Photo courtesy of Ayushi Jain / Members at the club’s trail walk on Sept. 22, 2022
BY MARNIQUE OLIVIERI-PANEPENTO, STAFF WRITER
Active Minds, a club at St. Bonaventure University, which is dedicated to spreading mental health education and awareness, hosted a spirit week this past week. The club planned daily events with themes, encouraging a bond between fellow students around campus.
The chapter of the national organization aims to “reduce the stigma surrounding mental illness through organizing local and campus events, promote mental health resources available to students on and off campus and advocate for campus policies related to mental health by communicating the needs of the student body to campus administration and professors.”
The organization, founded in 2003, consists of more than 600 high schools, college and university chapters across the United States.
When Ayushi Jain, a senior public health major and now president of Active Minds, first joined the club her freshman year, it was not yet a part of the national organization. She was the club’s treasurer and reached out to the organization coordinators, and then reestablished the club later that spring.
Other board members include Tanvi Paritala, the vice president, Kristen Kessler, the secretary, Madison Milligan, the treasurer, Abigail McNally, the membership and operation chair, Erica Marshall, the relations chair and Maygha Chaudhuri, the Student Government Association representative.
Spirit weeks have many benefits for students, as they allow them to open up and create more meaningful relationships. The national organization encourages all chapters to participate in the spirit week, and SBU Active Minds created the events based on the organization’s daily themes:
Monday: Awareness
Tuesday: Education
Wednesday: Advocacy
Thursday: Connection
Friday: Community
The club has roughly 20 to 25 members who meet weekly. “Especially since COVID-19, there has been a big drop in member engagement,” Jain said.
Active Minds usually has one self-care activity per month and one discussion per month. “Introducing the spirit week is something new for us,” Jain said, “We wanted to see how member engagement differed between the two.”
“I think it’s a nice way to do different mental health activities,” said McNally, a senior psychology major, who has been a member for three years. “It hits a lot of topics in one week.”
The week included an event for each day. Monday’s event was a yoga and meditation night, Tuesday was journaling, Wednesday was a race and culture talk with other clubs in the Damietta Center, Thursday was a dance to distress with the SBU dance team, and Friday, the members gave out T-shirts and other goodies on campus with an activity on suicide prevention.
“I think that these events are still very self-care and discussion-driven, which aligns with our events in the past.” Jain said,“They’re really great ways to create a space for students to come and talk about concerns that they have, or just talk about mental health.”
“I think this year has been a lot better, in fact, the meetings don’t feel like they’re in a classroom setting,” McNally added. “We try to have a variety of different topics, so it pertains to everybody.” These events also offer students time for them to pause from their busy schedules.
Both members agreed that the club’s focus is on spreading more awareness and getting more participation while being a continuous, well-known, engaging resource and group on campus.
“I know that we’re growing,” Jain said.
olivieme19@bonaventure.edu
