What is The Support Network?

The Support Network's mission is to help with student mental health and well-being via peer support initiatives. At Michigan State, the peer support initiative comes in the form of peer groups. We help put together small groups of leaders and peers where people are free to talk with each other. It is meant to be a space for support, but it's for whatever a student may need. If that's just talking about some other students about their classes, then that's what it can be. We also do fun activities for groups like going for boba and painting pumpkins during the fall season. We also have Kickback Friday events where we do fun activities, and there are also leader meetings for the leaders where they get presentations on mental health and get to hear from amazing speakers.

The reason that I joined SSN was because my freshman year was all online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and I really wanted to meet some friends. I missed out on the dorm experience, and it was my way of trying to get that back the best way I could. I did SSN first as a member over zoom and I really enjoyed just talking about my day with my peers. It's such a positive and warm environment. I still remember the people who were in my first group just because we got to know each other so well. I continued to be a member, then became a leader, and am now the Director of Operations and help out with room bookings and the website.

Lately we've been having trouble getting members to join. It's a lot harder to get students on campus in the know about mental health organizations. SSN is designed to help students on campus who feel isolated and to give them a free place to meet new people. It's a place where they can find others who are also looking for something similar.

I know that it personally made my transition from zoom university to MSU a lot smoother. It was still hard, since opportunities were still limited my sophomore year. But I managed to meet some people, and SSN always gave me that place. It was dependable; it was always there for me if I needed someone to talk to.

That's why me and my fellow directors have been working so hard to get it back up and running. I know how much it did for me, and the way I see it, even if it's just one person we help, it's more than worth it! We had our first group start a week or so ago and it's been going well. To be honest, it's still not a lot of people. but it's enough to get things going.

I'll admit it feels weird. I went from 5 groups my first three years of college to only having one group. It's a lot different than what I'm used to, and it's not the same. But it's still SSN and we're still trying to get the word out to help as many students find support who need it.

You don't have to be at MSU to feel the good feelings of being in SSN. They have chapters in universities all over, so it's likely there's one near you if you are at all interested. Here's the website: https://www.thesupportnetwork.org/

I promise it's not that your university doesn't have mental health clubs or resources. It's just that you have to find them. Please seek them out. Start a mental health coalition! As a psychology major, I find that a lot of the psychology clubs prioritize research and we don't ever really have any resources to simply check-in with each other on how we're feeling, on the stress of what we're doing. I think it's important that we do more of this on college campuses.

SSN is having a weird year this year, but it's still going to be a great one!