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Students Encouraged to Nurture Their Mental Health

2/7/2017

In an effort to emphasize the importance of wellness in the lives of Collegiate School students, 10th, 11th and 12th Graders listened today to the story of Drew Bergman, a senior at Temple University and speaker for Minding Your Mind.

“Every one of us has mental health,” Drew said. “When we don’t take care of it, that’s when we have issues.”

Minding Your Mind provides mental health education with the goal of reducing the stigma and destructive behaviors often associated with mental health issues. For the past month, Collegiate’s 10th Graders have focused on mental health in their advisories, with conversations facilitated by representatives from the Minding Your Mind.

“It's extremely important for our students to learn more about mental health-related issues in effort to de-stigmatize those who are currently battling with depression, anxiety or another mental health illness,” said Beth Kondorossy, Collegiate’s Director of Student Life.

Now a successful full-time student majoring in business marketing, Drew explained to the students how that was not always the case. His early teenage years were filled with tremendous sadness resulting from a severe case of depression. Drew told students that he turned to trusted adults who helped him develop positive coping mechanisms that led to his recovery. By the time he was a junior in high school, he had made a complete transformation.

Exposing Upper Schoolers to realities like Drew’s is an important part of helping them stay healthy, Mrs Kondorossy said.

“Our students will be faced with mental health issues at some point in their lives, whether personally or through a friend, family member or community member,” she said. “It is vital that they are equipped with tools to understand the bigger picture and learn how to help themselves or others cope.”

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