During her first year at Colorado State University, Megan Roepke showed up to a meeting for CSU’s chapter of Active Minds to write positive affirmations on The Plaza. She left hooked on the pursuit of mental health education and conversation. 

“It seems so small,” Roepke said. “But in that moment, seeing all these people come together and spread positive messages to try and brighten somebody’s day — it really touched me.”

Now, as the president of Active Minds at CSU, Roepke said she is dedicated to challenging the stigma around mental health for students by hosting activities, workshops, guest speakers and more.

“It’s nice to have a community, especially because I was a transfer student, so I really didn’t know anyone when I first came here,” said Danny Werhane, acting treasurer of the group. “It really gave me, like, an opportunity to get out at CSU.”

Other members of the organization’s leadership shared Werhane’s perception of community and are themselves getting to grow from the experiences offered by Active Minds.

“Since we’re such a tight-knit group, it feels like we’re a family, even though we’re a chapter from a national organization,” Roepke said.

Using their connections and influence, Active Minds has been proactively involved around campus, occasionally through fundraisers and volunteer opportunities. For instance, their recent donation drive with the Food Bank for Larimer County collected 211 pounds of food. 

Alongside forming friendships and helping the community, opening the floor to conversation is a big part of the group’s goals. 

“I liked the collab with the Body Project,” member Kaylee Tune said. “It was around the topic of what is considered a ‘bikini body.’ That really stuck out, … just having a nice space to talk.”

The group also provides educational opportunities, like their suicide prevention training with the Question, Persuade, Refer Institute. Werhane said they thought the class was both useful and digestible for everyone. 

“It’s just, like, a really simple way to learn about suicide prevention and how to actually implement that,” Werhane said. “People that don’t have any education in mental health were able to join as well.” 

Active Minds is no stranger to collaborating with other psychology or mental health organizations. Their latest partnership resulted in an arts and crafts night held March 26 with members of Psi Chi, CSU’s chapter of the international honor society in psychology.

President of the Psychology Student Alliance and soon-to-be President of Psi Chi Emma Thompson is a key player in these crossover events. 

“When I got involved, … I saw a lot of similarities between the clubs,” Thompson said, who is also the marketing and communications director at Active Minds. “And so I thought this would be a great opportunity to collab.”

But even people knowledgeable of psychology and mental health can expand their skills, as demonstrated by Active Minds’ Narcan training with End Overdose at CSU.

“I had heard of Narcan before, but I didn’t really know how to use it,” Thompson said. “Now I keep one in all my bags, … and I feel like if I was in that situation, I have the knowledge and the skills in order to approach that situation in the best way.”

Roepke said Active Minds is an inclusive environment for anyone interested in learning or speaking about mental health and its resources. 

“It makes me feel happy to see people come up and say, ‘Hey, coming here has been really impactful and I feel much, much better about talking about these things,’” Roepke said.

As far as the future of Active Minds, current members said they are confident with the path the chapter is on today. All the leadership team wants now is to share the resources and pursuits of the group with others.

“I’m hoping that next year we’ll attract more members who share the same passions as us and help us continue to reach more people,” Roepke said. “We’re always out on The Plaza trying to recruit new people, and anyone is welcome to come and stop by and hang out with us and learn something,” Roepke said.

Reach Maiya Kreamer at life@collegian.com or on social media @RMCollegian.