November 22, 2023
Cindy Lopez:
Welcome. My name is Cindy Lopez, the host of this CHC podcast, Voices of Compassion. We hope you find a little courage, feel connected and experience compassion every time you listen.
In this episode, we have the opportunity to hear about the remarkable journey of Sean Nesamoney, who was a high school student with a love and talent for music. It’s really a testament to the synergy between music and mental health, showcasing how Sean’s passion for music became a vision for a concert to highlight and support teen mental health resources in the community. As you listen, you’ll be moved by Sean’s dedication to making a difference around teen mental health and also inspiring others to take action. As Sean says, I hope that listeners are inspired just to start. If there’s a project in mind that you want to pursue, or an issue that’s important to you just start because you never know where it could take you.
Welcome Sean. So Sean, thank you so much for joining us today. Why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself first? What’s your story, and what are the experiences that have led you to this point?
Sean Nesamoney:
Thank you so much for having me. So my name is Sean Nesamoney. I’m a recent graduate of Menlo School, and I’m an incoming freshman at Stanford. And for a lot of my life I’ve been really passionate about music. I started actually with playing the piano when I was very young and then developed a passion for singing in third grade. And ever since I’ve been an avid musician either training classical voice or composing and producing my own music. So music has been a really integral part of my life, and in high school I think I really attribute my passion for cognitive science and mental health advocacy to music.
I’ll go into a little bit more depth later in this episode of sort of the inception of Voices for Hope and how that project came to be, but I think music has always been a great creative outlet for me, and I’ve noticed it always improved my mood and offer me so much joy and hope. So, I’ve really seen its powerful effects in the real world and became passionate about pursuing more than just performing, but even going into scientific research of why it’s such an impactful tool.
So I would say music really helped me discover an interest for brain health. In college, I hope to major in computer science because I’m really interested in the intersection of cognitive science and technology, specifically health related tech. I’m also in addition to a performer and musician, I enjoy writing poetry, so I’m potentially wanting to minor in poetry since I’m really passionate about storytelling and that’s sort of how I’ve come to create Voices for Hope from this passion for music.
Cindy Lopez:
That’s amazing, Sean and for our listeners, you can actually hear Sean and his music. He has a website, SeanNesamoney.com. You’ll see it in the resources in the show notes. So it’s just amazing like how you’ve taken your not just interest, but your talent and your passion for music and combined it with as you said brain science and thinking about mental health. So as you’ve noted, you love music. You’re a musician. How did you get started? And maybe even, as you talk about that, comment on the neuroscience of music and the brain that you know about.
Sean Nesamoney:
So how I got started with music, I started with the piano, like I mentioned. I think I started playing piano around the first grade, and I always really enjoyed it, but when I was playing songs or performing for others, I would always find myself kind of singing along to them. So that’s how I discovered not only just that I had the ability to sing, but that I really enjoyed it and had a passion for it. So the first time I sang in front of an audience was in my third grade talent show, and I never thought that singing would become sort of my thing, but that one performance really showed me that this is what I love do.
Cindy Lopez:
What did you sing in third grade?
Sean Nesamoney:
In third grade, so my friends and I started a band, and it was one guitarist and one drummer and then I sang, and I think, I can’t remember what we sang, I think it was a one Republic song, but that’s what we sang as third graders.
Cindy Lopez:
Ah fun. Love it.
Sean Nesamoney:
Ever since then I’ve loved singing, so I started to sing. Primarily I started with contemporary music, and then started to get more serious about it and train classically and sang a lot of solo pieces in competitions and whatnot and started singing in a choir. And then I would also take part in some of my school’s theater productions. So in the seventh grade I was Oliver Twist in our all school production of Oliver and that’s sort of how performing has become a big part of my life and since freshman year of like high school, I’ve primarily focused on classical repertoire, but I’ve also recently took on a hobby of producing and composing my own music, and in 2021 I released an album of my original songs, and I really enjoy writing and producing them. I think I mentioned a passion for storytelling and writing in many different mediums, like poetry and stories and now songs, and I find just producing music also really fun because there’s a technical aspect to it, and as someone who’s interested in technology that’s always really interesting to see that intersection. And to answer sort of the second part about the neuroscience of music and the brain, I developed an interest for learning more about how music interacts with our brain and with our minds in sophomore year when I took a neurobiology online course just to spark my interest. And that really did launch a greater interest in exploring and researching cognitive science as a whole, but some of the things that I learned during that time was that there are so many sort of fascinating relationships between the music that we both listen to and play and how they are engaging with various brain regions.
So just to name a few an obvious one is the auditory cortex, which is the primary region for processing sounds and interpreting musical elements like rhythm and pitch. There’s also the limbic system, which triggers emotional responses. So this includes the amygdala and hippocampus. So these can really evoke strong feelings or memories. Memory is another really big one. So because of its receptive patterns, music can enhance memory formation and retrieval. There was a really interesting documentary I watched, it was sort of inspired by the work of Oliver Sacks and there were these two researchers who had a project to provide or supply personalized iPod playlists to patients in nursing homes who were suffering from Alzheimer’s dementia, and their project entailed contacting loved ones of these patients and getting like few names of songs that these individuals listen to in their youth or in their young adulthood and put them onto a playlist and when they visited them played these songs, and you could really just see so much light and sort of memory come to them. So that was just one instance where I watched and saw that there’s a really strong power in music to evoke memory and make you connect with your past and other people, but yeah, overall, I think neuroscience of music really does showcase its profound impact on emotions, on cognition, on motor skills. So I think that’s why it’s a really interesting area for me.
Cindy Lopez:
Yeah, I’m thinking about it, you know as we talk, I hear a song, and I’m kind of transported back to high school or college or whatever, and that music evokes such a strong memory, which in turn evokes an emotional response. And it’s just so interesting. I am with you. I’m really interested in how the brain works and the kinds of things that impact it. So let’s talk a little bit more about the connection between music and mental health.
Sean Nesamoney:
So I think even before I was introduced to this intersection, music and mental health has been pretty well established. For a long time music was kind of just seen as a mode of entertainment, but really recently seeing its sort of therapeutic effects has gotten a lot more common, especially with conversations of youth mental health and mental health in general becoming more widely talked about. Music, like I mentioned, has a really strong impact on our emotional wellbeing. There’s several domains and areas in which music can help individuals with their own mental wellbeing – some include like emotional regulation, so it can help with regulating emotions, alleviating feelings of stress and anxiety, uplifting individuals and providing comfort. I think music also, in my personal experience can help with stress reduction, and I think when talking about a tool like music, it’s really important to acknowledge that it’s a very subjective tool. Not everyone likes music or enjoys it, and you could even get stressed out while listening to music. So I think it’s one of those things where it’s really dependent on the person’s preference, but I think for me as a musician and as a music lover, it’s definitely something that can alleviate any worry or stress or high stress situations.
Music also has many cognitive benefits, so I think there’s been some research done that shows that it can enhance cognitive functions, like I mentioned, memory, attention and even problem solving. There’s also something to be said about music’s role in social connection, whether it’s group music making, like I mentioned me starting a band with two of my friends or attending concerts fosters like a really strong community and social bonding, which I think is also a contributor to our own mental wellbeing. So I think, yeah, it definitely has a positive impact by promoting emotional wellbeing, reducing stress, enhancing cognition and facilitating more social connection, which I think really makes it a valuable resource for self mental health care, especially given its accessibility to the greater public.
Mike: CHC’s Voices of Compassion podcast is made possible by the generosity of people like you. To learn more about supporting CHC, go to chconline.org/donate. Also make sure to follow us on social media for more inspiring and educational content from CHC.
Cindy Lopez:
It’s interesting there are so many apps out there now too that promote music as a way to relax, a way to reduce stress, a way to reduce anxiety and even just sounds. And there is definite correlation there between music and reduction of stress and anxiety too. The social connection piece is really valuable too because I think in this day and age, especially younger people your age and even younger, there’s so much connection through media and technology that’s not face to face. I think there is some value in this kind of social connection, where, you know, attending concerts you mentioned and creating the band, and I realize that you can connect through music without being together too face to face, but I think that’s important.
So Sean, our connection with you at CHC actually started when you reached out to us about your Voices for Hope concert. Can you tell us more about that concert, like what was your inspiration for it? How it happened?
Sean Nesamoney:
So, the idea for the concert came to me end of our school’s lockdown. So, at the end of my sophomore year.
Cindy Lopez:
Lockdown, you mean at the end of COVID or
Sean Nesamoney:
Yeah, of the pandemic quarantine, yeah.
So at the end of my sophomore year my school was sort of returning to a completely in person format. And during that summer between my sophomore and junior year, I kind of reflected on what the past year was like and what a lot of people in my community were talking about and feeling, and I know that we were all sort of somewhat relieved and grateful to be able to come back to campus the next year and be able to see the pandemic sort of simmering out and things being more under control, but I know that there was a very strong and profound effect that the quarantine had on people that would take a lot longer to sort of recover from and to grapple with. So more specifically, I think that the mental health implications of quarantine and the pandemic had really long lasting effects that would persist even after we returned to campus, and I think after that period of division, I saw a need for my community to come together in a way that hasn’t really been done before. I know that we as a school we’re a very spirited community that really values the community aspects of school. And I think that really contributed a lot to how we were able to bounce back from the pandemic quite quickly, but I thought it was important to me to come together in a meaningful way that doesn’t just ignore sort of the year that we just endured, but potentially talks about it and brings conversations of what that meant for people going forward. So I definitely saw a lot of my peers and teachers and parents always have conversations throughout the summer of what the quarantine was like for them and how even in the news, you’d see youth mental health be widely talked about and people often described it as like the second wave of the pandemic was this sort of the long lasting effects of it on our wellbeing.
So the concert to me was a way to accomplish several goals. I saw it as a way to bring my community together. I saw it as a way, as a musician and a performer to highlight and give voice to all of the performers on our campus, especially after coming from several months where none of us could perform in person for each other. I also saw it as a way to continue the conversation and raise more awareness about how our peers grappled with the pandemic and with their own mental health during those times because we were all far apart from each other. We rarely saw many people. I think it was really difficult for people to even stay in touch just because of how difficult the time was. So to be able to hear stories of people and their experiences and what they did during those times to help with their own mental wellbeing was really important and to make everyone feel that they weren’t alone if they were going through a similar thing during that time and then the last goal was to make an impact in some way that was larger than just our community, and that’s I think why we as a team contacted the Children’s Health Council because we had read about some of the work that you do in terms of providing services to families and youth. I know you have educational services, but also mental health support and that mission of yours really resonated with us as a team.
So we reached out because we wanted our proceeds from the concert and money that we raised to benefit other youth in our community who might not get the chance to seek valuable resources like counselors or therapists or people like mentors to help them. So that’s how I got involved with CHC, and so the first concert was in April of 2021, and like I mentioned, a big goal of it was to highlight all of the student performers. So we did no cuts for our first year. So we had a pretty lengthy concert, but it was really great. We had such a diverse array of performers everyone from instrumentalists to dancers and even visual artists – their work was showcased in the lobby.
It was also important to me and my team that in addition to the musical components this event also had an educational component. There was something that people could learn from it or get inspired from it. So we looked to some speakers in our community and leaders and change makers to come and talk a little bit about either the work that they were doing during the pandemic or the work that they do and how it relates to this topic. So to name a few we had Susan Wojcicki, the former CEO of YouTube come and talk about what the topic of mental health means in the industry of social media, since there’s a lot of conversation about how social media contributes to mental health, and she had some things to say specific to YouTube. We had a few people send in videos like representative Ro Khanna talk about what youth mental health means from a political and public policy perspective, Dean Lloyd Minor, the Dean of Stanford Medicine talk about it in terms of academia as a research institution. So we had some really great speakers our first year talk about their work and that concert was the first one my school has seen of its kind. So we were really excited that it was successful and we were able to continue it for a second year. And then I’m now graduating Menlo, but have this past year recruited two students to be associate directors who sort of were in training for the past year of what my role was. So now this year they’re the directors of it, and I’m still helping out, I’m local, so I’ll be able to go to the concert and help with anything they might need while we’re still figuring out the transition, but I’m really excited that it’s continuing even beyond my graduation, and I really hope to see it continue even further.
Cindy Lopez:
Yeah. Well, it’s really impressive you just coming up with the idea and then getting this team together of students kind of galvanized and organized to accomplish it. And, you know, especially that first year we were more involved at CHC, the speakers you had lined up and everything. And on top of that, you’ve created a plan that hopefully it’s sustainable and that it will continue. So it’s really impressive. You’ve accomplished a lot I’m going to say relatively short time compared to my lifetime, but I’d love to hear more about how have you done that, like what motivates you? What important learnings do you have for our listeners that might encourage them to continue to pursue their dreams and their ideas?
Sean Nesamoney:
So I think that my accomplishments and the work I’ve done throughout high school and more specifically the past few years were definitely shaped by a few key principles that I really believe in and think can inspire others, and I think that these principles definitely weren’t something that I really had in mind. There are more things I was subconsciously doing during the process. And now in hindsight, looking back saw that these were sort of the sentiments that I followed. The first thing was definitely passion and persistence. Finding what truly excites you and motivates you is the first step to any sort of successful project or initiative that you want to do.
I found that no matter how grueling a certain task might have been for the concert, or no matter how many logistical hurdles there were to overcome, I really enjoyed every step of the process and that just made the time fly, and it made working on it is so worthwhile and fulfilling, and I think that persistence is also a big part of that, like I mentioned, there were definitely some setbacks and obstacles to overcome, but having sort of the determination and motivation to keep going was really crucial. I think also having and embracing a growth mindset is important, was an important piece of this process. I definitely like stayed curious and committed to learning from both successes and failures and definitely believe that every experience is an opportunity to grow and learn.
I would also say goal setting is something that helped me and my team continue to look forward and to continue to seek the motivation to keep going. So I think setting clear achievable goals is an important step and breaking them down into smaller manageable steps and also celebrating progress along the way is really important. I know after we booked the auditorium at my school for the event, we we’re really happy in our next morning meeting just because we like had the whole stage to ourselves for a day and that was really exciting. So definitely setting these goals.
I sort of spoke on resilience. I think cultivating resilience is really important. I think a really big thing that not a lot of people talk about when pursuing like a project or an endeavor, initiative like this, is sort of the network and mentorship aspect. Surrounding yourself with people who are going to support you and lift you up is always one of the most important pieces. Those are the people that are going to either show up to the event, are going to buy their tickets, are going to support you and help you when you need a hand for something. Mentors are such valuable people and they offer such great guidance and insights and encouragement. So I think seeking mentors and finding the right people to surround yourself with. Also adaptability; so I was really open and adaptable to my approach and the path to success is rarely linear. So you’ll always need to pivot when necessary and reevaluate, but I think those are kind of the main pillars of advice I would have for people to always sort of lead with passion, perseverance and sort of a commitment to personal growth, and keep your vision clear and stay resilient, cause you’ll never know like where something can go.
Cindy Lopez:
A couple of things that just stood out to me while you were talking is embracing a growth mindset. So important, like, the power of yet, like it’s okay that we haven’t done that yet, it’s still coming, that’s part of the growth mindset piece and just resilience. I think growth mindset contributes to building of resilience and the mentors. You described mentors, and we’ve also talked about them as allies, like people who come alongside you and support you, and you can use them as a sounding board, too. I think those things are all really important. Sean, we’re so thankful for your time today and chatting with us about your music about mental health, about the Voices for Hope concert. I assume the concert’s happening again this spring.
Sean Nesamoney:
Yes, it is. I will keep CHC posted about when it is. Yeah, we have two new great students leading the concert this year.
Cindy Lopez:
Nice. Nice. So before we close this episode, I’m just wondering if you have any advice for teens themselves who are struggling with stress, anxiety or depression, or advice for teens to help their friends who are really dealing with mental health conditions?
Sean Nesamoney:
Yeah, I think, before sort of offering my advice, I think it’s really important to acknowledge that mental health impacts individuals very differently, and there’s certainly not one approach to help mitigate its effects. I think also mental health issues vary in severity and as such, should be addressed accordingly, but a big driving purpose of Voices for Hope was to primarily address the general increase in stress and anxiety that many community members grappled with. So I think in this realm and sort of my personal experience with that during the pandemic I can speak to during COVID, especially, but also when teens are just going through a difficult time in their mental health, I think it’s really easy to let go of the things we love doing, but I think staying engaged with them really helped me a lot, that was music for me, but there are so many other outlets that us teens love to do, and I think finding the ones that bring you the most happiness and hopefulness are really important to keep a hold on to.
I think it’s also important to seek help when you feel ready to do so. So this can be from a trusted adult, like a parent, a teacher, a counselor, et cetera. Advice for teens who are helping other teens or helping their peers, I think it’s really important to listen without judgment and to stay connected with them without overstepping boundaries. I think a lot of times it’s best for a friend to come to you and open up to you before you approaching them, and I think also if you’re unfamiliar with the topic or if you haven’t had many conversations about mental health altogether and what it means because it’s such a big topic and there’s so many different meanings of what it means to either have mental health challenges, it can be just something like stress from so much homework, that itself is a mental health challenge, just to learn a little bit more of what it means to help your friend better, but I think, yeah, those would be my main pieces of advice.
Cindy Lopez:
So, finally, what do you hope that our listeners really hear from you today?
Sean Nesamoney:
Circling back to Voices for Hope, its main focus was to raise awareness about youth mental health post pandemic, but the initiative as a whole was aimed to inspire other students in my school and across the Bay Area to pursue their true passions and enact change in areas that they authentically care about.
This concert, I think, like I mentioned, was the first student led benefit production that my school had ever seen. And it was really a novel concept at first and some people were definitely skeptical of its success as was I, but through the passion and motivation I had to orchestrate the event and bring my community together it made it what it is today. So I really hope that listeners are inspired to just start. If there’s one like final piece of advice I have is to just sort of start with whatever small idea you have because your voice really does matter. It has so many great things to say. It has a perspective on the world that no one else does, and it has eyes that can see issues in the world that maybe no one else can see that you want to bring to light and you want to help solve. So if there’s a project or any sort of passion you have that you wish to pursue, it’s always best to just start because you never know where it could take you.
Cindy Lopez:
To our listeners CHC is here for you. If you are a parent and you have a child you’re concerned about, please reach out to us. If you’re an educator reach out to us as well. We may have some free resources that would be helpful. We have a free online resource library and obviously this podcast.
You can call us at 650-688-3625, or you can email our care team, which is careteam@chconline.org. So thank you, Sean, and thank you to our listeners. And for our listeners I hope you’ll join us again. And for Sean, we hope you have a very successful first year at Stanford.
Sean Nesamoney:
Thank you so much for having me.
Cindy Lopez:
Visit us online at podcasts.chconline.org. Make sure to subscribe to Voices of Compassion so you never miss an episode, and we’d love it if you’d leave us a rating and review. Have a question? Send us an email or a voice memo at podcasts@chconline.org. We’re here for you when you need us.
