Student Well-Being Liaison Angela Castellanos leads a WhyTry training seminar for a group of master- and bachelor-level social work interns who are providing on-campus counseling and case management to students across the district.

Expands wellness centers, social/emotional support for students

By Juliette Funes
VMA Communications

WHITTIER – The Whittier Union High School District is expanding its award-winning mental health program at Santa Fe High School to all schools districtwide, with the expansion of wellness centers, counseling services and overall support for students who are experiencing barriers to their personal and academic achievement.

Following the success of Santa Fe’s Serenity Program, which won a Golden Bell Award in 2013, the district is launching a Student Well-Being Program under its Mental Health Initiative, which involves 16 master- and bachelor-level social work interns who are providing on-campus counseling and case management, expanded partnerships with community agencies, the implementation of an online referral system and staff training on threat assessment.

Through a widely inclusive process, the district identified wellness services as a priority under its Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP), a blueprint that outlines how the district will target services for its greatest student needs.

“So far this school year, 215 students have been referred for mental health services, showcasing the need for social-emotional support programs on our campuses,” said Director of Student Support Services Amy Larson. “This is a very new and ambitious program that is providing us the tools to better assist our students with prevention, early intervention and support when they need it.”

The program is modeled after Santa Fe’s Serenity Program, which was established in 2006 and includes individual and group counseling, case management, classroom presentations and parent education sessions, as well as partnerships with local universities such as Whittier College, USC and Azusa Pacific University, among others.

Under the leadership of counselor and licensed clinical social worker Angela Castellanos, the Serenity Program was recognized with the prestigious Golden Bell Award for increasing student attendance rates and test scores and decreasing discipline cases. Castellanos is now leading Whittier Union’s efforts to expand similar mental health services across district schools as the new Student Well-Being Liaison.

“We want our students not only to have the ability to succeed academically, but also have the tools and resources that permit them to flourish in their behavioral, psychological and emotional lives,” Castellanos said. “Through the success we have seen with the model program at Santa Fe High, I am confident that we will experience the same results districtwide.”

Joining Castellanos in moving the program forward is Larson, a licensed clinical social worker with a background in mental health, and District Mental Health and Community Services Liaison Jack Ketchem, a licensed marriage and family therapist with a credential in counseling.

As part of the program, Whittier Union has instituted wellness centers at its five comprehensive high schools, and counseling services are offered to students in the district’s alternative education programs at Frontier and Sierra Vista high schools. La Serna and Pioneer high schools are currently working with their art departments to create murals for their centers and are in the process of creating a student well-being club called “LETS,” short for “Let’s Erase The Stigma.”

In an effort to strengthen the program, the district has partnered with several local community agencies, including Los Angeles Centers for Alcohol and Drug Abuse, which provides drug and alcohol counseling services at all schools; Pacific Clinics, which provides behavioral services at Santa Fe and Pioneer high schools; and The Whole Child, which operates an integrated school health center, dubbed “The Gallery,” on the Whittier High School campus.

Administrators, counselors and staff at each school site have undergone extensive training in suicide and threat assessment, led by school psychologist Stephanie Murray, an integral member of the district’s Crisis Response Team and suicide prevention education. Teachers also received training on how to refer students to services available through the program. Crisis response training is scheduled in the spring.

In collaboration with each school’s counseling staff, interns are coordinating mental health-related presentations for parents and students, with a suicide prevention training being offered to La Serna High School parents this month. California and Santa Fe high school parents received similar training last year.

Additionally, Whittier Union has partnered with APU for grant proposal writing and received a $10,000 grant from Kaiser Permanente to administer the WhyTry program, which has enabled teachers and staff from the district’s intervention programs to undergo training on how to motivate at-risk students to achieve in school.

“We are strongly encouraged by the impact this much-needed program has already made on our students, whose emotional and mental well-being and health is foundational to their success in school,” said Whittier Union High School District Superintendent Sandra Thorstenson. “This is another example of our genuine concern for our students’ well-being and our ability to use LCAP funding to develop new and innovative programs to benefit our students who are most in need.”

Yoshio Nakamura in the present day.

“Yosh” Nakamura teaching art class at Rio Hondo College in the 1960s .

Community icon featured in L.A. Magazine

By Ruthie Retana

Rio Hondo Community College

WHITTIER – Rio Hondo College’s Yoshio Nakamura taught high school and college students about creating art for more than four decades – sharing the unique perspectives that drove the dramatic images he created on canvas, paper and through sculpture.

Now, 22 years after retiring as Rio Hondo’s vice president of community services and institutional development, Nakamura continues to share important lessons on life and art.

Nakamura and his wife, Grace Shinoda Nakamura, are among a dozen Angelenos ages 59 to 100 whose philosophies and tips for aging gracefully are featured in the November edition of Los Angeles Magazine.

“The Rio Hondo community knows well that ‘Yosh’ still has much to offer all those who know him,” said Rio Hondo College Superintendent/President Teresa Dreyfuss. “He is, has been and will continue to be a driving force for excellence for our students and faculty. This recognition and his many other honors are well deserved.”

In the article, Nakamura, 89, cites a quote Chelsea Clinton in turn attributes to her grandmother: “It isn’t what happens to you that is important. It’s what you do when something happens to you.”

Grace Nakamura, 87, an artist and retired educator, adds, “I believe that you can have a fulfilled life if you try to think positively and make the most of situations, if you try to live by the Golden Rule, if you’re accepting of people, if you try to give service to others,” she told the magazine.

It’s a lesson Yosh Nakamura learned early on.

At age 16, he was interned with other Japanese-Americans at the Tulare Assembly Center, a converted racetrack near Fresno. He was later relocated to a camp in Arizona, where he reported for active duty in the U.S. Army in 1944.

Nakamura was sent to France and Italy, where he served with the 442nd Regimental Team, a unit made up of Japanese-Americans. He was assigned to a heavy-weapons group, using deafening mortars and machine guns to wage war. In 2000, 20 members received the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military honor. In 2011, the unit was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest U.S. civilian honor and Nakamura received the Bronze Star.

“All of us have been through hard times,” Nakamura said. “I’ve been very fortunate to have people who have been there to help me out and give me a more positive outlook on life.”

In 1952, Nakamura earned his bachelor of fine arts from USC and began teaching at Whittier High School while he worked to complete his master of fine arts. In 1960, he was named Teacher of the Year by the Whittier and the San Gabriel Valley Federation of Women’s Clubs.

In 1963, Nakamura joined the first faculty as fine arts chairman of the newly opened Rio Hondo College and, in a very real sense, found his home. Over the next 29 years, he added a series of administrative duties to his teaching role, becoming a dean and eventually a Rio Hondo College vice president.

His stamp can be seen across the college community, from the fine arts program to the Learning Assistance Center, from the fitness center to the campus gallery. All three of his children have attended Rio Hondo.

These days, Nakamura doesn’t seem to have slowed much.

Since retiring, he has dedicated himself to his art, but also found time to volunteer for a number of art-centered community groups, including Whittier’s Art in Public Places Committee and Cultural Arts Commission.

In January, he will join a handful of other veterans atop the City of Alhambra float in the 126th Tournament of Roses Parade. The “Go For Broke” float honors the Japanese-Americans who served during World War II while their family members were interned.

In February, Nakamura will be one of two featured artists at the Hillcrest Congregational Church’s 55th annual Festival of Fine Arts – an event he has been involved with since its inception.

In April, he will be inducted into the Whittier High School Hall of Fame – an honor that recognizes the scope of Nakamura’s impact – a role so strong students still stop him to say how much his classes influenced their lives.

Nakamura is also focused on an issue closer to home. His grandson, Kai Nakamura, is struggling with a heart illness that is currently untreatable. But, in keeping Grace and Yoshio Nakamura’s trademark positive outlook, the family has turned to YouTube to raise awareness and funds to help find a cure. See their video appeal at See their video appeal at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2C8LMga8BRU.