Why a Conemaugh Township Area High School senior organized a mental health conference

Beth Ann Miller, The Daily American
·4 min read

One of the ideals that a Girl Scout promises to live by is “To help people at all times,” and as Katie Troxell has learned, sometimes people need help in unexpected ways.

For her Gold Award project — the highest honor that a Girl Scout can earn — the 17-year-old senior at Conemaugh Township Area High School planned a “Mental Health Mindfulness” conference for area high school students on Nov. 10.

Katie Troxell, a senior at Conemaugh Township Area High School, stands in front of a display she created for a mental health conference she organized for her Gold Award project in Girl Scouting.
Katie Troxell, a senior at Conemaugh Township Area High School, stands in front of a display she created for a mental health conference she organized for her Gold Award project in Girl Scouting.

About 100 students from the seven partnering school districts of the Greater Johnstown Career and Technology Center, aka GJCTC, gathered after school at Conemaugh Township for an evening meal, to listen to a keynote speaker’s presentation and to learn how to identify and help themselves or someone else get the help they need.

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“I don’t think there’s enough conversation about mental health in our schools,” Troxell said. “There’s some, but not as much as there should be. I thought this was a good starting point to start a conversation.”

Troxell has been a member of Girl Scout Troop No. 42101 for the past 13 years.

She came up with the idea for the conference at the end of the last school year and organized it over the summer and early fall, contacting administrators from the various schools, enlisting volunteers, arranging the sessions and raising over $2,500 from 24 sponsors to cover expenses.

“I went to a board meeting with the superintendents (from GJCTC schools), and they were all so excited that we were going to do this,” she said.

“I didn’t realize how many people struggle with this issue until after I did research, and it fortified my wanting to do this. I really wasn’t aware, especially when you don’t see it as much in school — but (mental health) isn’t something people talk about, so you don’t know there’s a problem.”

High school students from Conemaugh Township, Windber, Greater Johnstown, Ferndale, Richland, Westmont Hilltop and Forest Hills school districts attended the mental health conference on November 10.
High school students from Conemaugh Township, Windber, Greater Johnstown, Ferndale, Richland, Westmont Hilltop and Forest Hills school districts attended the mental health conference on November 10.

Troxell added that at Conemaugh Township and the other GJCTC schools, a local organization called REACH, or Reaching Educational Achievements with Clinical Mental Health, offers mental health counseling to students.

“When things happen, (the need is) a burden not only to the person with the information but also the person learning about it but doesn’t know how to help them,” she said. “It’s a matter of letting kids know that people like REACH are there to help them.”

Horner presents 'Stay In It'

Keynote speaker Joshua Horner of Windber has been sharing his personal story to high school and college students for the last five years.

Joshua Horner, of Windber, was the keynote speaker at the mental health conference.
Joshua Horner, of Windber, was the keynote speaker at the mental health conference.

Horner said his father’s own mental health struggles led him to die by suicide when Horner was in college. The son's grief and anger over his father’s death then multiplied when his mother, grandmother, aunt, grandfather and best friend also died, the last two by suicide.

That trauma pulled Horner into a downward spiral of depression, anger and alcoholism, which he worked his way out of through physical fitness and public speaking.

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Through his presentation, titled "Stay In It," Horner said his goal is to inspire and teach people, especially young people, how to live in the present moment, acknowledge the past and build for the future.

“They are the future,” he said about the students gathered for the conference. “My hope is that this will impact a child who can take this information home to mom and dad. It’s a collaboration of all of us, to shine a light on (mental health) and bring awareness to the steps to keep our selves well.”

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Troxell said she heard Horner speak at a previous event and, once she decided to plan the conference, she knew she wanted him to speak there as well.

“This has been a great experience,” she said. “So many people wanted to help with this (conference) because they saw the need. It’s great to see that the community knows about the need as much as I do.

“I hope they (students) learn the different ways that they can put what they learned here into their everyday life, how they can take the information they learned and use it to impact their own school community.”

This article originally appeared on The Daily American: Katie Troxell and Conemaugh Township High School host mental health event