Project Reboot founder presents to over one thousand Santa Barbara High students
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – The founder and director of Project Reboot, a course that teaches youth how to have a healthy relationship with screentime, presented to 1,300 Santa Barbara High School students on Wednesday morning ahead of a big kick-off event at Santa Barbara City College.
Project Reboot is a digital wellness workshop in partnership with Santa Barbara's Mental Wellness Center, with the curriculum focusing on the neuro-science behind smartphone addictions, according to project officials.
Dino Ambrosi founded Project Reboot after his own struggles with unhealthy screen time while he was a student at UC Berkeley. He found himself relying on his phone and social media to try and relieve some of the stress that arose during his study sessions.
“Thankfully, I had the opportunity to intern at a startup in New York where I observed a highly motivated group of my peers who had strong management skills and the ability to control their tech engagement,” Ambrosi said. “The result was obvious – they were much more productive and able to get their work done.”
Ambrosi took what he learned and developed a course at UC Berkeley that teaches students how to control their tech engagement.
The Mental Wellness Center is hosting Project Reboot's Screen Time Initiative in Santa Barbara, which is based on the UC Berkeley course. A presentation to kick off the three-week course will take place at 4:30 p.m. on Nov. 6 at Santa Barbara City College's Garvin Theater and is open to high school students, parents, and other interested parties.
The presentation will introduce people to the concepts behind Project Reboot and help them set goals for reducing social media consumption. Participants will also be invited to partake in a weekly screen time challenge for three weeks where they can learn how to submit a screen time report to the anonymous Project Reboot tracking system, according to project officials.
“At Mental Wellness we are at the forefront of collaborating with other organizations in bringing content aimed at community residents who are looking for mental health and wellness education, support and programming,” said Annmarie Cameron, Mental Wellness Center’s CEO.
“When Dino first introduced us to Project Reboot, I knew right away that this program was speaking to a critical issue and offering a viable solution to social media and tech (over)usage; I was determined to support Dino and share this content with our Santa Barbara community."
As part of the three-week program, there will be two live Zoom meetings and challenges.
The initiative is offered free to all high school students, who can also receive community service hours for the event, and there is a suggested $20 participation fee for adults. Click here to enroll.
