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Social Emotional Learning

SEL helps students understand who they are as a person, what they bring to others, and how to effectively bring themselves to school and to the world. Unless a student is comfortable in their own skin and in their community, they can't reach for what could be theirs." –Emily Schorr Lesnick, Director of Social Emotional Learning

Students who possess skills of emotional regulation and interpersonal interaction are best able to fully engage with learning and develop intellectual courage.

The practice of Social Emotional Learning (SEL) encompasses strategies to support students as they build resiliency, manage stress, develop empathy, clarify their personal values, and make responsible decisions.

Educational research shows that school-wide Social Emotional Learning (SEL) programs lead to academic success, and we work to authentically weave it into our learning environment. At UPrep, SEL looks like:

  • Collaborating with deans and divisional leadership to build community in grade-level retreats
     
  • Holding skill building workshops around navigating stress during Assemblies
     
  • Partnering with teachers to ensure SEL is integrated into course content (ex: making relevant connections to poems and other course texts in 6th Grade English)
     
  • Nurturing student leadership to facilitate peer-led workshops on healthy relationships, boundaries, and consent
     

  • Designing parent guardian education events for families to connect with their students' learning

  • Supporting metacognition and "learning how to learn" in courses like 10th Grade Humanities

  • Empowering advisors to facilitate soft spaces for reflection and community

  • Welcoming outside practitioners to build our cultures of substance use prevention, consent, and suicide prevention

Educational research shows that school-wide SEL programs produce:

  1. Increased positive student behaviors
  2. Greater persistence of students in college
  3. Greater job satisfaction post-college

Learn More

For more information, please contact: Emily Schorr Lesnick, Director of Social Emotional Learning, at eschorrlesnick@universityprep.org or 206.588.8739.