by Richard Alrachid
Posted on March 30, 2021
Hello, my name is Richard Alrachid. I’m a highschool student attending the Webb School of California as well as the founder of No Mind Left Behind, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to reforming mental health education in schools. In my own experience, I had a long standing struggle with mental health starting very early in my elementary years. Throughout this time, I was unable to find the support I needed in my school, ultimately leading to unhealthy coping mechanisms and day to day struggles. This, however, ended when I arrived at Webb. To me, Webb is a sort of safe haven in which I know I can always find someone to go to for advice or emotional support. With a strong, trusting community, a dedicated staff, and an accepting culture, Webb has allowed me to be comfortable in how I feel and better understand how someone of my age should deal with their emotional struggles.
A few months ago, Webb conducted a school wide survey managed by Authentic Connections. This survey aimed to gauge my school’s emotional state and level of satisfaction with how the students’ needs were being met by the administration. When the results were in, we attended a webinar led by Dr. Luthar who detailed the results of the survey, and compared them to the results of other schools they have surveyed. To my surprise, I learned that these strong feelings of comfort and satisfaction with the emotional support in Webb was something which most other students simply do not have in their schools. In other words, most students have no form of an outlet for their emotions as I do at Webb, nor did they have anywhere near the same level of emotional support from faculty. Authentic Connections’ work brought to light these upsetting yet very real problems in schools across the country and largely inspired me to continue developing my own non-profit.
Coming Soon!