Diverse audience seeks open minds

At an institution like Penn, students often find college to be a stressful, albeit fun, experience.

To that end, "Mental Health on Campus" was the topic this weekend when Open Minds at Penn hosted its first conference in conjunction with its second annual Taking Steps Towards Open Minds Run/Walk.

The conference, which stretched across several days, featured a variety of guest speakers and discussion groups and was held mainly in Steinberg-Dietrich Hall.

Conference-goers -- who came to attend the events aimed at raising awareness of mental health issues within the Penn community -- hailed from a diverse group of colleges along the East Coast.

Guest speakers on Saturday included CEO of the Mental Health Association of Southeastern Pennsylvania Joseph Rogers and Psychology Professor David Sarwer, who spoke about body image.

On Saturday afternoon, a student discussion about what can be accomplished by campus organizations drew a group of about 20 students -- many of them from outside of the state -- who shared personal experiences of trying to start outreach programs on their respective campuses.

Students from the Penn Open Minds organization talked informally about their own struggles to start a group without any knowledge of what to do, but frequently acknowledged that both the administration and Counseling and Psychological Services have been extremely helpful.

Ross Szabo, director of youth outreach for the National Mental Health Awareness Campaign, also sat in on the discussion and shared his knowledge with the group.

"Mental health is like the six degrees of Kevin Bacon," he said, as students talked about different ways to link their work to that of other groups on their campuses. "You can tie it into anything."

Events on Saturday concluded with a film about Lizzie Simon, the author of Detour: My Bipolar Road Trip in 4-D.

And despite poor weather, Sunday afternoon's run was a success, with 118 people finishing the event.

The start of the race was delayed roughly 15 minutes when more runners than expected showed up shortly before the starting horn.

The two-mile route stretched up Locust Walk to 40th Street, then down to 34th Street and finally meandered to 36th Street before finishing back where it had started at the Button.

Prizes were awarded in four categories for men and women over and under 25 years of age. The overall winner was College sophomore Scott Sebens, who won for males under 25 with a time of 9:40.

The big surprise came when 12-year-old Alex Brasington was the first female to finish.

The Alpha Phi sorority also won an award for having the most participants of any group.

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