Hello, my name is Karli Everett. I am 15 and a junior at Chelsea High School. YAHL stands for Youth Action for Health Leadership. I joined YAHL because I wanted to make a difference in my community, and YAHL helps me do that with our campaign, Elevate Student Health. Elevate Student Health is trying to make a long-lasting difference in high schools all across the state.

Elevate Student Health works to provide healthy food options at schools, clean drinking water and enough physical activity students need throughout the day. There are tons of opportunities for events for the Elevate Student Health campaign. For example, I had a meeting with my high school principal and gave my input on the overall health of the students at my school and how this campaign can help provide more resources to make healthier behaviors easier for everyone. The principal signed our pledge card in support of what we are doing with Elevate Student Health. I also plan to do a school board meeting in the near future to try to make our wellness policy comprehensive. 

I also have had the chance to meet with Senators George Burns and Kristen Thompson. I have also met with Representatives Charles McCall, Ronny Johns, Rusty Cornwell and Clay Staires. I talked to them about the importance of having strong school wellness policies.

I really have enjoyed working with Elevate Student Health and plan to continue working on changing comprehensive wellness policies in my district and districts all over the state. I think that everyone should care about comprehensive school wellness policies because it will help our youth grow up to be healthy adults.

By: Karli Everett, Chelsea High School