About a month ago, the Boston College Confessions page gained a huge following. The page has posted over 6,000 confessions and has 3,738 likes and counting. While the page has its fair share of silly confessions, as well as tons of sweet comments about how great or beautiful or kind or hard working members of the BC community are, there have also been many down right depressing confessions. I was personally shocked to see how many students at Boston College felt alone or depressed or wishing they could transfer. Apparently I wasn’t the only one. In response to the sad confessions, one BC student started HelpBCEagles in order to give fellow students a safe, anonymous space to talk to a fellow student about any problems they have. Her Campus sat down with three of the five members of HelpBCEagles (who will all remain anonymous) to learn more about this great new organization.
The founder of HelpBCEagles started the organization when he noticed that, while a few people commented on the sad posts saying “message me if you want to talk” many people were letting those posts go. The founder wanted to reach out and help people, whether they were experiencing housing issues, relationship problems, or broken families or friend groups. The founder began posting the email address on confessions in the hopes that people who wanted to talk would reach out.
The club quickly gained four other board members. One of the members loved the idea of having “some kind of forum that is not just a place to confess, but a place to get feedback.” It was a way, the member said, of achieving solidarity with other people. The same member said that they were reading one email sent in to HelpBCEagles, and it was as if they were reading their own thoughts a year ago, and they wanted to use their knowledge to help someone.
The founder said that the mindset behind HelpBCEagles was school based. BC’s mission statement is “Men and Women for Others” and the founder wanted to put that idea into action.
“So many BC students take the time to help others outside of the BC bubble. But I feel like there was no enough of that actually on campus. Everyone has their own stuff, their own problems, and it’s easy to get isolated and think ‘I don’t have anyone to talk to,’” the founder said.
I asked the group what they did about BC health services. They responded that they want to be an intermediate step. “If we can help five kids feel like they are not alone,” said one of the members, “then we are doing our job.” The group knows that sometimes people just need a conversation. The just need to know that their day is going to be ok.
But the group recognizes that they are not professionals, and sometimes, authorities need to be contacted. “For those who are more serious, we have suggested counseling.’ The founder stated. The members said that if anyone threatened to hurt or kill himself or herself, they would go to BCPD.
The club has gotten about a dozen emails from students seeking help, but the majority of the emails have come from other students who want to help. Which, on the one hand, speaks to the strength of the BC community. But on the other hand, the club would like to see more emails from people who need a person to talk to, and, judging from the Confessions page, that is, unfortunately, more than a dozen people. Also, as much as the founder appreciates the flood of emails asking to get involved, they would like to cap the board members at five people.
Students who want to can either send the club an email with their regular email address. Or, if they wish to remain truly anonymous, they can create a fake email account. The board members never use their names, unless a person used their own name in an email. Two or more of the board members can respond to the same email.
The school year is coming to an end, so right now, the club is focusing on how to expand for next year. They want to be able to reach out to the freshman next year, because transitioning to campus is really hard. They also hope to reach out to the OLs. But otherwise, marketing for the club has been difficult. They want to be independent from BC so they can do whatever they want as they see fit. Because of this, advertising is difficult, because BC needs to approve all flyers.
HelpBCEagles wants everyone to know that they “just really want to help [their] fellow students. [They] are by no means perfect students, but that makes [them] more empathetic, and [they] really just want to help.”
If you’re having a tough day, send HelpBCEagles an email at helpbceagles@gmail.com. You might get the response you’ve been looking for.