Professor Ian Stephens and two female students at Fresh Check Day

Hundreds of students take part in Fresh Check Day activities for mental health

November 4, 2024
By: Nancy Sheehan

Worcester State students participated in games, raffles, and other fun hands-on activities at the 9th annual Fresh Check Day on October 23.  The event is an annual emotional well-being fair for WSU students that spotlights mental health and wellness support services available to them on campus. It’s part of a national mental health promotion and suicide prevention initiative started by the Jordan Porco Foundation, whose mission is suicide prevention on college campuses. 

The event brings together the Worcester State community with over 18 student groups and Worcester State departments represented at tables set up throughout the Student Center. “It’s interactive with a lot of peer-to-peer messaging around the importance of mental health,” Julie Glovin, associate director of counseling services, said. “It’s a fun event that emphasizes the importance of self-care and looking out for others.” 

Studies show that academic success is negatively impacted by emotional stress. In a 2023 Healthy Minds study, 79% of Worcester State students felt their emotional or mental difficulties hurt their academic performance in the prior month, which aligns with national averages. In a recent Gallup poll, 40% of college students reported feeling lonely the day prior. 

This year, more than 400 students participated, including 100 student volunteers. Students visited interactive tables focused on a variety of issues that affect mental health from healthy eating and exercise to feeling lonely, depressed, or overwhelmed. Students got a card stamped by all the tables they visited, to be entered into a raffle for a chance to win Beats earbuds, Starbucks coupons, Worcester State-branded apparel, and other prizes.

Professors, especially those teaching first-year seminar classes, were asked to encourage their students to attend Fresh Check Day, which helps promote awareness of the available support services on campus. Ian Stephens, assistant professor of physics and astronomy, said he brought his first-year seminar class to the event because, like many faculty, he has noticed that students can often feel stressed-out. “It varies and you see it more in some classes than in others,” Stephens said. “College can definitely be overwhelming for students so it’s good for them to be aware of the help that’s available for them.”

Sophomore Danny Butler, one of many student volunteers at the event, said Fresh Check had a positive impact on him when his first-year seminar professor brought his class to the event last year. He explained that near the beginning of the year, when he didn’t know many people, as he went from table to table with other students in the class, he was able to make some friends that he is still friends with today.

This year, Butler was helping staff a table that taught a method to help students turn negative self-talk into positive affirmations. The students were asked to write a negative thought on a sticky note which they then crumpled and threw in a wastebasket. Then they converted it into a supportive affirmation which they wrote on another sticky note and then posted it on a whiteboard with those of other students.

“I think it’s very important to not talk badly about yourself because that can cause a lot of bad feelings, and just talking positively to yourself can improve your entire mood,” Butler said. “That can end up making you just a good person to be around so then you enhance other people’s lives as well.”

The Student Government Association was running a table called “Paint Your Art Out,” which asked students to write or draw whatever they were feeling on a large poster which would later become part of a “What’s on Your Mind?” mural to be displayed in the Student Center. The volunteers explained that many students are feeling stressed, tired, and worried about their exams, and the event aims to help students realize they are not alone in these experiences.

Kyram Pou, Worcester State’s student trustee, said expressing emotions in a constructive way can be an important coping mechanism for students, especially during stressful periods like midterms, and providing an outlet for students to share their thoughts and feelings can help reduce stress and anxiety. 

“It’s important for students to express what they are feeling in the moment because it helps them become more self-aware and able to identify and manage their own emotions,” Pou said. “By expressing how they are feeling, students can better understand and cope with their feelings.”

At a table called “The Elephant in the Room,” students are asked to write down their personal “elephant” – something they know about themselves but don’t talk about, such as having anxiety or trouble making it to class on time. The goal is to help break down the stigma around mental health by allowing students to see that others share similar experiences, Jenna Lane, student accessibility specialist, said. The table was staffed by student volunteers from Delta Alpha Pi, the local chapter of an international honor society run by the Student Accessibility Services office at the university. 

After students anonymously wrote down their concern on an elephant-shaped card, it was posted on the wall for all to see to allow students to see that they are not alone in their experiences and that others are going through similar challenges.

“We’re asking students to write something that they know about but tend to hide from other people – anything they feel is kind of their elephant in the room that they try to hide,” Lane said. “We’re helping to break down the stigma around mental health and hope that, by seeing cards that other people have written, that see that others may be experiencing the same thing.”

Sophomore Ruby Moran, a student volunteer, read off some of the cards: “‘Not being able to trust people. My learning disorder. I’m battling keeping up with my studies.’ I think a lot of students are feeling that way with midterms coming up,” she said.

Moran said she decided to volunteer for Fresh Check because of the positive experience she had when she attended last year as a first-year student. “There were a lot of fun, hands-on activities and I got to see all the different clubs and all the different kinds of support available for students,” she said. “So, I wanted to come back and participate again this year because I love volunteering and being part of a community like this. We have a lot of volunteers here right now and it’s great to see.”

Glovin said it takes many spirited volunteers to make Fresh Check possible. “Counseling Services couldn’t put this on without a lot of cooperation from staff and students,” she said. “In addition to our co-sponsors, Active Minds, Athletics, OSILD, Recreation & Wellness, Residence Life, and Student Accessibility Services, we have lots of help from Printing & Publishing, Marketing, the Bookstore, CESO, and Chartwells. This truly is a community event.”

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