News Detail
Mei Kuo '19 Attends National Kids Yoga Conference
The National Kids Yoga Conference took place at Catholic University in early October.
Mei Kuo ’19 attended the National Kids Yoga Conference in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 2. The conference was geared towards yoga teachers, educators, school administrators, studio owners, mental health professionals, parents, and anyone interested in introducing kids and teens to the benefits of yoga. Kuo was one of a select group of teens to earn a scholarship to participate in the Teen Track of the conference.
The sophomore from Taiwan discovered yoga four years ago, when her mother allowed her to tag along to one of her classes. Kuo initially enjoyed the activity for the physical exercise, but at Episcopal, she has come to recognize the range of other ways in which she and her classmates can benefit from yoga.
“It calms me down and makes me focus,” she said.
She was introduced to meditation, an important element of her yoga practice today, in an unlikely place: math class.
"Sometimes with Harkness math we get lost, and lose focus, and start talking about our days. I had a teacher that would have us meditate at the beginning of class to get us focused on thinking about math,” Kuo said. She wrote about that experience - learning about the benefits of meditation in math class - for the essay that helped earn her a spot at the Conference.
At the Conference, Kuo learned new yoga poses and more about incorporating walking and listening meditations into her practice. She also participated in a goal-setting session and learned some reflexology, which she introduced to some of her dorm mates.
“The foot is a connection to every part of your body, and if you massage it every day, it’s really good for you,” Kuo said. “The girls in the dorm thought they were coming to get foot massages, but I was there to show them how to do it themselves,” Kuo laughed.
Yoga has been offered to Episcopal students for 10 years. Emily Straight, Student Wellness Coordinator, offers a student yoga class every Sunday, and last year provided a 10-week training course for students interested in sharing yoga with their peers on dorm. Kuo, Cameron Nix ’16, Lilly Wilcox ’18, and Isabelle Zabriskie ’16 completed the course.
“I’d like to do yoga on dorm before a big exam,” Kuo said. “Yoga improves your memory, mental strength, and helps you focus, and research shows that it can improve students’ grades.”
“Students first come to yoga for many different reasons. Some come to increase flexibility or build strength. Some come because they are stressed out and heard it can help. However, I find that when students make it a habit to come each week, they discover their practice benefits them in deeper ways that last long past the moment the class ends. They become more confident, calmer, focused, and compassionate with themselves and others,” said Straight.
Straight is excited to be organizing a yoga and meditation trip to the Kripalu Center in Massachusetts during Spring Break. She will be available to talk to parents and students about the trip during Parents Weekend, on Saturday Oct. 22, at 12:15 p.m. in the Library.
If you are interested in learning more about the trip but unable to make this session, or for more general information about yoga and other wellness offerings at Episcopal, follow @ehs_swell on Instagram or contact Ms. Straight at straight@episcopalhighschool.org
