Community involvement opportunity: High School Wellness Graduation Cord Project

In 2023 TAFP officially launched the High School Wellness Graduation Cord Project, a brainchild of the Council on Health of the Public. The community outreach project was initially piloted by member Li-Yu Mitchell, MD, in Whitehouse, Texas. The program gives family docs another way to be active in their communities and encourages high school seniors to take matters into their own hands when it comes to their health and wellness. Mitchell presented the idea to the council after discussing it with her local SHAC in Whitehouse. 

“The state does not require students to take health class for graduation,” Mitchell says. “Our SHAC felt that there were basic health concepts that students still needed to be exposed to prior to graduation and so the honor cord project was born.”

Through the program, members collaborate with their local school districts and School Health Advisory Councils to help graduating seniors meet specific health-related requirements to earn a TAFP honor cord to wear at graduation. Honor cords recognize special distinctions or student accomplishments and are often highly sought after by graduates. 

What’s a SHAC?

Texas law requires every school district to have a SHAC, a group typically made up of mostly parents plus community stakeholders. Mitchell feels strongly about local family physicians joining their SHAC to help school districts navigate various health topics and situations. “For example, during most legislative sessions, the Texas Legislature seems to create new health-related mandates that school districts have to implement,” Mitchell says. “Family physicians are well-equipped to weigh in on how these are implemented, which may mean reviewing some of the prospective curriculum to help the school choose the right vendor to administer them, or assisting the district in navigating the repercussions of new rules.”

With kids going back to school this month, now is the perfect time to not only get involved in your SHAC, but also to present the project to your SHAC and district. Marketing the program to students typically starts in the early spring, giving seniors a few months to complete the requirements. 

How does the program work?

The Council on Health of the Public set a required rubric that students must complete to earn their cords. Requirements include a number of wellness-related tasks that will set them up to be healthy adults, including:

• Having up-to-date immunizations (alternatively, students can demonstrate that they’ve been educated on various vaccines by reviewing information and answering relevant questions);
• Seeing a dentist;
• Completing a food/nutrition diary;
• Having an annual physical;
• Writing a brief on volunteer service; and
• Watching three short videos on relevant health topics and completing a short quiz on each video (topics include stress management, exercise and nutrition, alcohol abuse, smoking and vaping, and more).

TAFP provides graduation cords for the district which are typically presented to seniors who completed the program just before graduation. 

“I would love for this to be a project more school districts decide to embrace,” Mitchell says. “It's such a great way for family physicians to offer a turnkey project to their communities that improves the health literacy of their young adults.”

Click here to learn more about the program and contact Samantha White at swhite@tafp.org to begin the process.