Baldwin Wallace’s Active Minds hosts its semesterly “Stress Less Week” on April 24-29, aiming to combat student stress before finals.  

Active Minds  is a student organization that focuses on mental health on campus, particularly for students. Their goal is to bring awareness to mental health issues on campus and work towards destigmatizing conversations surrounding mental health. 

During Active Minds’ first year as an organization at BW in 2020, the leadership board was approached by a health center worker who suggested hosting this week-long event to help de-stress students while preparing for finals. 

“Before finals week, people are so stressed [that] they don’t really make time for themselves,” Morgan Ashley, the vice president of Active Minds, said. “It’s very needed, especially before such a crazy week.” 

First-year Bella Issa, an Acting and Directing major, agrees with this sentiment. 

“We’re at the point of the year where everything just piles on top of itself because everybody is just trying to wrestle for the same amount of time to get everything that they want done,” Issa said. 

Active Minds is working to help students fight the stress by hosting both in-person events and handing out grab-and-go goodie bags in the Union. Additionally, information about mental health advocacy will be found at Union tables. 

The organization has partnered with various BW student organizations like Allies, the BW Women’s Center and Game Guild to help with running the events and Union tables.  

Students will also be able to enter a raffle to win a themed basket provided by one of the many organizations collaborating with Active Minds on “Stress Less Week.” Tickets will be sold in the Union. 

Events like the Black mental health-centered trivia night, which was held on April 24, are important to Active Minds’ mission, and Ashley said these events shed light on mental health in various under-represented communities. 

“I feel a lot of times that mental health in certain communities is overlooked,” Ashley said. “The Black community faces tons of different stuff that a white person or anyone of another race would never experience, and [this is] similar of other races and groups of people.” 

Issa said that these educational and “morale-boosting” activities are ones that would help with her personal mental health, and she hopes that more events like these can be offered and advertised readily throughout the school year. 

Ashley said that she wants students to know that “they are not alone in their stress” because all people – especially students – experience it, and there are many campus resources available to help alleviate that stress.  

However, Ashley said that these resources available may not always be enough to help with mental health struggles. Sometimes, she said, it is about the need for transparency of mental health issues and more mental health days. 

“I do think the counseling center is doing a great job with what they have,” Ashley said, “but I hope the administration sees that this is really impactful for students and that they need… help [rather] than just being ignored.” 

For more information about “Stress Less Week” and Active Minds, students can add their phone number to Active Minds’ Remind by texting @8BC2332 to 81010, or by emailing Active Minds’ President Emily Muench. 

Disclosure: Active Minds president Emily Muench is a member of The Exponent’ staff.