Episode 243: WJHS “Sources of Strength” Students Plan Self-Care Event Prior to Prom Hoping to Cut Costs & Create Feel Good Moments

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. They wanted everyone to feel great about going to prom and cut costs in the process.

On this episode of the Supercast, hear from an inspiring group of students who belong to an organization at West Jordan High School called “Sources of Strength”. Find out how their incredible Self-Care Event made prom picture perfect and affordable for students, creating feel good moments and memories to last a lifetime.

We are here at West Jordan High School with Robyn Briggs, the advisor for “Sources of Strength” and you're putting on a Self-Care Event tonight. The media is out, all kinds of students are out. Tell us about what's going on.

Robyn Briggs:
We're super excited that you're here. We're doing a “Sources of Strength” event and this event is all about bringing mental health awareness to the kids and helping them realize that their thoughts and opinions about themselves is important for their mental health. And so to give a little self-care to yourself goes a long way.

We've collaborated with a ton of volunteers from our community and they're all coming out to do manicures. We're making corsages and boutonnieres for these kids' prom dates, we have permanent jewelry, we have eyelash extensions.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow.

Robyn Briggs:
We've got haircutting. We've got so many things. Brow waxing. These kids are literally coming out of here a whole new person.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow.

Robyn Briggs:
I'm serious.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's the total makeover. So is prom tomorrow night?

Robyn Briggs:
Prom is tomorrow night and all the kids signed up for appointments for this event. We've had over 45 volunteers come to perform services.

Anthony Godfrey:
45 volunteers and how many students signed up?

Robyn Briggs:
We're serving over 100 students today.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow. That's fantastic. And tell me a little bit about “Sources of Strength”, the group that organized this.

Robyn Briggs:
So “Sources of Strength” is a suicide prevention program at our school. It's actually a class and I'm the advisor for that class. The students in the class are called our peer leaders. They're nominated by their peers as people that they can trust and go to when they're struggling. And so Sources of Strength is an upstream approach to suicide prevention.

We focus on the good rather than the negative. So focusing on stories of strength rather than stories of trauma. We help students draw to their, like go to their strengths when they're going through a hard time rather than focusing on the trauma that they're going through. So looking around them and being like, "Oh wow, I have so many strengths around them. I have my family's support. I have my mental health. That's a really strong strength of mine. I have my physical health. I have all these things. I have mentors." All of those things are their strengths and we help them recognize their strengths so when they are going through a hard time they can turn to those strengths.

Anthony Godfrey:
And by organizing this event, these students are now being a source of strength for the broader West Jordan High School community.

Robyn Briggs:
Exactly. And not only that, but they're getting to know the peer leaders that are at the school who are putting these things on and they're realizing, "Oh, I can get to know these peer leaders and they will be my friend." And all the peer leaders are super welcoming, super loving, and they're just like pillars in our school who shine and are positive and willing to be literally anyone's friend.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's fantastic. Yeah. And I can see the great turnout here. There's a ton going on. Talk me through. Let's walk and talk through some things that are happening.

Robyn Briggs:
Okay, sounds good. To our left right here we have our brow station. We have girls getting brow laminations, brow tints.

Anthony Godfrey:
What is a brow lamination? Putting your head through a laminating machine doesn’t seem like a good idea.

Robyn Briggs:
Okay, no, exactly. A brow lamination is when you take the hairs on your eyebrows and you laminate them up so it makes for a fuller-looking brow. And honestly, it's a huge trend right now and it's actually pretty expensive to get done. It's kind of a newer trend though. It makes your eyebrows look fuller, I guess.

Anthony Godfrey:
I have not experienced this trend.

Robyn Briggs:
Yeah, and there's also eyebrow tinting going on here. So if your eyebrows are naturally a little lighter than your hair color, they can tint it so that it matches the hair color on your face.

Anthony Godfrey:
So you can emphasize the brow, change the color of the brow so it matches the hair.

Robyn Briggs:
Exactly.

Anthony Godfrey:
And it makes for a wonderful Prom.

Robyn Briggs:
And then we've got like Skin Core over here doing waxing. They volunteered to do waxing eyebrows for us. They're doing men's, women's, all the things. Men need to get their eyebrows waxed too. Did you know that Dr. Godfrey?

Anthony Godfrey:
I did know that.

Robyn Briggs:
Okay, I'm just making sure.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yes, they do. And so tell me, so we've got the waxing going on here and this is teeth whitening right here it looks like?

Robyn Briggs:
This is teeth whitening. Can you even believe it? We've got a teeth whitener came out and donated their time to do teeth whitening on these students.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's amazing.

Robyn Briggs:
Yeah, and you know, honestly, smiles are so important. They light up a face and when you're not confident about your smile, that ruins your self-image. It really does. And so if that's something we can do to help them so they feel a little bit more confident and feel like, “oh my gosh, I can smile and I can be happy.” All of those things. Isn't that what we're trying to do?

Anthony Godfrey:
That's wonderful. Permanent jewelry. Talk to me about permanent jewelry. Now, I think my niece did this. So is it when you weld a kind of a link in a chain and now you've got a bracelet on permanently?

Robyn Briggs:
Yes, exactly. I actually just got mine done.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh, let's see. Lovely. Very nice.

Robyn Briggs:
And I'm matching with my student Aspen. Shout out to Aspen. She's doing permanent jewelry. She's taking, they get to choose their chain, their design and they get it welded onto them. It's not really permanent. You can cut it off at any point in time, but it's super fun.

Anthony Godfrey:
Sure, what is permanent? But it’s as permanent as anything gets.
Robyn Briggs:
Yes, exactly. It's not quite as permanent as a tattoo though. Okay. So we're good. We're good on that.

Anthony Godfrey:
Then, we've got the brows here and the eyelash extensions. Wow.

Robyn Briggs:
Yes, we have eyelash extensions. Can you even believe that these women came out to donate their time? Eyelash extensions take up to two hours to do and you're literally gluing on individual eyelash hairs to like make your eyelashes fuller. Some of these girls might not have very full natural eyelashes. So it really does make a huge difference on their self-confidence. But we have, you can see, we have six stations doing eyelash extensions right here. Six girls that are going to have a full set of lashes for prom.

Anthony Godfrey:
It looks, it does look intense and complex.

Robyn Briggs:
Right.

Anthony Godfrey:
For those who are listening, there are tables set up everywhere. There's a ton of swag and it's just obvious there are lots of volunteers here helping everyone look their best and feel their best. That's the most important part.

Robyn Briggs:
Isn't that the most important part? We've also got over here, we've got Dapper Delinquents, a barber shop here in the valley. They came out, they have six barbers here doing our men's haircut. We wanted to make sure that the boys felt included and knew that we understood that their self-image is really important to their mental health as well.

Anthony Godfrey:
They've got the clippers out. I don't want to get too close and distract them. They're putting a sharp line on the edge of these boys' hair and it looks really great.

All right Dom, so you're the president of “Sources of Strength”, right?

Dom:
Yes sir.

Anthony Godfrey:
And you are currently getting your haircut.

Dom:
Yes sir.

Anthony Godfrey:
And how's it feeling so far?

Dom:
It's pretty good. I'm happy with it.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me about this event. How have you felt as this haircut comes to a close?

Dom:
Honestly, it's been one of our best events and I'm happy with the way it's turned out. More people showed up than I thought and honestly, I think it's made a big impact.

Anthony Godfrey:
Now that you have had this haircut, are you feeling at your best?

Dom:
Yes sir.

Anthony Godfrey:
You look your best.

Dom:
Thank you. All thanks to my man right here.

Anthony Godfrey:
And what's it been like helping out tonight with all these haircuts?

Carlos:
It's been good, you know. Just coming out here seeing new people and getting new people to come into the shop, getting to check us out. We've only been around for like a year in the West Jordan area.

Anthony Godfrey:
And tell me your name?

Carlos:
Carlos. People know me as Los Cuts as well on Instagram and everything.

Anthony Godfrey:
Los Cuts, okay. How did this event come together? Where did the idea come from?

Dom:
So we wanted to find a way to help boost everybody's confidence or self-esteem. And one way we thought was, you know, one of the biggest dances was prom. So we thought, “hey, maybe if we run an event where people can come in and help fix up maybe if they need their nails done or and don't have the money for it, they can come in and people can donate their time and resources that could help out.”

Anthony Godfrey:
It's a time when you want to be your best and your self-esteem is really important. So I think it's well-timed. I loved the idea from the moment I heard about it. That's why we wanted to come out. So thanks for being a source of strength for so many people tonight.

Dom:
Of course. And thank you.

Anthony Godfrey:
Stay with us. When we come back more with “Sources of Strength.”

Break:
Hello, I'm Stacee Worthen, Secondary Counseling Specialist for Jordan School District. Do you know all the ways Jordan School District counselors can help you and your students? School counselors play such an important role in our schools. They provide parents with resources to help guide their children in academics. They provide support with the mental and social well-being of students in our schools. And if you are in the process of preparing a student for college, or just beginning the conversation of higher education, now is the perfect time to reach out to your child's counselor. We can assist with college applications and college readiness. I encourage parents and guardians to schedule an appointment and get to know your student's counselor. Together, counselors and parents can help develop plans and strategies for students to succeed long after they leave Jordan School District. Reach out! We're always here to help. You can find us and learn more at counseling.jordandistrict.org.

Anthony Godfrey:
Sahalee is a peer leader with “Sources of Strength” and you're also helping with the tinseling of hair tonight.

Sahalee:
Yes, I am.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tinsel is something that is for a Christmas tree–

Sahalee:
And for hair now.

Anthony Godfrey:
–from the 1900s for me. But I'm being brought into the 20th century.

Sahalee:
Yes.

Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me about tinseling hair.

Sahalee:
Well, you can tie it in. We're beading it in because it's a lot faster. So we're just doing like chunks and just putting it in. It's heat resistant. You can still curl your hair. Just–

Anthony Godfrey:
So can you curl it with your hair? And you said you're beading it in. How do you bead it in? How does that work?

We have small beads that we're clamping in. Okay. So we're just like putting it in through these and we loop it and clamp it.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay. Oh, so there's a little tool.

Sahalee:
Yes. There is.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wire on the end of the handle.

Sahalee:
Yes.

Anthony Godfrey:
You pull the hair through it looks like.

Sahalee:
And then we have a clamp.

Anthony Godfrey:
And then use a bead. The bead is the clamp?

Sahalee:
No, we use a bead and then we clamp it down.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay.

Sahalee:
And then it's in your hair.

Anthony Godfrey:
Oh wow. Okay. And how permanent is the tinseling?

Sahalee:
Honestly, it comes down to like how well you take care of it. So you can have, I've had it up to like a month, but some people get sick of it. You could just clamp it the opposite way and it'll fall off or you can pull it out.

Anthony Godfrey:
And you were just tinseled. How does it feel?

Sahalee:
I guess cool. I mean, I can't really see it, but everybody's giving me compliments.

Anthony Godfrey:
It looks great.

Sahalee:
Thank you.

Anthony Godfrey:
I think it shimmers. It's wonderful. So yeah, well done. Oh, and look, there are different colors. I would have thought it would be–

Sahalee:
Lots of different colors.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow. There's a whole array. What goes with my faded old hair?

Sahalee:
I say bright pink.

Anthony Godfrey:
Bright pink. I’d really make a statement.

Sahalee:
Oh, 100%.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, it would have to be cut pretty short. Those are long strands of tinsel unless I wanted it to trail behind me.

Sahalee:
I think that would be awesome. That's a look.

Anthony Godfrey:
I guess it is a look. I could give a whole vibe.

Sahalee:
You could give a vibe.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yes. Okay. Thank you. I've learned a great deal in just the last few minutes.

Sahalee:
Thank you.

Anthony Godfrey:
What do we got next?

Robyn Briggs:
My personal favorite thing that this event has, it has inclusivity for all different hair types and all different diverse students. We've got a whole section back here for girls with textured hair, our black Latino students, our Polynesian students, which West Jordan has a large population of those students. We've got braiding, cornrows and things like that. And then we also even have wig installations and girls can bring their wig and get educated on how to install their wig properly. I don't know very much about all the things that they have to deal with with their hair and self-care and all of that, but I do know that installing a wig is actually very difficult. And so educating the black girls on how to do that is really influential for their self-confidence. And so all of these women came to help out with that.

Anthony Godfrey:
Those appointments filled up fast. Yep. They did.

Anthony Godfrey:
Now I'm still going back to the tinsel hair. I'm seeing the result of–

Robyn Briggs;
We've bamboozled him.

Anthony Godfrey:
–the tinsel hair there. I don't know if it could work for me, but I like the concept.

Robyn Briggs:
I don't know, what about a little silver sparkle?

Anthony Godfrey:
A little silver sparkle.

Robyn Briggs:
You're what they would call a silver fox so let's just elevate that.

Anthony Godfrey:
It just doesn't sparkle. No, I think that looks great. That's really fun.

Robyn Briggs:
Oh my gosh, your hair looks so beautiful.

Student:
And she's doing tinsel too.

Robyn Briggs:
She's doing tinsel on your hair.

Student:
But it's a surprise. It's a surprise. I don't know what it looks like yet.

Robyn Briggs:
So cute. Okay, we've got all of our nail tech over here. We had over 16 nail techs come out today to do all different types of nails on these girls. Isn't that amazing?

Anthony Godfrey:
So then we've got the little light here. Is that right? It's a light.

Robyn Briggs:
Yes.

Anthony Godfrey:
Does the light dry?

Robyn Briggs:
It cures the paint.

Anthony Godfrey:
Okay. And there's a lot here I don't know. This is beyond my my world.

Robyn Briggs;
I know.

Anthony Godfrey:
I have sons all the way.

Robyn Briggs:
But girls, we do know it. We know it. Yeah. And we even have somebody who's come in pre-made press-ons so that the girls can choose from a ton of different press-ons to put on. Her name is Yasmin and she's amazing.

Anthony Godfrey:
And I see we have a boutonniere station here as well. Tell me about that.

Robyn Briggs:
So we actually had all of these flowers donated by Ensign Floral. They donated enough corsages, enough flowers for 25 corsages and boutonnieres. So 50 total. And I'm pretty certain we're gonna have a lot extra because they were really generous. And so we're really appreciative of their donation. We have Maddie Sorenson, our agriculture teacher here, and she's educating and teaching all of these kids on how to create a corsage and a boutonniere for their date. So they're hand-making their corsages and boutonnieres.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow. I see lots of glue and sprigs and ribbons and other materials. People working hard to put those together. All of them custom, hand made.

Robyn Briggs:
And all of them are specific to the student's outfits, right? You want your corsage to match your dress. So we have a wide variety of flowers here. We have a wide variety of colors and ribbons so that their corsage can specifically match their dress.

Anthony Godfrey:
This is super impressive. Obviously, “Sources of Strength” has an incredible focus on helping students get through the difficulties that they may be living through at home or at school. And tonight, lots of kids are going to have an incredible time at prom tomorrow. There's no doubt about that.

Robyn Briggs:
There's no doubt about it for sure. And I'm super excited with how it all turned out. And we're grateful that you came out and you're here to support us.

Anthony Godfrey:
I'm thrilled that I got to see SOS in action. You guys are awesome. Thank you so much.

Robyn Briggs:
Thank you.

Anthony Godfrey:
Thanks for joining us on another episode of the Supercast. Remember, education is the most important thing you'll do today. We'll see you out there.