7th grade wellness teacher Megan Collins kicks off club Friday
Megan Collins is leveling up at Westfield Middle School (WMS) to engage and protect youth.
Collins
Wellness students at WMS were introduced to the negative health consequences of smoking and vaping during her spring curriculum. Collins set up her classroom with various stations for students to see up close what happens when you choose to smoke or vape. Students even got hands-on experience with pig lungs, simulating what happens to lungs exposed to tobacco.
The segment sparked such a positive response from her students that she decided to start a club to further nurture her students’ interests. The club’s first meeting is Friday, Sept. 30 and is open to all WMS seventh and eighth graders.
Collins says she has a passion for teaching health at the middle-school level. On any given day her students can be found out of their seats involved hands-on learning.
Collin’s students says they remember her lessons long after the bell rings.
“I enjoyed the unit! What sticks with me is the impact that smoking can have on a person,” said current eighth grader Katey Rosandich. “I remember the visual of seeing a healthy pig lung versus a diseased pig lung.”
The club will be a hearty mix of fun and learning and will prepare the students for the high school VOICE Club, which does activities all across the county and visits the Indiana Statehouse to meet with policy makers.
“Reaching kids in middle school and giving them the knowledge they need before they are exposed to vaping is such an asset for these kids,” said Erica Strahm, who runs VOICE for Hamilton County. “Megan Collins has done that so well at WMS and we are excited to see her take that to the next level with the VOICE Club.”
When Collins is not in the classroom, she loves motivating the eighth-grade girls on the basketball as their head coach and is looking forward to being on the sidelines once again. Collins is a Ball State graduate and lives in Fishers with her family.
About VOICE
VOICE is Indiana’s statewide youth empowerment brand and program, whose initiative is to engage, educate, and empower teens to promote and celebrate tobacco-free lifestyles. With a mission to engage, educate, empower young people as leaders and advocates in their communities through sustained youth-adult partnerships, positive youth development and public health advocacy training. VOICE Indiana has funded 24 counties and two Statewide Chapters (Indiana Black Expo & Indiana Latino Institute) and is represented by over 429 Core Team Leaders and Action Squad Members across the state.
About Breathe Easy Hamilton County
As an alliance working with local organizations and individuals within the Hamilton County community, Breath Easy promotes tobacco-free living in order to reduce mortality and morbidity rates. The organization is working to ensure that all workers in the county are protected from secondhand smoke exposure. Breathe Easy believes everyone deserves the right to breathe smoke-free air at work and in public places.
About Good Samaritan Network
Breathe Easy Hamilton County is locally sponsored as a fiscal agent by Good Samaritan Network (GSN) of Hamilton County, which acts as the Lead Agency. GSN is the umbrella organization that coordinates and develops various opportunities for consistent programming and services in Hamilton County for those underserved or at-risk. The connection and collaboration with GSN empowers network participants with a reliable means of reference checking, decision-making opportunities, and reduces duplication of services in serving the Hamilton County community.