A Healthy Campus Community is...

….Attainable and Necessary.

A Healthy Campus is transparent, accepting and welcoming; it is a setting that is inclusive and willing to support mental health, overcome stigmas, and to give mental health the attention it deserves to embody wellness.

Campuses are complex environments; ecosystems that grow, and like any growing living system, to sustain itself there must be a balance of what is offered and what is received to achieve optimal health. Attending any higher educational setting is a transitional period where all students will need to experiment to find their right place. Each person on campus deserves the right space, attention and respect to comfortably grow and achieve desired learning and living.

I was fortunate to have some instructors and professors that embodied honesty and authenticity. They lead by example and shared experiences of challenges in their lives, and struggles they had met and traversed. It was through their transparency, that others came alive, were given the opportunity to be real, to find themselves, and to not be fearful or ashamed of being themselves.

Healthy communities take shape by respecting all members and ensuring that all students, workers, staff, professors and every area of contact is aware and versed in mental health knowledge and issues. This knowledge reaches beyond the counseling department or the health clinics, to include champions able to think about the consequences that affect themselves and others, and to know what truly matters. A healthy campus community is proactive, and is one that cares.