To: 

Mr. Ralph Manchester Head of the American College Health Association

From: Karolina Camarillo

Date: February 7, 2021

Subject: Proposal to use Headspace for college students.

This document is a proposal to introduce the technical tool Headspace. Many college
students around the world struggle with maintaining a good mental health, an estimate of
about 42% of college students struggle with poor mental health because the truth is not
many of them know enough about it.  I'm asking for permission to present the idea of
what Headspace is and how it can help manage a better mental health for college
students. This will take an estimate of about 6 to 7 working days and that's including
research, creating the white paper, and going into depth about severe mental health in
college students. This proposal will include the benefits that this app has and how it can
help these college students better their mental health by doing small practices every day,
I've worked with this app so much and it has helped me, as a college student, work with
things like meditation, practicing mindfulness, and just understanding exactly what
mental health is and how severe it can get if it is not treated properly.

Problem Statement
Mental health is a very sensitive topic for a lot of college students, mainly because they
don’t know what it is and what it can lead to, This has become an increasingly severe
issue in many college students, And this is due to the fact that college students don't
really know how to deal with things such as mental health and it is a very sensitive topic
that a lot of people don't want to talk about and don't want to confront the elephant in the
room. With the help of headspace I would like to go more in-depth into certain practices
that college students can do to work on bettering their mental health both physically and
mentally. It is extremely important to start now to confront these topics that not many
people want to talk about because it can evidently lead to the decrease in stress and
struggle in college students. The main reason why it is so prevalent for college students to
go through the severe mental health issues is because they find themselves stressing with
all the classes and due to the fact that most college students are working trying to pay rent
trying to pay bills and they are finding themselves in this awkward stage of being adults
and having to pay for bills but also being students and working for their future 

Project Definition

 My plan for this tool is to get as many college students to try out headspace and to get as
much use of this app as possible.  Primarily and most importantly so that more students
can understand what mental health is and how it is very prevalent in college students.  I
would like for this app to be introduced to students as a form of help and as a form of
stepping out of their norm to better their health, there really is no downside to what this
app can do for college students and that's a bonus.  If this app happens to not be for that
particular college student there is absolutely no loss for that student at all.  The plus side
of this app is that if it does work for them they can be well on their way to bettering their
mental health by practicing mindfulness and meditation, as well as being able to manage
their time better and work around their schedule to give themselves back a little bit of the
time they've been using to go above and beyond to pursue their future and continue to
work hard to achieve their educational goal. Headspace is absolutely free and even
includes classes that help do these small practices  no cost at all. While using these app I
would like to get certain stats of how many students actually tried it and went along with
it and see if it really did help them and see how much they got out of it.   

Qualifications
 I'm currently on my second year here at TSC but I have been taking dual-
enrollment since sophomore year in high school, after this year I am transferring over to
UTRGV to get my bachelor's degree in English,  and I also have a part-time job.  I have
multiple certifications ranging from Child Development, CPR, Microsoft, and even
Excel. While these certifications and all these classes have been difficult to maintain and
manage I have been able to keep up with them for as long as I have and I am glad that I
have been able to do so. As I look at my fellow peers and classmates I have seen them
fall short whether it is by a lot or even by a little, And it was all because of the same thing
an endless amount of stress that was being put on them whether it was by the part time
job they were working, or even the other classes they were taking sometimes it was just
too much for them to manage and it was simply because they didn't know how to handle
multiple things at once. As well as not giving enough time to take care of themselves
before going above and beyond in trying to complete all these different classes, while
also working and trying to study for test, quizzes, and homework assignments. They
never gave themselves enough time to fully process what they were learning and even
catch up on sleep. I understand what it feels like to not know what mental health is, I also
understand how overworking yourself as a college student can be very difficult, as well
as how it can take a huge toll on you when in reality you're too young to be dealing with
such stress while working for your own future. A lot of the time we tend to forget that
being in school and living your college experience isn't supposed to always be stressful.
We are supposed to enjoy the college experience and while also learning new things and
trying new things.

Project Plan
Within these next couple of days I would like to begin doing a little bit of extensive
research on Mental Health and the different ways it has affected college students. Once I
do so I would like to get fellow mutuals to try out this app and see how well it has
worked for them just as it's worked for me. As previously mentioned I have personally
used this app and found that it has worked amazingly so I would like for others to see if it
works just as well for them or if it doesn't affect them at all, and work on the statistics
with that before getting it out there. 
Extensive Mental Health research due - February 8, 2021 
Volunteer to use HeadSpace- February 10,2021
Statistics- February 12, 2021 
Rough Draft - February 12, 2021 
Survey - February 13, 2021 
HeadSpace White paper due - February 14, 2021 

I would like to do all the research for this project by February 8th, and gather up around
two to three volunteers to use headspace, and with the volunteers I’d like to create a
statistics board that helps me view how HeadSpace is working for them. Once I have
created the statistics board I would like to make a rough draft of what my boy paper will
look like and therefore get a survey of an estimate of how well or how bad it may have
worked for the volunteers and by February 14th have all of it together and ready to
present.  

Conclusion

Every college student deserves to understand what mental health is and how it can affect
her or him. With this app it can allow them to understand what mental health is, how
severe it is, and how to better it with simple daily exercises.  Many college students over
stress about things like getting enough hours at their part time job, finishing homework,
studying for their test or quizzes,  and even rent payments, car payments, or any other
form of payment that they have due. All these different things can take a severe toll on
them and it is important for them to get ahead of it before it becomes too much for
them. Being able to prevent these things is very important and with headspace you can do
so.