Inspired by the social distancing domes in restaurants in New York City, on the 27th of January, the “Day Dream Dens” was introduced to the students at DHS that would allow them to use them during school hours to study, relax, and do so much more. The intended purpose of this project was that students would be able to socialize with their peers or relax in some way while being safe. 

Senior Aleena Jacob, Juniors Samatha Chung, Adrian Gurrero, and Alexandra Salem are involved in this project. These students believed there were many complaints on how there is a lack of involvement in school now with the pandemic among us. This project is created with the hopes of making school life feel “normal” once again, as well as recognizing mental health.

When Aleena Jacob was asked where the idea originally came from, “we were starting distance learning and we hated the fact we couldn’t [be involved] as we were in school.” She continues on to explain how the plan first backfired. “At the time that we were transitioning to hybrid before it got canceled, we were like ‘If we go back, it is gonna be the same thing as distance learning’, we don’t get to have the same relationship with students we once had, we are not allowed to really interact with them without having some glass in between you…”

The four creators are part of a nursing program called HOSA. To earn money in order to support the fund for the materials, they joined a competition that was rewarding $1000 to create a pitch for an idea and they successfully won.

They plan on participating in more competitions in order to build more dens around the school to be accessible for more students.

“There has been a talk with Mr. Donovan about having them outside but as well in the black box but because the black box is often used for other stuff… we are aiming it to be outside,” says Jacob. “How the [dens] would be used at the moment is we created a Google Classroom and people would join [filling] out a form [indicating] who you are meeting with or … whether you have been experiencing any symptoms that way we do not bring anyone in danger… if multiple people are gonna use this at different times we need to make sure you [are clear from] COVID.”

HOSA volunteers would be there to supervise and check temperatures. After a student finishes using the den, materials to sanitize the area will be provided and checked on by a HOSA volunteer to be ready for the next person.

Jacobs states it is planned for the dens to be constructed and opened by the end of February to the beginning of March, “by then, we should be used to the hybrid model and see how it’s working and see where these dents can be used.”