Ten-minute passing period, 15-minute brunch, 30-minute lunch. While students may enjoy their breaks to decompose and share a laugh in between classes,  a deep and meaningful conversation can be rare.

Principal Brent Daniels acknowledges the lack of opportunities students have to share with one another on an emotional level, leading the school to adopt a solution — Open Session.

Open Session, which began its pilot period  in sophomore social psychology classes first semester, consists of students writing down statements about their concerns, stress or relationship issues, putting them in a box, and then discussing them as a class, without adult input. The students also have the option to make their notes anonymous.

“The goal of Open Session is to meet the needs of the students, socially and emotionally, so they will be able to perform at high levels and feel good about themselves,” Daniels said.

Open Session, which is connected to the Challenge Success survey conducted last year, is just one example of the many programs the administration is adopting to try to improve the school’s climate. Others include Ground Crew, the Safe Driving Assembly, and an increased number of tutorials.

“Realizing one’s emotional health is critically important,” social psychology teacher Anne Peacock said. “Piedmont High School does a good job with students’ intellectual health, but if we can help them be emotionally aware, it will be beneficial to their  present and future lives.”

Peacock hopes that while students get more comfortable with the activity, it will prompt more in-depth discussions.

“I think it is important to do exercises like Open Session because it is very nice to have a class where you feel completely comfortable saying anything,” sophomore Anna Shacker said.

In an article published by the Berkeley School of Psychology titled “Open Session, Building a Caring Community from the Inside Out,” Open Session creator Janice Toben said the session will provide all the details needed to facilitate powerful discussions based on empathy and listening skills while using student-generated issues. It also emphasizes support and encourages the sharing of solutions and ideas.

Daniels hopes that when students are given the opportunity and outlet to guide their peers and gain healthy resolutions to everyday problems, they will hone their inter and intra personal skills, and the school will build a strong sense of community from it.

“You might feel like no one else in the world has the same problems, but we are more alike than we think,” Daniels said. “Things are not as dire as we imagine, and we learn that through human experience.”