Sacred Heart Academy in Hempstead unveils new student center to offer counseling, college guidance

Educators at Sacred Heart Academy in Hempstead on Thursday unveiled a new student center that they hope will promote student well-being, particularly during a time when there are concerns over youth mental health.

According to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 40% of U.S. high school students in 2023 reported "persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness." Gov. Kathy Hochul has called youth mental health a "crisis" in the state.

"There's a lot of pressure in terms of socially, academically — just in a world that's ever-changing — and having a space to really talk and navigate that, I think, is critical," said Jennifer Walters, the school's executive director of school counseling, academics and student wellness.

At Sacred Heart, an all-girls private school, educators hope the newly unveiled Minson Family Student Center will be that space for their students.

The center will provide dedicated offices for counselors and social workers to speak with students and parents, officials said. Two classrooms and a faculty lounge were repurposed to make way for the new center, which features seven offices with two social workers and four counselors on staff, as well as an open space with tables. Before the center, counselors were housed in different parts of the school, Sacred Heart officials said.

Students will also be able to access college guidance through the center.

 "We are an all-girls school, so we know very specifically how female adolescents learn, how they grow, how they develop socially, so we feel like we're in the best position to support their emotional and social well-being and their growth, and we walk with them every step of the way," said Kim Johnson, the school's president.

Johnson said the center was built around the "trinity" approach of academic, social, and college preparatory support being "woven together, not siloed apart."

"Although we've always philosophically looked at counseling as an integrated combined model, it's so nice now to have this new physical space that allows us to be in one space working together," Johnson said.

The center is named after benefactors Artie and Theresa Minson, a Sacred Heart Class of 1988 graduate.

"It's just going to present so many opportunities for these girls as they try to figure where they're going to college, what they're wrestling with, what's upsetting them in their home lives," Theresa Minson told Newsday. " ... It feels like this is a place that's going to make them feel the support of the school."

Sacred Heart is the last remaining all-girls Catholic high school on Long Island. More than 600 students are expected to return to school on Tuesday, according to Johnson.