Farmington HS Students Help Hospital Patients Pass The Time

FARMINGTON/HARTFORD, CT — A summer volunteer experience at Hartford Hospital inspired a group of Farmington High School students to create and distribute hundreds of activity books designed specifically for hospital patients.

Members of the Farmington High School Cognitive Science Club designed, funded and published "MindMaze," a 20-page collection of puzzles and activities intended to provide mental stimulation while remaining accessible to patients recovering in medical settings.

The project grew out of Cognitive Science Club Co-President Emma Koh's summer volunteering at Hartford Hospital.

Koh noticed that some patients found reading novels overwhelming, while existing puzzles were not always accessible to them.

The club's leadership team — Koh, Raika Sarkar, Ruchitha Bonagiri, Nila Sivakumar, Srisha Obulsetty and Diya Balur — then worked together to develop MindMaze from scratch.

Students hand-illustrated coloring pages and visual puzzles and researched and programmed mazes, crosswords, word searches, and logic games.

The club also consulted Hartford Hospital doctors and nurses about the book's design, including its font sizes, contrast, and difficulty levels, to make the activities more suitable for recovering patients.

After conducting community outreach and fundraising, the students printed and distributed 200 copies of MindMaze to Hartford Hospital and other local medical centers.

Their project was also recognized in the Hartford HealthCare Volunteer Services Newsletter.

"Looking back, I never imagined that a summer volunteering program at a hospital would lead to an initiative that served so many others," one of the club's leaders said. "I am incredibly grateful for the experience with Hartford HealthCare and excited to continue expanding our club's outreach."

The club is already working to broaden the project's reach.

Students have translated MindMaze into Spanish to make the activities available to more patients and families, and the club plans to expand distribution to additional health care facilities and patient populations across Connecticut during the coming school year.

Free digital puzzle activities and additional information about the project are available on the Cognitive Science Club's MindMaze website.