FALL 2020

After a rocky end to the 2019-2020 year, we took the summer to reevaluate our plans and came back stronger than ever! We shifted from in-person events to virtual events, and in doing so, we leaned into making the most of our social media, most notably our Instagram. We redesigned our color scheme, choosing pastel colors of lavender, green, and blue, to mark a new beginning, and even created a puzzleboard background for the Instagram.

We started the year with Candle in The Dark submissions, where we asked members to submit any type of art that got them through tough times, before hosting our first general body meeting (GBM) on 9/11/20. We introduced our new officer lineup and structure as well as our chapter's mission.

We partnered with UNICEFatUTD to help raise money for their "Heroic Hearts Food Distribution" program. All proceeds went to Yemen, and through a raffle we were able to raise $200, which translates to helping roughly 827 families with food.

Our second GBM was on 9/25, where we discussed suicide prevention, especially as it relates to college campuses. We featured guest speaker Abida Minhas, who supervises Richland Oaks Counseling Center, is a Trauma and Grief Therapist, Speaker, and a Co-Founder of Muslim Association for Psychological Services (MAPS).

In addition, our lovely Social Media Coordinator Soha designed a new t-shirt for all of us at Active Minds. Check out the design below! Since we started asking members to pay dues of $3, the shirts cost $12 for dues-paying members and $15 for everyone else.

On Instagram, we began an Insta Live series, where one of our officers would go Live with someone from various departments and places for resources, such as the UTD Student Counseling Center and the UTD Center for Students in Recovery. Getting a chance to sit down with these centers gave us a chance to find out more about what kinds of mental health support are offered on campus at UTD.

Around this time, we also held a raffle as part of a fundraiser to raise money for Active Minds National. We raffled off a care package full of Halloween treats and managed to donate $1000 to AM National, which is awesome!

Our third GBM took place on 10/9, where we discussed virtual fatigue. Shoutout to the Events Team for these beautiful Powerpoint spreads!

We held our fourth GBM on 10/23 before hosting an Among Us Halloween Social on 10/30, organized by Amruta. It was a blast trying to figure out who the imposter was with everyone. Our fifth and final GBM for the semester was on 11/13. We discussed mental health in older generations, issues specific to this demographic, how we might address it, and how we've experienced this in our own lives.

To wrap up the semester, we invited our members to send us images of their study spaces as we all prepared for finals. It was a great way to stay connected while we all continued our virtual classes. Not surprisingly, we received plenty of pet photos. Take a look below!

SPRING 2021

Coming soon!