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Case Study: Prioritizing Student Wellbeing at
Chapel Hill-Chauncy Hall

Overview

Chapel Hill – Chauncy Hall (CH-CH) is an independent, college-preparatory day and boarding school serving over 200 students in grades 7 through post-graduate, located in Waltham, Massachusetts. The school is accredited by AISNE and prides itself on a low student-to-teacher ratio (10:1). CH-CH has partnered with AgileBrain to serve as a national launch partner school for student wellness in the secondary 
education space.

Program

CH-CH prioritizes student well-being, employing three full-time counselors along with two graduate-level interns—an impressive commitment for a school of its size. In addition to providing counseling support, this team of clinicians also teaches the Wellness program throughout the school year. The Wellness program follows an elective-based model, offering six or more 40-minute lessons to every student, targeting strategic social-emotional content. The program began the year with the entire 11th-grade class and is progressing through the other grades. Each mini-series consists of three lessons, with classes held on Wednesday afternoons for three consecutive weeks.

CH-CH counselors are working with the AgileBrain team to tailor content to best support student learning while gaining insights and feedback from an important constituent base.

Curriculum Development

Certified instructors and neuroscientists developed the curriculum, designed to keep students highly engaged.

Student Sign Up

Students were given the option to sign up for this or other wellness sessions. This was the MOST popular!

Classroom Training

Starting in September, the team engaged in classroom training with approximately 30 11th-grade students.

Feedback Loop

After each session, student feedback was collected to better inform future instruction.

Goals

As a launch partner, CH-CH worked closely with the AgileBrain team to create varied goals for this program. The team believed that feedback from students was just as important as building out content for the course.

  • Help students identify their emotions using an accessible framework.
  • Give students a common language to help unpack emotional situations.
  • Encourage students to provide feedback on their experience.
  • Create enough curiosity for participation in AgileBrain with a CH-CH counselor.
  • Move students to actively using the tool outside of the classroom.

Results

#1 Selected Course!

During 11th-grade student sign-ups, AgileBrain emerged as the most popular wellness course, with the majority of students selecting it as their top choice.

Increase in Student Interest and Engagement

More than one-third of the students expressed interest in a one-on-one session after the first mini-series, as well as in discussing and regulating emotions.

In a remarkably short period of time, I’ve seen AgileBrain help our students build comfort in approaching conversations around emotional well-being—a task that can otherwise feel inaccessible for some. This feels like it could really make a difference, and I’m excited to continue to see the positive impact this tool can have in our community!

Neil Hagen, LMHC, Director of Counseling and Wellness
Chapel Hill-Chauncy Hall School

We’ve seen the power of the AgileBrain system up close. The AgileBrain framework and its gamified exercises are remarkable in their ability to engage students and support counselors in meaningful conversations about emotions. It is truly game-changing.

Lance Conrad, Ed.D., Head of School
Chapel Hill-Chauncy Hall School

AgileBrain, CEO
John has spent more than 30 years building businesses: designing new business models, cultivating channel partners, developing product offerings and landing early-adopter clients. All of these accomplishments follow from one core principle – it's all about the people. John is a frequent guest speaker and has authored articles on a range of human capital topics, including organizational culture, employee engagement, emotional measurement and assessment design. Prior to joining AgileBrain, Penrose served as an executive officer for DeWolfe Companies, a publicly traded real estate and financial services company, where he envisioned and built one of the first dotcoms serving homeowners. Earlier in his career John served as a Director in the strategy practice of Deloitte Consulting and as a Vice President in corporate finance at Citibank in New York and Kinshasa, Zaire. John earned his AB (history) at Dartmouth (magna cum laude), his MBA at Wharton and an MA in International Studies from the University of Pennsylvania. He has two grown children and lives with his wife, Fatima, in Boston and on their farm in New Hampshire, where he grows hops, harvests timber, and maple sugars.

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