With a passion for advocacy and a dedication to supporting their peers, three University of Georgia students came together to form North Star, a new mental health organization.<\/p>\n
Bella Spraker, a junior psychology major, founded the club alongside fellow junior Riley Waddleton and sophomore Callie Kinsinger in hopes of breaking the negative stigma surrounding mental health.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Spraker first found her passion for psychology through her Advanced Placement psychology class in high school. From this class, and starting conversations with friends about mental health, she realized how deeply she cared for the people around her and their well-being. She wanted to start a club that centers on community outreach and the safety of others.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI really, really care about mental health,\u201d Spraker said. \u201cI\u2019m always asking people around me how they\u2019re doing and researching ways that I can better the community and be a safe space for people to reach out to.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
At North Star\u2019s first meeting in August, the organization laid out its initial goals, which are to connect with UGA students who are interested in psychology and to instill the importance of advocacy and peer awareness around campus. North Star aims to be a safe haven for individuals wrestling with their mental health and a comfortable space for conversations about personal struggles.<\/p>\n
To expand North Star\u2019s impact, the executive board wants to with the Athens community and nonprofit organizations.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While the club continues to work out strategies to accomplish its goals, Spraker intends to contact organizations focused on children\u2019s health to volunteer and help with fundraising projects.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve also known a lot of people in my life who\u2019ve struggled with mental health and not felt like they could reach out to anybody about it, or that they didn\u2019t understand themselves because there was no education around it,\u201d Spraker said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In alliance with resources available at UGA, North Star works with individuals to ensure they understand what resources are available for support. For example, North Star member and senior psychology major Sreeya Kanthi expressed her admiration of the organization\u2019s peer-led mental health advocacy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kanthi detailed her experience while growing up in a culture where mental health was stigmatized. Kanthi said her ultimate desire is to break generational cycles of poor psychological health.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the biggest thing that I hope to learn is how to strengthen connections,\u201d Kanthi said. \u201cHow to build connections, start conversations and educate our peers without seeming like we\u2019re lecturing people.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
As Spraker, Waddleton and Kinsinger prepare for North Star\u2019s inaugural semester, the team hopes to create a helpful and inclusive learning environment for the benefit of all UGA students.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With a passion for advocacy and a dedication to supporting their peers, three University of Georgia students came…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":843068,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[517,356926,26821,356927,356928,9693,53372,736,97,259,260,120565,26823,5964,356929,2603,76958,9224,9237],"class_list":["post-843067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-apple","tag-athens-clarke-county","tag-behavioural-sciences","tag-bella-spraker","tag-callie-kinsinger","tag-cognition","tag-cognitive-science","tag-disability","tag-health","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth","tag-north-star","tag-psychological-concepts","tag-psychology","tag-riley-waddleton","tag-social-issues","tag-social-psychology","tag-uga","tag-university-of-georgia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=843067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843067\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/843068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=843067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=843067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=843067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}