Getting Involved

Active Minds Student Club - This is a union-affiliated student club with the focus around mental health.  Active Minds just restarted the this semester (the club went inactive during the pandemic), and they were the primary force behind organizing the school's MHW program.  You can join their Discord/other Social Media using this link: https://linktr.ee/activemindsatrpi. 

Morgan's Message - This is a non-union-affiliated student club for student athletes that promotes suicide/mental health awareness.  Active Minds partnered with Morgan's Message to plan the mental health night hockey game and student free skate as part of the MHW program.  If you are a student athlete interested in becoming a part of Morgan's Message, you can reach out to Taylor Locke to get in contact with the club: pylera@rpi.edu.

NAMI Peer-to-Peer Support Group - This is an entirely student-led peer-to-peer mental health support group.  All groups are completely confidential, and no prior registration is required.  The groups are led by RPI student facilitators trained through NAMI (the National Alliance on Mental Illness).  You can visit their linktree for more information: https://linktr.ee/namigrouprpi.

Student Health Advisory Council (SHAC) - Members of Rensselaer’s Student Health Advisory Council, or SHAC, help foster a strong relationship with the general student body and assist in improving Student Health Services’ offerings for all groups on campus.  SHAC members assist professional staff with initiatives by liaising between staff and students around health and wellness topics and resources on campus.  SHAC Members are also invited to critically assess health topics on our campus and implement projects, events, or other wellness initiatives as student leaders in collaboration with other members and groups on campus.  This volunteer position is highly regarded, competitive, and critically important to fostering a culture of well-being at RPI.  Applications usually become available during the Fall semester of each academic year, and are open to all students, undergraduate and graduate.  For more information you can visit their website here: https://studenthealth.rpi.edu/about/student-health-advisory-council.

Mainstreaming Mental Well-Being (MMWB) Task Force - The MMWB Task Force is part of a 2-year, $50,000 grant program that RPI has received from the Jed Foundation to implement major policy changes at every level of the administration in order to ensure the overall success and well-being of all RPI students.  You can think of this like SHAC but on a much larger scale, where the focus groups consist of students, faculty, and staff from every department of the school, and the issues extend far beyond those directly related to the health center.  The MMWB Task Force is recruiting students for some of its focus groups, and if you are interested you can fill out this link here: bit.ly/rpifocusgroups.

Mental Health Week (MHW) Council - With the overall success of the school's Mental Health Week program and plans to make this a major, annual event, the school will be establishing a council with representatives from Student Gov, Active Minds, SHAC, NAMI, etc. to help coordinate the efforts of this program.  This council is still very much an early work in progress (with the name likely to change, and Student Gov still needing to amend the by-laws in the constitution to officially create it), however, if you would be interested in helping plan next year's MHW program you can contact Taylor Locke (pylera@rpi.edu) and they will reach back out to you once the council has become solidified.