By: Katelyn Chang, Staff Writer
A student-led group named the Mental Health Advancement Initiative, or more well known as MHAI, is an advisory committee, and one of many groups that has had to transition to going virtual during the pandemic. These include moving their traditional in-person meetings and projects, along with mentorship experience fully online. MHAI focuses on community wellbeing and mental health, addressed through social activism, fostering positive experiences, and giving students a platform to use their voice. As stated by Marketing team lead, Leanna Yu (12), “MHAI is a student organization that collaborates with the Chinese Health Initiative of San Mateo and other professionals to learn more about mental health and psychology.”
Led by Mills students, Leanna Yu (12), Anjuli Niyogi (12), and Daphne Situ (12), the group consists of 15 students that are split into three different teams: Marketing, Communications, and Logistics. These teams have individual monthly group meetings, as well an additional monthly meeting with all members. During cohort meetings, guest speakers are invited to discuss a relevant topic related to mental health or psychology for students to deepen their understanding of the fields. Previous topics that have been discussed include psychology research, psychological disorders, and culture’s relationships to psychology.
All groups also have mentors who are pursuing their doctorates in psychology. Small group meetings led by the individual mentors, focus on student wellbeing as well as check-ins on ongoing projects. Apart from that, individual meetings are also held between students’ prospective mentors and themselves to discuss their mental health and wellbeing. These meetings are also held monthly and give students the ability to be able to talk to a professional about personal issues occurring in their lives.
MHAI has also embarked on many mental health activism projects that have had a strong impact on the Mills community. Previous projects include freshman mental health presentations, helping out with leadership’s mental health assemblies, and a teacher mental health presentation. Future aspirations for the group include a conference between Mills students, parents, alumni, as well as those from the Millbrae community to learn more about intergenerational communication.
On the individual level, MHAI members are now working on a research project that is new to the curriculum. Students are to choose a topic of their choice in the field of psychology that interests them. The only basic requirements are: using 3 peer reviewed research articles as sources, having a personal significance statement, and presenting it in a format of their choice. For the presentation, MHAI emphasizes creativity with many different mediums as an option. These include a Powerpoint presentation/TED Talk, Research Paper, a program, or artwork of any kind (Song, Play, Pamphlet, Brochure, Movie, Visuals, Story, etc). Jessica Sy (10), currently working on her research project for the topic, ‘parental pressure’, describes her experience with the process as “I’m really happy that I get to learn more about the topics that I’m interested in while receiving help from my mentor with this project. It’s a real taste of what it’s like to research different topics in the psychology field.”
For those who are interested in potentially joining MHAI, Niyogi describes the perfect fit as, “Anyone committed to mental health and psychology who holds any sort of interest and wants to learn more, as well as someone wanting to help others, spread awareness, or be involved in school.” The recruitment process for MHAI is scheduled to begin and open sometime in the spring.
