Students help students focus on mental wellness

Highlights:

• Students create sustainable peer-to-peer wellness support program
• The resources were funded through the Go Grants Initiative

Melissa Hutchinson saw the Go Grants Initiative as an opportunity to help Central Michigan University students thrive by creating a network of students to provide mental wellness support for other students.

Eleven students volunteered. Jacob Jensen, one of them, said he was motivated by a desire to make new students feel welcomed.

“I want the incoming freshman to come out of our meetings knowing they're not alone,” he said. “College is a stressful time, especially when it's someone's first time dealing with it. However, students should be able to attend our meetings and come out of them knowing that things will always get better, no matter the circumstances. It's about how you carry yourself in those stressful situations, and how you react when unexpected issues arise.”

Compass’ volunteers come from diverse backgrounds and represent academic disciplines across campus. They share one thing in common, however.

“They want to make a difference in the lives of their peers,” said Hutchinson, executive director for counseling services.

COMPASS – Community Outreach Mental Health Persistence And Student Success – was born.

The goal of COMPASS was to enable students to build the foundation for a program that would allow them to play a vital role in understanding how their mental wellness is crucial to their academic success.

“I think connection with peers is important,” she said. "Faculty and staff can offer support, but providing support through peers provides a complete support network.

Their first step was coming up with a name and a logo. It has the Action C in the center of a compass with “Navigating College Life” written at the bottom.

COMPASS will participate in World Mental Health Day on Oct. 10 in the open field near the Biosciences building. They’ll talk about the importance of self-affirmations. They’ll also seek to reduce the stigma of mental wellness, encourage seeking help and acknowledge mental health challenges.

Its members also plan to participate in The Green Bandana Project.

COMPASS is part of the Counseling Center, which used its $25,000 grant to hire someone to help oversee the program, Hutchinson said. That will allow COMPASS to grow and allow the Counseling Center to continue providing its high level of support for students.

Hutchinson said she was introduced to the kernel of a concept through an academic retention program aimed at helping students who struggled their first semester on campus find success.

Go Grants in Action is a year-long series that shares the stories of how CMU students, faculty and staff are making a positive impact on the people and communities we serve through the Go Grants initiative.