Eastlake Students, Urja Varatkar and Kaeya Joshi, who share the vision of a stress-free academic high school experience for students and families, founded the Beyond Pressure Project, a platform to turn their vision into a reality.
Beyond Pressure is a community awareness campaign that prepares guidelines and methods that aim to help overstressed high school students as they progress in their academic journeys. Urja Varatkar, one of the founders of this project, reflects on her background and her deep connection to launching Beyond Pressure, stating, “I have seen many people in my community being impacted by academic stress to the point where they are stopping their hobbies just to study for good grades, believing it’s necessary for college. This stress affects all both their mental and physical health.” She outlines every student’s dream of getting into a prestigious college as a leading factor of stress in a high schooler’s life and strives to lower stress levels that have alarming long-term impacts in their well-being.
Together, Beyond Pressure gives an opportunity for high school families to encourage relaxations and unravel societal expectations for student’s future careers. Their approach to achieve a stress-free world is by implementing events for different purposes, “for example, we hosted a webinar where we invited mental health experts who gave us information on different levels of stress on the physiological effective stress.” says Joshi. Furthermore, collaborating with local middle schools, they also “hosted a seminar to prepare middle schoolers for future in high school and reduce the stress of the unknown.”
To reach a stress-free future, Joshi and Varatkar have created 4 main goals. First, is the focus on educating families on ways to handle their child’s stress and analysing parental pressure. Second, Beyond Pressure aims to teach students about levels of stress and develop a sense of their individual stress levels. Their third and fourth goal is to implement strategies like time management and stress management strategies to have a smooth journey as they reach college applications.
Urja Varatkar and Kaeya Joshi, through their Beyond Pressure Project, exemplify leadership in addressing the overwhelming issue of academic stress. Their shared commitment to a stress-free academic environment is paving a way towards a future where academic success is not synonymous with overwhelming stress but rather with a relaxed well-being and fulfilment.
To learn more, here are some links from Beyond Pressure:
https://beyondpressure.wixsite.com/mental-health
https://youtube.com/@BeyondPressure?feature=shared
https://www.instagram.com/beyond.pressure.team?igsh=MWQ0Z2lhM3A3Yzdybg==
