By Kaden Boock
The student advisory council had their second meeting April 13, to discuss and address mental health concerns that many students are facing across Grand Rapids Community College’s campus. The council is made up of students who are passionate about mental health, and willing to share their insight on issues surrounding that topic. The group is led by Melissa Ware, director of the Counseling and Career Development center, and joined by Jessica Blandford, the Career and Counseling Development center’s support professional.
Brayden Smith, 20, of Jenison, shared why he felt motivated to join the student advisory council.
“Mental health to me was very important, especially since I started college, just because college is a huge transition compared to high school. You’ve got new challenges and responsibilities, and it can be overwhelming,” Smith explained. “For me, it was just finding ways to help other students and brainstorming from other people what works, what doesn’t, and things like that. I think we all have experiences and stories of our own that can help others.”
Olivia Hall, 19, of Grandville, described how being a part of the student advisory council has already benefited her, only on her second meeting.
“It’s been good,” Hall said. “So far with only one having just one meeting, I can already tell that it’s going to be something that’s really rewarding. And being involved in it has created a sense of community for me as far as commuting to GRCC.”
Mental health is a rapidly growing issue, especially for college students. In a study conducted of 350,000 students from over 300 campuses done by the Healthy Minds Network from 2013-2021, and reported on by Boston University, it was found that mental health has been on a consistent decline among college students for all eight years. It was also found that overall there was a 135 percent increase in depression, and 110 percent increase in anxiety from 2013 to 2021.
Arya Dawdy, 20, of Belding, stated why she feels mental health can be so challenging yet so common for many college students to deal with.
“Mental health in this time is very, very difficult because especially at this age, there’s so much unknown that’s happening. You don’t know what you’re going to do necessarily outside of college, you don’t know if you’re going to be able to land the perfect job that you want. So there’s all those anxieties on top of worrying day to day about school,” Dawdy said. “I know a lot of people struggle with finances during this time as well, because it’s very difficult to juggle a job plus school. There’s many many different types of stressors that students face that a lot of other demographics don’t.”
Blandford shared her ambition for the student advisory council saying, “My ultimate goal would be to raise awareness on campus for both career counseling development and the awareness of mental health, and how it needs to be targeted specifically in college-age, because that’s the future. You start from the younger age group, and then it moves up into society from there, because college-age students generally are a force for change.”
Tara Huskey, 19, of Wayland, described how she would like to see GRCC improve the ways that they handle mental health.
“Professors need to be more lenient with students when they have something come up, because a lot of students are stressed and dropping out because professors aren’t empathetic with them and understanding of the situation they’re in,” Husky said. “They’re very strict, and I feel like a lot of students are struggling with their classes because they have things come up, and their professors don’t really care to do anything or help them.“
The student advisory council is still accepting new members at any time, so if you’d like to join the discussion around how mental health is affecting our campus, you can email Melissa Ware at melissaware@grcc.edu to get plugged in.
