By By: Taya Stewart
Staff-Writer
On Sept. 22, IU South Bend’s chapter of Active Minds held their first meeting of the semester to discuss plans for the year ahead and areas of interest for students. Active Minds is a national mental health nonprofit organization that seeks to break the stigma surrounding mental health. Their goal is to bring awareness to mental health in a way that inspires students to seek help and promote open discussion.
College is a time of freedom and opportunity. A place for learning new things, a place to grow up. These idyllic days of pure enjoyment, love and laughter are often fantasized about, but one cannot help but wonder about those close calls. It may look like the time your friend was wavering on the brink of ending their life. It may look like a hopeless night after a failed exam. It may look like a smiling face hiding from the shadows of anxiety, depression and addiction. How can we help these students from making devastating choices? What can we do to keep our college students safe? These are the questions that the Active Minds organization helps to solve.
This year, Active Minds plans to host their Titans Talk event again after its debut last year. This is an event where students submitted anonymous stories about their experiences with mental health, and members of the club read them in a reader’s theater-style event. They also plan to host a speak-out about a mental health topic each semester, which will give students an open forum to discuss mental health.
Other activities Active Minds plans to host this year include collaborations with other clubs on related topics, fundraising events and panels with guest speakers who know the science and research behind mental health topics.
If you want to help promote ways to help our college students thrive, Active Minds is looking for students to fill leadership roles. For more information about Active Minds, contact Co-President Jaidyn Medina at jaidmedi@iu.edu and look for meeting times on flyers around campus.
