A Special Thank You — Mental Health Edition

Thank you to all of our writers who worked on the Mental Health Edition for making the production of this massive project possible in the first place: Kelly Cruz, Hannah Johnson, Dhruv Patel, Katelyn Ingles, Kaylee Zhou, Nandana Varma, and Lily Powell. Your unrelenting passion for covering crucial mental health topics and infinite patience is truly inspiring.

Thank you to our graphic designers for beautifully designing and illustrating this edition: Alexander Zhang, Andrew Zhang, Hannah Johnson, Sridevi Krothapalli, Gloria Wang, and Elaina Xiao. Your artistry elevates the message of awareness and creates visually-striking images that words simply cannot cover.

Thank you to Ms. Tracy Townsend, our faculty advisor, for allowing us to exercise our creative freedom and providing constant, unconditional support for this far-too-ambitious endeavor. Your guidance gave us a clear direction and your behind-the-scenes work with outreach efforts and article editing has been essential to the edition’s success.

Thank you to Dr. Kevin Kusy, Takeisha Rheams, Alex Pratt, Suzi Leigh, and Saudamini Agarwal for your tireless work and advocacy for students’ mental health as the counseling department here at IMSA. Your support for the edition and willingness to offer your expertise and resources set us up for success from the very beginning.

Thank you to Dr. Amber Stitziel Pareja and the rest of the Office of Institutional Research for your cooperation with providing meaningful data to aid the reporting of mental health issues at IMSA. Your data gives us invaluable, quantitative insight into IMSA relationship with mental health and general well-being. 

Thank you to Dr. Evan Glazer for supporting our endeavors and meeting with us on a regular basis. Your confidence in our efforts gives us the support we need from the President’s Office to carry out this project.

Thank you to every person who agreed to participate in interviews or help aid the creation of the MHE: Niyati Kapadia, Jasmine Liu, Katelyn Ingles, Zoie Sloneker, Brogan Long, Natalie Hulseberg, Liz Soyemi, Karen Olvera, Lethzy Gutierrez, Raven McKelvin, Jadesola Suleiman, Em Couling, Ms. Sarah O’Leary Driscoll, Dr. Marta Kaluza, Dr. Mary Zuidema, Mr. Evan Brummet, Dr. Leah Kind, and others who wish to remain anonymous. Your contributions to the edition illuminate a different perspective on different mental health-related experiences and add an essential human element to all the stories we cover.

And of course, thank you.

In the end, this edition is for and about you. Thank you for taking the time out of your day to read this edition and learn more about the topics we cover. No matter what background or circumstances you come from, hopefully you will find something in this edition that resonates with you.