Miyah Byrd: Storytelling as a Balm for Mental Health
Miyah Byrd
Class 3, Create
What is your Vision for Impact Statement?
To improve the mental health of students by creating a district-wide mental health plan.
Tell us about the projects you’ve been working on! What do you love about the work you’re doing?
This past summer, I got to combine two of my passions: storytelling and education! I taught a solutions journalism course to local middle/high schoolers through a Voices of Youth pilot program and SoapboxCincy. From brainstorming topics to interviewing to photography, students got to experience taking an article from start to finish. Students wrote about entrepreneurship, mental health, and employment. I loved being in the classroom again!
I’m also currently starting a podcast called, We Don’t Talk About That, to share stories and experiences people have been shunned for raising. For example, I'm speaking with a mom who experienced post-partum OCD, a military whistleblower, a man who started a therapeutic gardening nonprofit, a former Neo-Nazi, and more. I believe mental health is impacted by many factors, and an inability/unsafe environment to express our valid experiences is a huge one. Rich conversations about ignored topics is a love of mine and deeply needed in the present age.
How has being a part of School Board School impacted your involvement in this work?
School Board School got me excited about the public school system again! As a former educator, I’d grown slightly disillusioned with my lack of knowledge on how to make changes. Working with my amazing cohort, from all corners of the education system, gave me not only insights but encouragement.
I wouldn’t have made my way back to the classroom or known which of my skills (storytelling & empathy) I could lean on to inspire others without School Board School.
How have you used your School Board School training/learnings in your work?
One (of the many) insights that I gleaned during School Board School training is that education is an ecosystem. Teachers and students are deeply involved, but everyone from city government politicians to local parents to neighborhood nonprofits and more are invested. To make a specific change, you need to know who to talk to, who to (caringly!) debate with, who to get on board, etc…
I’m empowered, in ways I’d never dreamed of, to attend school board meetings and share opinions. I’m also empowered, however, to add my voice and support to those on the margins of the public school system.
How have you tapped into the School Board School community, or how has our network supported you in your work?
I’m relatively sure my School Board School group is going to be among my first podcast listeners! In all seriousness, though, the School Board School network has supported me in finding methods to uplift others’ voices and experiences, especially as a former educator. The School Board School community showed me there’s a thousand different ways to make a significant impact on students’ lives- both in and out the classroom.
What impact are you (and/or your team) having?
Two of the students in our summer course expressed a wish to be journalists, and I love that! I love being able to show career and life options to students that they may not have otherwise known/seen.
I’m speaking with local students about their experiences during the Covid-19 pandemic and their needs for the upcoming school year. School Board School brought me back to basics, in a sense, of what I loved about education. Hearing from students, sharing their hopes, fears, and dreams, and giving them a safe adult who listens to them. I’m optimistic this conversation will spark ideas and change in how we talk about mental health with students.
How has being a part of School Board School impacted how you think about systems change and/or your role in it?
As much as I love having the outsider’s perspective on a system, School Board School changed how I saw the people within our systems. There’s generally no nefarious intent, just loads and loads of policies and red tape that sometimes overlap and contradict each other. People working within the system (usually) have very similar goals to us who may long to overthrow the system. We want students to be safe, seen, happy, healthy, growing, and loved. Systems change cannot be adopting one person’s opinion as “right” while disregarding all others, and as much as we need the outsiders, we need those who are working steadily within the system and asking “how can this be better?” just as much.
Is there anything else about the work you’re doing that you want to highlight? And/or is there anything else about being part of School Board School that you want to highlight?