Fort Worth students win big for mental health videos in global ‘Teens Dream’ competition

Like many of her classmates at Fort Worth’s I.M. Terrell High School, Priya Stamper is familiar with advice to do “the little things” to help improve mental health, like pursuing activities they enjoy outside of class. But the ninth grader never dove into the details of how much healthy sleep habits benefit mental health.

“When I really started looking into it, I was amazed by how much just getting nine hours of sleep can really change your outlook,” Stamper said. “I had no idea that a lack of sleep can lead to really big health issues like heart disease and diabetes.”

Now, thanks to a Smithsonian-sponsored competition she entered with help from the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History, Stamper is taking her findings to a global audience.

Of more than 140 videos submitted from students in 10 states and eight countries, Stamper’s proposal to craft a mental health curriculum for teenagers was selected as one of the top 20 submissions in the 2020 Teens Dream Changemaker Challenge, now in its seventh year.

Teens were asked to select one of 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and propose a solution to achieve it in a two-minute video. Those goals include clean water and sanitation, climate action, gender equality and good health and well-being, which is the topic Stamper chose for her project.

“I definitely think that this project has helped me see that what I do can benefit people globally,” Stamper said. “Before, I’d always had my sights set very narrowly in the community around me, but this has really opened my eyes to what I can do.”

Five Fort Worth students created videos for the competition, which is held by the Global CoLab Network and partnered with the Smithsonian Institution for the first time last year, said Debbie Cockerham, the director of the Research and Learning Center at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History.

Three of those students made it into the top 55 videos submitted worldwide, according to Cockerham, who worked with the students in virtual meetings over the summer and fall to learn filmmaking techniques and complete their projects. This was the first year that the museum was involved with the competition thanks to a grant from the Smithsonian, though Cockerham has previously done projects with teenagers surrounding smartphone use.

The students’ achievements were made more impressive by the challenges of attending virtual classes for at least part of the school year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Cockerham said.

“I am just so proud of their perseverance,” Cockerham said. “When things were so difficult, they were willing to work and carry through, and they’re great critical thinkers and very creative. They are really a wonderful group to work with.”

Alongside Stamper, Pilar Olivas decided to tackle mental health with her stop-motion animation video focused on educating faculty and health care professionals about the tangible benefits of compassion.

Since she was 11, the Nolan Catholic High School junior has known she wants to pursue a career as a doctor. After reading the 2018 book Compassionomics, Olivas realized the critical role that doctors and nurses play in improving health outcomes for their patients, especially when it comes to improving the effectiveness of cancer treatment.

“I always figured compassion had an effect on your mental health, but I never realized how much it impacts the recovery of the patient and their family,” Olivas said. “I think it’s definitely been an eye opener for me and made me more conscious of how I interact with people around me.”

In addition to working with the museum to write a script and animate her video, Olivas decided to apply for the prestigious Smithsonian Filmmaking Teen Internship focused on environmental issues. She was one of four students nationwide selected to participate.virtually this year.

“I’m part of Model UN, and whenever we go to conferences, the environment is something that comes up in almost every discussion we have no matter what topic you have,” Olivas said. “In some ways, I was a little shocked that pollution is really bad, and there’s so many endangered species. When I saw this opportunity, I thought: ‘This is my chance to do something.”

The journey is not over for Stamper, either. This summer, Stamper plans to conduct a study testing if her mental health curriculum, including short videos discussing other aspects of mental health, has an impact on teenagers’ behavior when it comes to sleep and eating habits.

The Smithsonian has tentatively scheduled an October gathering in Washington, D.C. to spotlight how students have implemented their ideas in communities around the world. Stamper is not waiting to become a “changemaker” in the Fort Worth area, Cockerham said: She already is.

“I haven’t really set myself a specific goal for what I want to be when I grow up, but seeing all these problems that teenagers can help fix, it’s kind of given me some ideas,” Stamper said. “I could do a job that’s on the other side of the world. My options are so open.”