Active Minds Raise Awareness, Tackle Stigma of Mental Health on College Campuses

 Marshele Bryant waited in anticipation as people slowly trickled into the interest meeting for the Active Minds Club. "I'm just really excited to be here and really excited to get this club up and running," Bryant, a sophomore political science major, said.

According to their website, "Active Minds is the only organization working to utilize the student voice to change the conversation about mental health on college campuses." Created by Alison Malmon and founded in 2001 at the University of Pennsylvania, Active Minds was as a way to combat the stigma of mental health on college campuses (Malmon's brother Brian suffered from a schizoaffective disorder that resulted in him taking his own life). With 368 chapters across the nation, Active Minds allows their chapters to have total control over how they want to represent and advocate for mental health awareness. "We aren't a peer support group," said Rachael Datz, the regional chapter manager for the East coast region of Active Minds. "We simply are here to advocate for mental health on college campuses," Datz said.

"There is no other organization like this on Howard's campus," Bryant said. Bryant is chartering the new chapter on Howard's campus to bring awareness to mental health in the black community. "Mental health is a huge issue in the African-American community and on college campuses. We've gotten a lot of positive feedback about chartering a new chapter on Howard's campus because we are one of a kind."

Out of their 368 chapters, Active Minds is only located on 17 HBCU campuses. "We try to connect our chapters together when they have something in common," Datz said. "For example, we try to link our art schools together so they can feed one another ideas. We would love to do that with our HBCUs because we know that creative program ideas would come from them." "You [Howard] are the model university," Datz said. "Everyone looks to Howard to see what you all are doing."

Zalika Cobb, junior psychology major and administrative assistant for the Suicide Prevention Campaign, attended the meeting to throw her support behind this new club. "It's time to get educated on mental health," Cobb said. "It's time for everyone, and I mean everyone, to become aware of resources on our campus that reduce the stigma of mental health."

"Everyone has mental health," Datz said. "However, they occur at different levels and at different times."