USF’S HEALTHY MINDS CLUB Works to Eliminate Mental Health Stigma

There’s a new group in town at USF, and it’s making minds mightier, one day at a time.

Now-alumni Lily Emma Aktabowski, Justin Jasper, Elyse Panzella, Emily Schrader and Julia Zielinski were senior Schmitt Scholars in 2022 who developed the Mighty Minds Club on campus as part of their Schmitt Scholars senior project. The focus of the annual project is to help fulfill a need in a local community or at USF.

The 2022 group started brainstorming their senior project in 2020, which was a challenging time due to the global pandemic. They initially looked at issues ranging from helping the environment to teaching younger students about finances, but decided mental health would best help fulfill student needs during the ongoing pandemic. Thus, the Mighty Minds Club on campus was established.

“The stigma associated with talking about mental health was another reason why we chose to create the club,” said Emily Schrader ’21, ’22, who was participating in Schmitt Scholars as a continuing MBA student after graduating with her BBA in Accounting.

The Mighty Minds mission is to decrease that stigma on the University of St. Francis campus by organizing events and meetings designed to provide resources and activities for the community. Schrader said the name Mighty Minds was developed from the word “mighty,” meaning “possessing great strength,” and “minds,” which is associated with mental health.

The Schmitt senior project was complete in April 2022 and was presented to the Schmitt Foundation Board of Directors that same month.

Senior Saint Mary Mathieu was elected to be the first president of the Mighty Minds Club. The club has nine executive board positions and over 70 general members who range across various majors and ages. Mathieu says Mighty Minds advocates for a much-needed change regarding mental health stigma. By hosting events that encourage members to embrace their most authentic and vulnerable selves, Mighty Minds provides a safe and nurturing place for all USF students and faculty to use their voices and ignite change. It is through this strong community of mighty minds that the end to the mental health stigma becomes possible.

The club’s first event of the academic year was the “Love Your Self(ie)” back-toschool photo shoot, which encouraged body positivity. The Project Semicolon night was also a fun event where students got to describe what the project meant to them through crafting. Project Semicolon is a non-profit movement that advocates for mental health wellness and gives hope to those struggling with mental illness, suicidal thoughts, addiction and self-injury. The Project Semicolon website says “A semicolon is used when an author could’ve chosen to end their sentence, but chose not to.”

The club’s most popular event last semester, however, was a craft night to de-stress. Members posted encouraging messages around campus—from post-it notes on bathroom mirrors, to flyers in the lunch areas.

“Students came up to executive board members, saying how impactful the messages were for them when they needed to hear those words of encouragement most. That was super meaningful to hear since the main hope of this organization is that students know that they are cared for and not alone,” said Mathieu. “I was grateful to officially have the opportunity to help advocate for student mental health in a meaningful way while being surrounded by a team of incredible people who are equally as passionate about campus mental health needs. There definitely is a stigma present in society that we are working to change as a campus mental health community. We all struggle at points in our lives, and this is the reason we must lift each other up rather than tear each other down. This is the impact that we as an organization wish to have in students’ lives because each student deserves to know that they are worth fighting for, worth hearing. We are a family here at USF and working towards supporting the mental health and well-being of each student is our priority.”