Schools
Project Happiness Comes to Sachem High School East
The school was chosen as one of 10 high schools from across the U.S. to receive a scholarship to establish a Happiness Club.
From Sachem Central School District: Sachem High School East in the Sachem Central School District has been chosen by Project Happiness as one of 10 high schools from across the United States to receive a scholarship to establish a Happiness Club supported by the “Life’s Good: Experience Happiness” corporate social responsibility platform. High School East was named an Official Happiness School based on its enthusiasm, creativity and commitment.
Project Happiness is a nonprofit organization based in Cupertino, California. Founded in 2009, Project Happiness aims to teach people how to develop happiness strategies for life. The goal of the program is to reach 5.5 million youth with learnable happiness skills over the next five years, and this is just a first step. As a pilot program, the club will lay the foundations for a positive environment for students who experience great amounts of stress during this time in their lives, as well as create a ripple in the school community.
“We were thrilled to learn Sachem East was chosen to be one of 10 schools in the country to participate in this Project Happiness movement,” Principal Louis Antonetti said. “This program will allow us to adopt a mindfulness program that will help students cope with stress while developing skills for self-reflection.”
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The Happiness Club at High School East will use activities and strategies from the Project Happiness handbook and curriculum to support students’ efforts to build happiness habits for life. The material has been used in more than 120 countries and is science-based, drawing on aspects of positive psychology, neuroscience, mindfulness and social-emotional learning.
The purpose of being an official Happiness School is to create a culture that supports people, rather than tears them down, and fosters an environment where authenticity and individual strengths are celebrated. Students will be encouraged to listen to their inner friend, rather than their inner critic, and develop emotional resilience along with grit.
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As part of the initiative, High School East was visited by a Discovery Channel television crew to film “Discover Your Happy,” a program that will air on March 20 on Discovery Education.
Photo courtesy of the Sachem Central School District (Happiness: From left, Sachem High School East students Angelica Knudson and Victoria Polito held the Project Happiness Handbook.)
