Westborough HS Teen Advisory Board Hosts Mental Health Event

This article was submitted by the National Museum of Mental Health Project

WESTBOROUGH, MA — Courage, creativity, and mental health were among the themes of an event at the Westborough Public Library May 21. An additional theme connected the event to a two-century-old tradition of national leadership and innovation in the realm of mental health in the Westborough area.

Hosted and created by Westborough High School’s Teen Advisory Board, the event was student-led and advised by Anita Cellucci, Library Teacher and K-12 Libraries Department Head in
Westborough. Poems were read aloud by a number of Westborough High student-poets. In those moments, and throughout the evening, it became clear that the event was designed by the Board to allow attendees to hear one another speak, laugh — and to learn together.

Westborough student May Grosfelt observed, "I thought the event was a really amazing experience. The club focused on mental health because it is important, and a subject not talked about enough."

Student Lauren Weiner said the club wanted to "further inform our community about the struggles people encounter regarding mental health and how different that can look for everyone."

Advisor Cellucci has been a longtime advocate for the mutual benefits of the arts and mental health, and was a 2016 National School Librarian of the Year finalist. Cellucci explains, “Spoken Word Poetry has been a pathway that allows students freedom of expression.”

The Teen Advisory Board invited two creative collaborators to partner on the event. Dayna Altman is an author, speaker, and White House-recognized mental health advocate. Altman displayed an art and poetry exhibition about her mental health journey and has recently published her fourth book, "Watch Me Rise: Recipes for Bread, Poems for Growth." Students spoke to others casually as they read Altman’s poetry and reflected on the accompanying images.

Altman commented about the student-written poems, “I was absolutely blown away. It was so incredibly powerful to hear their perspectives on mental health, also made me feel less alone
in my own struggles.”

Altman, an Algonquin Regional High grad, is also the operator of Bake it Till You Make it LLC which uses food and baking to facilitate storytelling.

The second Teen Advisory Board partner was the National Museum of Mental Health Project, a Milford-based nonprofit whose long-term goal is the creation of a national museum that focuses on mental health and wellness. One of the organization’s cofounders, Paul Piwko, delivered remarks about Dr. Solomon Carter Fuller, the first African-American psychiatrist in the United States and a noted Westborough State Hospital brain researcher in the early 1900s.

Piwko likened the leadership of Dr. Carter Fuller and the Teen Advisory Board to the historic pattern of national leadership and innovation in mental health that has emanated from the Westborough area. At a 2022 National Park Service event, the National Museum of Mental Health Project named the region “America’s Mental Health & Wellness Corridor.” Tuesday’s event ended with the launch of a research survey that invites students and the public to help create a new name for the region.

Cellucci speaks passionately about the importance of libraries and her belief that “the school library is a place that offers a third space for all students to feel seen, heard, and accepted for who they are in each moment.” By hosting the event, the Westborough Public Library offered members of the public a chance to participate in this same kind of third space experience.