Teacher gives beyond the classroom
English teacher Karen Whitney standing next to the RCHS Jaguar.
As a mother of four and an English teacher at Rock Canyon High School (RCHS), it was a natural decision for Karen Whitney to join the board of directors for Happy Crew, a nonprofit whose mission is to destigmatize mental health issues for teens by creating a supportive and inclusive community. (See related story on page 9).
Karen has been a teacher since 1996 and joined the RCHS staff in 2000. She first learned of Happy Crew from some of her students and from her oldest daughter, Addi (21), who attended meetings at the home of Happy Crew founder and executive director Amy Mays while Addi was a student at RCHS. Karen’s youngest daughter, Avery (17), currently a junior at RCHS and student leader of Happy Crew, invited her mom to attend a parent meeting, and it was then Karen that knew she wanted to get more involved.
“I felt like it was such an amazing program, mostly because these kids don’t have to go to this; it is not even like a club at school,” said Karen. “It is run by the kids and they want to go there because they feel loved.”
Through weekly meetings, Happy Crew teens learn practical tools for building emotional resilience while creating genuine connections that help them find community, strength, and their own path forward. This is similar in concept to a RCHS program that Karen runs—the LINK Crew. Built on the belief that students can help students succeed, LINK Crew’s goal is to provide the high school with a structure in which students make real connections with each other. LINK partners ninth graders with junior and senior LINK leaders who support, encourage and connect with their LINK Crews to support them through their challenges and celebrate their successes.
It is this peer-to-peer mentorship and fostering a sense of belonging among each other that Karen believes is central to Happy Crew and is critically important to the well-being of teens in their high school years and beyond.
“This idea of belonging is so powerful; everyone wants to belong to something,” Karen said. “One thing that kids should learn as a young person is that they matter. When people matter to us and when we matter to other people, we are so much less likely to harm each other and harm ourselves.”
Karen is one of eight members of Happy Crew’s board of directors, and her long-term goal is that the Happy Crew concept and programs will expand into other communities and be available to more teens.
For more information on Happy Crew, visit thehappycrew.org.
Karen Whitney with her husband, Mike, at the Happy Crew Open House last month.
Article and photos by Sara Goodwin
