Do YOU have what it takes?? -- Active Minds at MIT!

[Semmie Kim]

Hello all!

My name is Semmie Kim and I'm currently serving on the UA Committee on 
Student Life (CSL) as a vice chair this term. One of our big initiatives 
is to get a new student group started on campus called
Active Minds. I wanted to take this time to introduce you to the 
organization and tell you a bit about what we're looking to do to get it 
started.

Active Minds was founded in 2001 at UPenn as "Open Minds" as a 
"student-run mental health awareness, education and advocacy 
organization" intended for college campuses. It basically promotes
mental health and wellness using peer outreach. In their exact words, 
Active Minds wants to "remove the stigma that surrounds mental illness 
and create an open environment for discussion of mental health issues" 
such as suicide, eating disorders and depression. If you want to check 
out more information on the group, their website is 
http://www.activeminds.org.

Here's where you guys come in. CSL is asking YOU to take an active role 
in starting up and promoting our new chapter of Active Minds at MIT. Our 
vision for Active Minds is to serve as an "umbrella organization" for 
all the mental health-related groups on campus that links all related 
clubs together while consciously encouraging peer-to-peer interaction in 
order to promote mental wellness. There are so many different groups at 
MIT that we're also looking for suggestions as to what other 
organizations we can ask to join us in supporting Active Minds. (On that 
note, does anyone know how to get in touch with anyone from Nightline?) 
Please forward this to anyone who you think would be an ideal candidate 
for Active Minds exec board. We're also looking for an advisor from the 
MIT faculty or staff at this time.

At this point, we need a diverse executive board, ideally with a 
representative from each mental health group. The Active Minds 
constitution currently states that the board consists of a President, 
Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, Research Liaison, Publicity Chair 
and Webmaster. More importantly, we need members from all over campus! 
CSL is playing a rather considerable part in getting this thing off the 
ground, so we've decided that during our annual spring event, Wellness 
Week (4/30 to 5/4), we’ll have the first general body meeting/kickoff 
event for Active Minds with everyone involved to attend and "officially" 
start the chapter. I'm now working with the ASA and UA Finboard to get 
recognition and funding for the group.

If all of this sounds interesting to you and you want to get involved, 
PLEASE e-mail me back (semmie at mit.edu) ASAP and request an exec board 
application, which I will send to you promptly. They’ll be due on 4/22 
and during the week of 4/23, CSL will ask you to come in for a short 
interview. We really want to have our first exec board finalized before 
Wellness Week so that the officers can lead the first kickoff meeting.

THANK YOU so much for reading through this whole thing -- I really 
appreciate your patience!

-- 
Semmie Kim
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
UA Committee on Student Life
Class of 2010
semmie at mit.edu