Mrs. Vitaletti, School Counselor at The Calais School, recently supervised a trip to the Dare to Dream High School Leadership conference with eight upper school students. Kenny, Katie, Robert, John James, Sydney, Anna, Marissa, and Samantha were each selected based on their demonstration of exemplary self-advocacy and leadership skills.

Held at William Paterson University, this student leadership event is sponsored by the state Department of Education, Office of Special Education programs. The conference gives students the opportunity to participate in workshops led by their peers on topics such as: self-discovery, student self-advocacy, learning styles, developing career paths and understanding rights and responsibilities in college.

In the weeks leading up to the conference, Mrs. Vitaletti and her “dare to dream team” have been working hard to prepare a presentation on mindfulness. The presentation included a lot of the methodologies and techniques used by the Counseling Team at Calais. The students taught a lesson on how the brain processes emotions and used skits to demonstrate tips for managing emotions and stressful situations with breathing exercises. The students were really excited to teach their peers about the benefits of practicing mindfulness. The presentation ended with a guided meditation and their audience was excited to pick their own mindfulness glitter jars!

We are so proud of our students and all the time and energy they put into their mindfulness presentation. They did a wonderful job representing The Calais School.