~ Our "Seed" Story ~ 

As the creator of the Appleseed Xpression Session, I hope to offer the mindfulness exercise in Elementary and Middle School classrooms. 

After studying International Relations and English at Tufts University, I became interested in developing a mental health program for kids. I was offered the opportunity to work with Dr. Justine Hardy in Kashmir, India as a coordinator for the Healing Minds Foundation. This foundation offers counseling and other mental health services for residents in Srinagar, (the capital city).

Dr. Hardy’s intention was to create and implement a mental health intervention that could help Kashmiri youth cope with the traumatic situation of living on the contested border of India and Pakistan. Youth faced daily disruptions in their lives, which often resulted in missing school, and in the cessation of government services. With no free press or internet access, kids experienced a sense of isolation and loneliness, as school was shut down. As a coordinator for HMF, I co-wrote the “I Am” program, a series of 7 exercises, which students could use for 10 minutes at the beginning of their school day. Unfortunately due to an insurgency, I had to leave and return to Baltimore. The project was accepted by the Kashmir school board, and is widely being used in schools across the state of Jammu and Kashmir. 

Having had this experience, my interest was piqued in how this program could be useful to people in Maryland. I enrolled in the Johns Hopkins School of Education and took classes in Dr. Mariale Hardiman’s Brain Targeted Teaching program. During this time, I gained experience working in a classroom as a 1st grade Assistant Teacher at the bilingual Archbishop Borders School in Baltimore. 

In 2019, I developed my own version of the exercise, the Appleseed Xpression Session. The goal of the program is to allow students to start the day with a fun, collective activity.

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-Seth Gray