Leaders at Carmel Catholic High School in Mundelein are hoping a new garden in an outdoor courtyard will help improve students’ mental health during the school day at a time when, according to experts, the mental well-being of high school students is on the decline.
The Chuck and Teresa Bartels Family Garden opened in August and provides students with 29,500 square feet where they can eat their lunch or have classes outdoors or just take a break in a safe environment.
A 2023 U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study reports that 40% of students had persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness, 2 in 10 students seriously considered attempting suicide and nearly 1 in 10 (9%) attempted suicide.
“The idea is to get the kids outside as much as possible,” said Brad Bonham, president of Carmel Catholic High School. “We know being outdoors in nature is therapeutic and healing for them, so we try to create these beautiful spaces for our students to be in, to be open to our faith, to be open to God, to see God in nature.”
It is also a way to let students know they are valued by the school, he said.
“That is so crucial to us,” Bonham said.
The garden contains a 100-foot river with koi fish, outdoor classroom spaces with seating, a butterfly garden and a rose garden featuring a bronze statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe, a nod to the school’s dedication to Mary.
Science teachers are developing lessons around the space, he said. Already, many of the school’s 1,100 students pass through the garden each day on their way to classes.
The Bartels Garden is part of the larger vision that supports the school’s capital campaign. When finished, the school will have a newly imagined, college-style student center where students can gather during and after school hours and on weekends.
“We want to get the kids to put the cell phones away and sit down and have interactions,” Bonham said. “What we found is our kids are all connected, but they are all alone.”
The school already had other gardens that bring together faith and education, such as the mile-long rosary walk encircling the campus.
The student garden club maintains a vegetable and herb garden that yields over 300 pounds of food that is donated to two local food pantries, said Rita Tiehen Salit, a chemistry and physics teacher and garden club co-moderator.
“Honestly, being outside in general is so therapeutic,” Tiehen Salit said. “It builds community within each other and all of us together who are out there working in the garden.”
She took her classes out to the Bartels Garden earlier this fall, and she plans to use it for a class on water sampling in the spring.
“My classroom lines up to it and we look out and see it. It’s beautiful,” Tiehen Salit said.
Math teacher Michelle Spangle is moderator of the environmental club and said the new garden is a great place to bring her classes to unplug from electronics and everyday busyness.
“This year, because the Bartels Garden is new, it’s been a really great place to take the kids to just get a little vitamin D and a change of pace,” Spangle said.
The environmental club does campus cleanup days and picks up trash around campus. Being able to go outdoors, even just for a few moments, benefits everyone.