research done in the class, the project aims to promote physical, mental and emotional well-being through physical activity, stress relief, and development of a positive self-image. Because there is a link between suicide rates and emotional health, the ultimate goal of the project is to prevent suicide among the students, Roberts said.
“Many high school students know someone who has thought about suicide and even committed suicide,” she said. “After the tragic string of suicides recently, hopefully this program can help reduce their risk and help others dealing with suicidal thoughts and risk factors.”
While most students in their classes were not able to execute the final product of their course, Roberts and Sutkowi were able to put their plan into action after receiving support from the Albert Schweitzer Fellowship, which aids leaders working to address the needs of underserved communities.
Most of the students at Olympic High School have faced great difficulties battling homelessness, divorce and deaths in the family at a young age, said Marcia Gecht, the students’ health teacher. Due to such hardships, education becomes a lesser priority.
“(Olympic High is) a continuation high school that channels success, so they can get real comfortable and create a good community,” Gecht said. “It’s a second chance for whatever reason they had not been successful at a traditional high school.”
During each class session, Roberts and Sutkowi lead students in stretches and jogs on campus, hoping that they will integrate running into their daily lives, Roberts said.
“One of the reasons we use running is because it’s inherently both an individual and team sport,” she said. “We encourage them to encourage one another, but it’s a solitary thing that they can do by themselves for stress relief.”
The 10-week project will culminate in the STRIDES 5K Run/Walk, an event at Dockweiler Beach, in which students will have the option of running alongside members of the local community.
“The most important thing for me is to feel that the kids have support in the community, who don’t think they are failures and encourage them to keep setting goals because they can achieve them,” Sutkowi said.
Olympic High School junior Kia Walker said the activities inspire her to set goals and change her lifestyle. Walker, who had never run or jogged prior to the health class, now aspires to finish the entire STRIDES 5K Run/Walk in November.
“I get to jog, and I get to be outside, and I feel pretty good after each jog,” Walker said. “I hope to be a little more healthier after this.”
Roberts said while she was originally intimidated by the students, her ability to eventually win their trust and appreciation allowed her to see the impact of persistence and optimism in their lives.
“These are tough kids to win their respect,” she said. “Having some who have gotten so far in such a short time is rewarding. We had a student come in the second week, who said, “˜This is the reason why I love coming to health class on Mondays and Fridays.'”
Sutkowi, too, said she looks forward to each session.
“This is what I want to do when I graduate, and it is a reminder for me every week why I go to classes at UCLA,” she said.