Regardless of how, we all have a personal connection to Stevens. Some members of our student community have done incredible work in improving the mental health resources that we have at Stevens.
Former Student Government Association (SGA) President Lucas Gallo and his cabinet worked to improve Stevens with a series of initiatives such as giving the CARE team feedback, getting all mental health resources on the template for the syllabus for each class, pushing for mental health awareness training for Stevens faculty, and more. According to Gallo, “During my time as president, I worked a lot with Melanie Caba (the former head of the health and wellness committee) as well as Sara Klein, Dean Nilsen, and Dr. Zarin to help devise an action plan for how we can improve to get more student services that support mental/physical health.”
Gallo and his cabinet also worked with the administration to create the position of Wellness Educator, which has been filled by Gabrielle Guider. The Wellness Educator is a position designed to run physical education courses like Wellness 101 and serve as the case manager for the CARE team.
“We saw many other schools have a similar position so we put together a proposal for a wellness educator. Sara Klein was helping us along the way because she was also very in support of this idea. We submitted the proposal, presented at Favardin’s cabinet meeting, and next thing you know we got ourselves a wellness educator,” said Gallo.
SGA senators also work towards improving mental health on campus. Senators E.J. Hannah and Elina Tuder continue to work on setting up the creation of artwork underneath the bleachers outside the gym.
According to Tuder, “Hannah and I wrote a formal proposal and then submitted it to Danielle Maxson and Sara Klein. Maxson and Klein were helpful with providing feedback on the recommendation and then Klein talked to a multitude of parties within Stevens to get approval for this proposal… I hope to get the DuckLink form rolling soon so that students can submit ideas they have and get to express themselves artistically. There are so many talented students and I can’t wait to see what they have in store!”
SGA Health and Wellness Committee Head Victoria Agaliotis ran educational events, saying, “…last semester I held a healthy sleeping habits event. Just really trying to educate students about how to stay healthy and reduce the stigma around mental health.” By running these events, Agaliotis hoped to promote a healthy lifestyle for students and improve general well-being on campus.
Our school isn’t a utopia and likely never will be. But that doesn’t mean that it isn’t worth trying to make things better. Student leaders have shown that Stevens is capable of growing to better provide mental health services to its students.
According to Gallo, “We are trying to build a more supportive community among the students and alongside the faculty/staff at Stevens. I think by simply recognizing we have a problem (much like many other schools) we open ourselves up for improvement… Is it perfect? No. Will it ever be? No. But are we doing better? Yes.”
These initiatives are pursued by members of the student body, with the partial or complete support of the school, for other Stevens students.
Whenever we laugh at an Off Center article, complain about construction, struggle through a required class, or recount tales of Duck Dances long past, we do it together, as Stevens students.
And as members of the community and the student body, these resources are for us. They exist in part because our peers cared enough about us, about each other, and about this school to make the Innovation University a better place to live and to learn; so let’s put these resources to good use.
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