By Shaquille Blackstock, Staff Writer

Published in print Apr. 8, 2015

College is often glamorized in mainstream media as being the optimal period in the life of any adult. However, according to a 2012 survey done by the American College Health Association, 65 percent of college students have felt overwhelming anxiety.

Going further, the survey also found that 52 percent have felt so depressed that it was difficult to function, and 58 percent have felt overwhelming anger. These findings exposed the variety of emotions that dwell within the psyche of many college students that need to be addressed and properly expressed.

The Carolinian reached out to the UNCG Student Health Services to learn more about mental illnesses, mental health awareness and local efforts to combat the stigma that often meets those who suffer. Wellness Center Outreach Coordinator Jamie Stephens conceived the notion of the new Blue Shoes Project and was able to offer her candid and frank opinion on the matter of mental health.

“It’s so important to have this campus-wide discussion about mental health, because stress is such a complicated thing. Often, we normalize stress, and think that either everyone is dealing with it better than we are, or that no one is having these issues of stress, and that simply is not the case,” Stephens remarked.

“Everyone has something that they are going through, or have gone through, and often it just looks differently for each of us,” Stephens said. 

That’s where the concept of blue shoes comes in. The project is based on the thought that “you can tell a lot about a person by what shoes they wear.” Stephens added that the shoes are a visual representation of how there are days where students may hide what they are going through from their friends and loved ones, and compares this to how you often cannot see the soles of others’ shoes.

The project’s genesis was an activity done in Grogan College where students decorated donated shoes from ‘Cram & Scram’ with everything from inspirational quotes from Dr. Seuss, personal experiences and wisdom, and other vibrant things.

Among the peculiar products of the project was one particular beaded blue shoe, made by Stephens’ friend, Mary Seymour, another graduate of UNCG.

“Blue is beautiful,” she shared, as she pointed out pictures of famous women who struggled with mental illnesses, like Marilyn Monroe, Frida Kahlo and Emily Dickinson. “It signifies that each of us is an individual who has gone through our own unique experiences, and those aspects of our past inform the people that we become. Our experiences should provide resilience for us, and show us how much we have grown.”

The Blue Shoes Project is a part of the September Mental Health month that occurs at UNCG because of the fact that the first six weeks is critical for student retention. Nationally, Mental Health month is recognized in May, but since most students are gone during the summer, the Wellness Center hopes to facilitate Mental Health awareness earlier.

Stephens wants the project to represent an “unspoken connection that we all share, a feeling that everyone has something, that we’ve all been there, and that we’re all in this together.”

She hopes to expand the project into a theme, an outreach and a movement. Stephens emphasized the need for student involvement, and a desire for feedback.

“I want it to be something contemporary and multifaceted. The Wellness Center does a lot of things to get messages across, like the 1100 pinwheels on the EUC lawn, which is like a passive outreach. It represents the college students who annually commit suicide, and people rave about it,” Stephens explained.

“I have considered turning the project into something performed and visual, like ‘The Vagina Monologues’ but about personal experiences of mental health, or even an art show that decorates shoes,” Stephens concluded.