UMD hosts Mental Health Awareness Week to promote the importance of self-care
Students petting a therapy dog at the Terps Take Care Fair event on October 8th (Jalyn Mathis/The Black Explosion)
Inflatables, therapy dogs, Play-Doh and games lined along McKeldin Mall Friday at the Terps Take Care Fair as a part of the University of Maryland’s Mental Health Awareness Week.
The University of Maryland Counseling Center held week-long events including “Painting to Heal from Injustice” and the Terps Take Care Fair, which was the last event of the week.
The annual Terps Take Care Fair is an interactive event with activities, games and organizations that help support mental health and self-care among students.
“It makes me happy that the school is bringing awareness to mental health,” said sophomore psychology major Rasheedah Geneste. “There’s bouncy castles, free Play-Doh, dogs you can play with, it all helps with stress especially with midterms this week.”
With midterms currently underway, many students have been trying to get the hang of in-person classes after a year of being online.
“This is a big university and we have really hard majors,” Geneste said.
Events like these help students relieve stress and get to participate in fun activities that take their mind off of school. In addition to this, student organizations who focus on mental health awareness had tables at the fair including organizations such as student-run, lifestyle publication the Campus Trainer.
“The Campus Trainer really covers students’ stories on college life, tips on how to survive college, and mental health,” said senior journalism major and the Campus Trainer Editor-in-Chief Lindsay Garbacik.
Another student organization, Active Minds, also had a table promoting students to use their voice to start conversations about mental health and how important it is especially now.
“I think this is so important since we just got out of the pandemic. It was really hard for everyone to be at home and inside all the time, and it definitely impacted people’s mental health,” said sophomore neurobiological and physiology major and Active Minds member Cecilia Hu.
“The ability to have this fair at this time is really important so people can know their resources on campus,” Hu said.
Students are appreciative of the Mental Health Awareness Week and the emphasis on the importance of speaking up about mental health and supporting others to take care of themselves.
“I think it’s so important, especially now after a pandemic, that we have these safe spaces for students,” said senior journalism and government and politics major and Multicultural Involvement Community Advocacy member Sara Wiatrak.