Developed by a group of enthusiastic teenagers in Da Nang, the Vietnam PsychEdu Camp (VPEC) is the first-ever model of school psychology camp in the city. Nguyen Thi Xuan Na, a pupil at grade 12D1 of the Le Quy Don Senior High School for the Gifted, is the leader of the group.

The purpose of the model is to help pupils citywide understand more about school psychology.

Campers had hours of fun and entertainment and learned more useful knowledge. Photo: NGOC HA

Starting operation in June 2022, the group organized a school psychology camp called VPEC'22: MINDGAZE.

VPEC'22: MINDGAZE was developed based on the concept of Mindgaze which probably means that looking into the heart in order to understand the pressures that any student is at risk of encountering, thereby partly contributing to helping them overcome negative emotions in school life.

In the form of a series of camp days, each day of the camp, through fun and entertainment games, solved problems facing pupils such as peer pressure, orientation pressure, appearance inferiority pressure, grade pressure, and pressure of social standards.

In each topic, members of VPEC prepared games in the most fun, close and easy way. For example, with the topic of orientation pressure, they organized games about writing dreams, deepening and deciphering, debugging and shaping, and life chess board, facilitating campers to have fun and effectively orient themselves.

According to Nguyen Thi Xuan Na, most of the group's members participated in the annual Science and Technology Contest at school and municipal levels with the project about phobia, as well as joined school psychology education clubs. They also plan to pursue a career in psychology in the future.

From that common point, the group members decided to learn more documents about school psychology, and pioneer in the field of organizing camps on school psychology.

“Adolescence is a time when the body undergoes many physiological and psychological changes, and each young person will be easily psychologically affected by emotional changes” Na added.

Moreover, school violence and spreading false information on social networks are among issues of deep concern.

However, there is a lack of attention to these issues from parents and teachers. This leads to the fact that young people, teenagers and especially pupils at the 12-16 age group are still not fully aware of the psychology of puberty. Therefore, Na and her friends want to impart knowledge about emotional recognition and overcoming school pressure in a methodical and scientific way.

Experiencing a relatively successful camp season with a large number of senior and high school campers participating is also the motivation for VPEC members to continue spreading and sharing school psychology knowledge.

According to Xuan Na, adults only see the surface of the mental burdens each student has to endure today, whilst countless alarming situations still exist that are not easy to detect. These are phenomena that not only indirectly but also directly cause mental pressure on students such as bullying, victim-blaming and mental disorders.

She expresses her desire that the public as well as local authorities will join efforts with her group to raise the alarm among young people and the community to have a more in-depth and multi-dimensional view of the phenomenon.

Reporting by NGOC HA - Translating by M.DUNG