Why Relationships Were Great College Prep with Bella & Journey

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Traditional high schools aren’t set up to prioritize teen mental health. And how could they? Seemingly bigger concerns—bigger class size, bigger operations, bigger emphasis on textbooks and homework—means that student well-being takes a backseat. Educators aren’t allowed the bandwidth to engage with each student on a deeply relational level.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Today on the podcast, we’re learning why it’s so important that they do—directly from students themselves. My guests are Bella Christian and Journey Morrison, two recent graduates of my micro-school, LEADPrep. We’ll hear their firsthand perspective on how caring, collaborative relationships with teachers and peers positively impacted their mental health, personal growth, and academic success.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Bella and Journey share how they’ve gone on to thrive in college as a direct result of the interpersonal skills and confidence they gained in the close-knit, project-based learning environment of a micro-school.</span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 18pt;">About Bella Christian and Journey Morrison:</span></p> <h2><span style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 12pt;">Bella attended LEADPrep for two years and graduated in 2019. She recently completed her associate degree and is planning to continue with college after first taking a year off to travel and work. She’s passionate about psychology and videography and hopes to pursue one or both of those subjects in the future. A fun fact about Bella is that she enjoys writing music.</span></h2> <h2><span style="font-weight: 400; font-size: 12pt;">Journey also graduated in the Class of 2019, having attended LEADPrep for two years. He’s completed two years of college and this is his third summer teaching at digital media and filmmaking camp for middle school and high school students. He recently changed his major to history from communications but is hoping to meld both of those areas of interest b