Saint Peter High School

Saint Peter Public School students in seventh grade will benefit from a recent collaborative project between Gustavus Adolphus College student leaders and the Project for Teens group at Saint Peter High School which will address the digital wellbeing of students. Students in this age group are an important audience for an introduction to digital wellbeing as cell phones and school-issued devices become increasingly more present in their everyday lives.

Funding for this project was provided through a grant from the Mankato Clinic Foundation, according to Gustavus Adolphus College Dean of Students Charlie Potts, who helped initiate this collaborative effort.

The Saints Digital Wellbeing Project will rely on the Project for Teens students, a program that encourages healthy and responsible decision making by youth through peer to peer education. These students will be trained by Gustavus student leaders in digital wellbeing best practices and strategies related to motivational interviewing so that they can engage with younger peers in small group settings to educate, create opportunities for reflection and discussion, and empower behavior change that creates a stronger self-perception of digital wellbeing. 

Those students from SPHS and Gustavus will then facilitate lessons and conversations via classroom visits and meetings with affinity groups (e.g. athletic teams, student organizations, etc). 

“Screens and phones occupy a prioritized space for many of us and for our children, and we are learning more about the influence that digital connection has on our wellbeing,” Potts said. “Today’s youth are particularly vulnerable to the imbalance that often occurs when managing their relationships to digital devices. The impact that digital devices are having on young people’s physical and mental health, social connections, and academic success is profound, and it is really important that we find ways to address this issue in positive and productive ways.”

According to Potts, digital wellbeing is a growing field of personal wellness that focuses on the ability for an individual to balance digital connections with other aspects of their life. For the purposes of this project, digital wellbeing is defined as a state of personal wellness achieved through recognizing and managing the influence of digital technologies on one’s physical health, mental health, social relationships, and academic success.

(ABOVE & BELOW) Shown here are some photo highlights from the SPHS Project for Teens' students working with the middle school seventh graders as well as the Gustavus student leaders training the SPHS P4T students. (Special thanks to Elizabeth Orton, SPPS communications intern, for her photography assistance!)