Paige Devilbiss explains the ways in which she has dedicated her time to fighting the stigma that is associated with mental illness. Passionate about this cause, she spoke with exuberance and determination.
Name: Paige Devilbiss
Age: 21
Year: Senior
Major: Psychology
Hometown: Ocala
Relationship Status: Single
Photo By: Nicholas Kielbasa
Her Campus (HC): NAMI isn’t exactly a well-known organization, would you mind explaining what it is?
Paige Devilbiss (PD): First of all, I should say that the acronym stands for National Alliance on Mental Illness. Three major things we strive for are advocacy, education, and peer support. A lot of people don’t know about mental illness, so when we advocate and educate people about it, we help end the stigmatization against it.
HC: Why did you decide to join NAMI in the first place?
PD: Funny story. My current secretary, Victoria, and I were good friends and in a class together. She was the one who brought it up to me. We don’t really have a psychology club here at FSU, except for Psi Chi, but that’s a psychology honors association. So when she told me about a mental health organization on campus, I figured that NAMI was the closest I could get to a psychology club. So we went to our first meeting together and both agreed that we wanted to run for officer positions. At the time, I had said, “You could be president, and I’ll be your vice president!” It’s ironic how things turned out.
Courtesy: Paige Devilbiss
HC: What would you say NAMI’s biggest contribution to the community has been?
PD: Probably the exposure to the idea that mental illness shouldn’t be stigmatized. I feel like with a lot of people our age, and people in general, mental illness has a kind of negative connotation behind it. It’s not really something that’s talked about, whether it be because of personal preference or just being a general taboo. Therefore, I think just the exposure to the concept of mental illness and strides toward normalizing it are helpful by themselves because it’s not as strange as people believe it to be. Also, just helping people cope with their own mental illnesses and teaching people the necessary skills to approach someone who suffers from a mental illness, whether that be a family member, friend, etc., helps to make it less of a discomfort.
HC: Are there any other organizations you joined that added to your college experience?
PD: I joined Lady Spirit Hunters and it’s definitely an enriching experience. It’s shown me to a really different side of FSU since it deals more with athletics and school spirity-type stuff. It’s interesting because you’re dealing with the academic part of FSU. It’s fun since I feel like I focus more on academia typically. I’ve also done Relay For Life every year since high school, and I really enjoy that. I’m also a research assistant in two labs, which gives me a lot of experience to help in the future career-wise.
HC: Ideally, where do you see yourself in the next upcoming years?
PD: I’m applying to grad school right now. I’m getting my master’s first. I’ve applied to a few different programs including mental health counseling, clinical, experimental, and possibly healthy psychology. After my master’s, I plan to get my Ph.D. in clinical psychology, so I’ll be in school for a while.
HC: Who or what inspired you to pursue psychology?
PD: Originally, I was a biology major and wanted to be a neonatologist, which is basically a doctor for newborns. I took a psychology class my freshman year of college. My professor told us that she started out as a biology major and was pre-med, like myself, but she ended up changing her major to psychology. She was the one who inspired me. It just fit so well! I was struggling a lot in my classes for my major, and when I started taking psychology classes it all clicked and just felt right. The first day of class she started talking about mirror neurons and that really struck my interest. I knew I wanted to be a psychology major then. I changed my major the next day.
Check out FSU’s NAMI organization if mental health awareness is something that you are passionate about too!
Courtesy: Paige Devilbliss