For many, college is a stressful time. That’s why Dom Rossi ’25, president of St. Joe’s chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) is hoping to promote mental wellbeing and help students manage their anxiety.
NAMI is a nonprofit organization “dedicated to building better lives” for those affected by mental illness, according to their website. Rossi, who founded the St. Joe’s chapter, said he was inspired after volunteering at NAMI events in Philadelphia and seeing NAMI chapters on other local campuses.
“One of their programs is NAMI on Campus, which are positive mental health clubs on college campuses,” Rossi said. “There’s one at Temple, there’s one at Drexel, there’s one at UPenn, but there wasn’t a St. Joe’s one. I thought I would bring that to St. Joe’s and start their chapter.”
Rossi says the chapter is planning on hosting de-stressing events, such as painting and yoga, over the course of the semester.
Valerie McLaughlin ’25, vice president of the St. Joe’s chapter of NAMI, said one of the club’s goals on campus is to build a positive environment for discussion about mental health.
“Our goal is to improve mental health on this campus and improve the way we talk about it,” McLaughlin said
McLaughlin added that some of the club’s events will partner with the broader NAMI organization, including upcoming appearances from guest speakers.
“It’ll be really, really helpful to hear other people outside of St. Joe’s talking about [mental health],” McLaughlin said. “But [it] also opens the space for St. Joe’s students to talk about their experience with things like ADHD or anxiety or other things like that. I think those speakers are going to be a really cool opportunity.”
Darian Krug ’25, events coordinator for the St. Joe’s chapter of NAMI, said a central idea of the club is to promote a stress-free environment where members don’t have to worry about making it to every event.
“[With] some clubs, you do stress out about having to get to events or [else] you’ll be on probation,” Krug said. “I found it really important to be involved in the club. The main idea is: do not stress. You don’t have to come to the events if it’s going to stress you out. We just want to make an environment that is good for the community and help them in any way that we can.”
Krug said she hopes NAMI will help destigmatize mental health conversations, leading to more open discussions about the topic on campus.
“It’s so important to have more conversations about the importance of mental health and break down the stigma surrounding mental health,” Krug said. “I think it’s really great that we’re able to bring that on campus and have more conversations about it.”
