Correction: Juliana Walker’s position was listed as co-president instead of president in a previous version of this article. Edit made Nov. 14 at 7:35 pm.
The growing mental health struggles during the coronavirus pandemic led to the founding of a new club focused on mental health conversations and visibility at U-High.
Active Minds is a national nonprofit organization with chapters throughout the United States focused on changing the focus of mental health discussions through advocacy and education.
The U-High chapter was started by Juliana Walker, a junior who heard about the organization from a peer mental health training session at U-High. Feeling inspired by the session, she reached out to a leader about bringing Active Minds to the high school.
“It’s to let students in the community know that they don’t have to face anything alone and definitely don’t have to suffer in silence,” Juliana said.
Active Minds has chapters at hundreds of universities across the country, including the University of Chicago.
Juliana hopes to collaborate with the UChicago chapter by bringing members to explain the impact of mental health on their lives as college students.
Although there are hundreds of Active Minds chapters in universities, less than a third of them are in high schools.
Mental health is a subject that needs to be discussed with high school students, Juliana responded.
In club meetings, Juliana wants to do activities that are “whatever the members of the club feel is necessary for them that day,” such as watching a movie or origami.
The club meets Tuesdays during lunch in room C-212B.
