I had the opportunity to meet with Alyssa Schledwitz, the Vice President of Scholars Promoting and Revitalizing Care (SPARC), a student-led initiative promoting a sense of community and overall care here on campus. After meeting with her, I learned more about the organization as well as the group’s current project: The 30 Days Too Late campaign.
Name: Alyssa
Year: Senior
Major: Neurobiology, Human Development Minor
Previous Scholars Program: Life Sciences
Q: How did SPARC start?
A couple other students and I started the organization in December 2015. I wanted to contribute to Scholars by having students from other programs interact with each other and get together about causes that were important to them.
We started having events about these causes, that ended up being really mental health heavy, and then the focus of the group turned more into mental health activism.
Q: When did the #30 Days Too Late campaign begin?
It started early last fall, and since mental health had always been important to us, we thought we should go deeper into it at the college level.
We hosted a “Mental Health Mic Night” in November which was a huge success. We heard a lot of people’s stories about how hard it is to get treatment on campus. After hosting other events throughout the month of November, we learned about the issue with funding for mental health services at the Counseling Center and decided to try to make a change.
Q: What initiatives has SPARC taken on when it comes to this issue?
We are applying for the Do Good Grant, which will help us fund materials for the campaign and make other people aware of the resources they have.
We are also hosting a meeting this week on The Mall to start brainstorming letters to address to President Loh regarding the underfunding at the Counseling Center so that he sees the human effect of this issue.
Q: Do you have any advice for students who are currently seeking help at the Counseling Center?
I would emphasize that students shouldn’t be discouraged from seeking help despite our campaign because that is the last thing we want. The counselors do put a lot of effort into their work, and there are other options for students other than individual therapy, like group and couple’s counseling.
If anyone has anything they can contribute about mental health or wants to share their story, we love hearing about it from other students and hearing their input as well.
For more information, check out the link to SPARC’s website: https://umdsparc.com/