Albert Chen ’23
EA plans to hire a new, full-time psychologist for next year. The current school psychologist, Dr. Nicole Chaikin, will continue to counsel students part-time.
The main reason for this change was the size of the Upper School. The student to psychologist ratio in the upper school has been almost double that in the middle and lower schools. There are around 420 students in the Lower School with two psychologists, one part-time and one full-time. In the middle school, there are around 285 with one full-time psychologist. In the upper school, there are 540 students with just one part-time psychologist.
The school is still in the early stages of the hiring process. With around 60 applications, the administration is beginning to narrow down the field through preliminary phone calls and interviews. The school then will do three rounds of interviews to select the final candidate. The school hopes to have a candidate selected by the end of March, but both Paul Sanders, Assistant Head of School ,and Mike Letts, Head of Upper School, agree that it is critical to make the best selection. According to Letts, “We’re not going to hire somebody who doesn’t fit just for the sake of the position. It needs to be the right hire. My hope is that we certainly find somebody that we think works and is onboard with the school’s mission.”
Hiring another phycologist represents another effort by EA to focus more on the mental health of their students in recent years. Other examples include the SpeakUp! program and freshmen seminar, which is a new mandatory class this year, focusing on a wide range of issues which may affect upper school students. Ishan Battacharya ‘23 says, “Seminar, along with this new hire shows that EA cares about their students’ mental health.”
Sanders stresses the importance of student mental health and the role of psychologists and counselors, saying, “Schools like ours are increasingly thinking a lot about student well-being and student health and some of the things that get in the way of that, like anxiety, stress and all kinds of challenges on the social and emotional front. Psychologists and counselors can be a way to help students navigate the challenges of student life.” He also expresses that he is happy to see the negative stigma around mental health begin to fade. “I do think that that stigma culturally has toned down significantly and that a lot of people know that life can be challenging. Sometimes it’s really useful to have help when we’re dealing with challenges. I think there was a time in our country when we wouldn’t have admitted that, but that we do recognize that adolescence, childhood, and adulthood all come with challenges…The more willing to acknowledge the importance of ourselves needing help, and offering help to the people that we work with, the healthier we’re going to be as a school.”
Stress is inevitable but Sanders believes that a certain amount of stress can be healthy for student growth. “I think there’s just healthy pressure and there’s not healthy pressure. For example, when we look at coaching. When a coach puts the right kind of pressure on you to inspire you to be your best. That’s one thing. But, when a coach puts the kind of intense pressure that makes you overwhelmed, you start to struggle.We think that there is a level of stress that can be healthy. But surrounding that stress with support systems is a big part of making it manageable.” Kris Aldrige, the current Form Dean for the senior class, believes EA’s students’ academic ambition can lead to stress, especially when it comes to Canvas. “Getting a notification every time a quiz is graded, frankly, makes you crazy as a student. On top of that, many parents don’t understand the context of a grade.”
While student mental health and stress is a big issue here at EA, both Aldridge and Sanders agree that the school is not alone in these issues. Schools across the globe are all trying to find a solution to the same problem and hopefully a new psychologist can help be a part of the solution.