It started when I went to a speaker on mental health at my campus. She covered many topics from mental illness, self care, to how to talk to others on the topic of mental health. One topic she brought up was the national college organization Active Minds, asking if we had one on our campus. We did not and the speaker took some time to explain what Active Minds was about. She explained that it would be a helpful organization on any college campus due to the need for mental health awareness and care for college aged students. After the speaker had left I talked with the event coordinator for the speaker and asked further about Active Minds. The event coordinator was also our director of counseling at the college and she explained that there was an attempt to start a Active Minds Chapter at the college but it didn't last.
I took a lot away from the talk but the thought of Active Minds was the strongest feeling I had. So like any other college student I did some research about what I was interested in. I learned that Active Minds was a national organization that worked with chapters/clubs on campuses to provide resources, information, and opportunities on the topic of mental health. I also learned how the process works for a group to be started on a campus. From this I went right to action to work on getting the organization set up on my campus. Within three months of learning of Active Minds, I was able to get all the work done in order to establish it on our campus. I am still currenlty working on getting the recognition from the national organization as this is the next step but we are already in action.
Before Active Minds was recognized on my campus I received the support from twenty individuals to become club members. We started immediately on our one idea moving forward for the whole semester which is a positive thoughts campaign in which we are weekly putting out positive thoughts in many different forms. Our main form is leaving post-it notes with messages that are encouraging, supportive, and beneficial to the reader. The other event we are working on is an Art Show at the end of the semester that will allow students, faculty, and staff to show case a piece of art that relates to mental health. This will hopefully allow individuals relate and express themselves in an art form that can better our community.
Active Minds is just starting at my college and I can't wait to see where it goes. If you have any interest in this please take the time to google Active Minds and learn more about what it is.
