Erica Smith, a local SUU Student stepped up in taking charge over a mental health disorder event. Challenged with the task to create an event that's both fun and educational while also being sensitive to other's experience with mental health disorders. This even was held Fall of 2016 in the Ballroom of the Sharwan Smith Center on the SUU Campus. This event was created to reduce stigmas related to mental health disorders, create a safe environment for the students to express their disorder or learn about new ones, and help students learn new and creative outlets of dealing with their disorder in healthy ways.

​

      At the Mental Health Art Day event, the students contributed art forms of drawing, paintings, poems, short stories, music pieces they wrote themselves, photography, and many other forms of art. Throughout the event, there was a slideshow of facts regarding a variety of mental health disorders. The slideshow was another form of education provided that broadened students perspectives of what the disorder actual entailed. A table was also placed on the side with a variety of pamphlets also regarding different mental health disorders.

​

      Erica is an avid member of the club R.E.A.L PEERS, a network placed on college campus' across the nation as a sub group of NASPA and BACCHUS. After just one semester of volunteering with random events hosted on campus, Erica fell in love with the services and educational courses the PEERS provided. During her second semester, she applied and received the position of Mental Health Team Leader. With this position, she was placed in charge of planning and executing events regarding mental health. She created the program Mental Health Art day to fulfill that assignment and also to fulfill her EDGE Course requirement. EDGE is a course SUU requires students to take to expand their horizons and gain 40+ volunteer hours towards their projects.

​

      In conclusion of the successful event, Erica received many positive feedback comments from students as well as professors. The professors loved that they could encourage their students to be more vulnerable in their art pieces and the students loved meeting and collaborating with their fellow peers. Mental Health Art Day is expected to become an annual fall event hosted by the R.E.A.L PEERS.

​

​

​

​

Erica Smith

smitherica867@gmail.com

https://www.facebook.com/erica.hunt.336

https://www.facebook.com/realpeers/