In the 2024-25 school year, Woodbridge High expanded its student support services by reinstating Project Success, led by the campus Project Success Support Specialist, Uraci Mathews. Located in Woodbridge High’s new WellSpace Room in F202.

The initiative works in tandem with the counseling department to be extra support, but it differs with its skill-based focus.

According to Irvine Unified School District (IUSD), Project Success is an initiative placed in all five IUSD high schools, acting as a resource for students to create a better balance between their academic, social and emotional wellbeings.

“Project Success has been a great resource…for students at [Woodbridge High]. Because IUSD has seen mental health and wellness as such a key initiative to support…students have had the ability to be served by this program for well over 20 years. That’s why it continues to serve as a fabric of the counseling support offered,” counselor Camera Kem said.

While Kem emphasizes the program’s long-standing role in supporting students, Mathews highlights its focus on empowering students by learning social, academic and coping skills that lead to a promising path to navigate high school.

“[Project Success is] a way of encouraging students to develop resiliency,” Mathews said.

The program emphasizes on voluntary participation, making it a unique option of support for students on campus.

“I’ve been using the registrar and the school counselors to get referrals…it’s a completely [voluntary] program, so I ask them if they’re interested,” Mathews said. “I give [students] a little spiel about Project Success, and then they have to get a permission slip signed by their parents in order to participate. It’s okay if they decline because parents usually are saying, ‘We don’t want our kids in counseling.’ This is not counseling; it’s skill building.”

According to the Journal of Child and Adolescent Counseling, programs like Project Success serve as gateways to academic achievement. Not only does this initiative help students build better attitudes and stronger connections between themselves and others, but it can also help decrease emotional distress and improve performance on standardized testing.

Project Success is highly outcome-driven, focusing on activities designed to empower students to thrive in high school and beyond. Although not intended for long-term engagement, it is intended to have an impact that is tangible.

“[Project Success] doesn’t take up much time [during the school year] but during the time that is spent, it’s very goal-oriented and produces results,” Kem said.

The program offers both group and individual sessions to address a wide array of needs. Group sessions primarily focus on social matters and are largely attended by underclassmen.

“We’ve done mindful meditation, we’ve done a mindful walk, we’ve played ‘Get to Know You’ games to help freshmen [acclimate]. My running shtick with them is ‘When you guys are seniors, you’ll say, remember we were with Ms. M and that’s how we all met?’ [That] is my goal. So when they see each other, they can nod to each other,” Mathews said.

Though most of the students Mathews works with are ninth and tenth-graders, Project Success is accessible to students from all grades. Mathews believes that the individual sessions might appeal to upperclassmen more.

“[Individual sessions would involve] more stress management, time management and ways of helping [students] through their anxiety,” Mathews said.

According to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report, many teenagers in the United States lack social and emotional support they need, a challenge that COVID-19 only exacerbated. Only 28% of adolescents always received the support they needed, highlighting the importance of programs like Project Success, which offer support and coping skills to all.

Mathews, who has a long history in counseling, is in her first year as a Project Success support specialist at Woodbridge High. Despite being new to the role, Mathews is very eager to build relationships with the students on campus and expand the program’s reach.

As the school year progresses, Mathews anticipates a busier WellSpace, particularly in the springtime, and hopes that Project Success gains traction within the Woodbridge High community.

“I would like [to get] the word out. I’ve [worked] on adding a page to the counseling page so when [students] click on Project Success with a link, then they can see what we offer and how it’s offered,” Mathews said.

Currently, the initiative primarily serves as a social connection group, but Mathews envisions its expansion to other facets of constructing positive habits.

“Some of the groups we’ll be offering [are] the academic support, stress management and relaxation, relaxation skills [groups]…and we’ll have boundary relationships…I’m hoping to get up [to] five or six [groups],” Mathews said.

Although navigating uncharted territory with Project Success is daunting at times, Mathews ultimately finds her work to be rewarding.

“If I can get them engaged in coming in, I think that’s the best part about it,” Mathews said. “Trying to talk with [students] briefly about, ‘Oh my grades, it’s not an A+.’ I [say], ‘So let me help you with the fact that when you apply to college they’re only going to see your 4.0, not an A+, A- or A.’ Being able to help them decompress when they’re extremely stressed out for those brief moments [is my goal].”

As Project Success continues to spread its roots at Woodbridge High, it has the potential to leave a lasting impact on students’ emotional wellbeing.

According to Metropolitan State University of Denver, Generation Z experiences more anxiety than previous generations. However, as a collective, they also happen to be the most attuned to their emotions and open to seeking further mental health support. Mathews welcomes that sentiment into the WellSpace, hoping to provide a safe haven as well as receiving feedback from the Woodbridge High community.

“As we build [Project Success] more and the groups start [growing] more, [students can] give me some ideas of groups that [they] think might work [and] what they would need from me. I think that’s the best way I would learn from them for how to build groups and individual sessions,” Mathews said.

For students seeking to build lasting skills or need a supportive space, Project Success hosted in the WellSpace can be seen as an invaluable resource.