Active Minds at University of Vermont

The summer school programme on "Arts, activism and social justice" at University of Bristol was truly life changing for me. My main motivation for applying to this program was to connect and learn from others who were passionate about making lasting change in the world. Through this program I met so many wonderful creatives and activists that inspired me so much. Despite being surrounded by people who I would easily call genius for three weeks, I never experienced feelings of imposter syndrome like I sometimes do at my university. Instead I felt supported and encouraged by everyone I met.

This experience has revitalized a lot of my passions and made me more confident in my ability to be a part of positive change in the world. I really challenged myself over the three weeks I was in Bristol to take in as much as I could. In every lecture I listened and took notes on the things that spoke to me, learned about the history of Bristol and the U.K that I knew very little of before the course, and spent as much time as I could exploring Bristol and connecting with people.

I believe that how much I grew during this course is reflected in my changemaking project. My goal is to help improve mental health support for students at my university which is a goal that I would have previously believed to be too big for me to take on. I have also set up meetings with Deans at my university to discuss my ideas which I would not have had the confidence to do prior to this course.

*** Photo credit: Member of an Active Minds student chapter, 3 November 2021. From Wikipedia.