‘IfYoureReadingThis’ creates a student-led space on campus for mental health

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Looking around the club fair at the beginning of her freshman year at Syracuse University, Kendall Palazzi didn’t see many student organizations related to mental health resources. Seeing the gap, she started to consider forming her own club on campus.

“Talking about mental health is so important,” Palazzi said. “I get inspired when I see growth in that area, so I wanted to be a part of it.”

At the beginning of the fall 2023 semester, Palazzi, a sophomore in the Newhouse School of Public Communications and the Whitman School of Management, created the local chapter of IfYoureReadingThis, an organization originally founded by Alexandra Lawlor.

On the organization’s website, college and university students across the country can submit letters detailing their own struggles with mental health. Their messages are then shared with other campus community members to connect those who are struggling to help them feel seen.

IfYou’reReadingThis allows students to discuss anything they’ve dealt with or are currently dealing with mentally, ranging from depression, grief, eating disorders and body image, and experiences with being a member of the LGBTQ+ community.

SU sophomore Shaina Shifman wrote a letter in which she reflected on her experience discovering and understanding her sexuality, as well as the process of her “coming out.” Shifman’s pursuit to heal from her experiences and desire to be part of a mental health awareness organization is what prompted her to write the letter.

“I just hope that it would resonate with people, for those who are struggling with the same thing I did, that it would make them feel like it’s a little less challenging, and there’s a lot more people going through it that you had no idea would be,” Shifman said.

Palazzi said growing up in Mountain Lakes, New Jersey, that not many people felt comfortable talking about mental health. In school, she felt constantly nervous but kept quiet as she didn’t know what the feeling was. It was later diagnosed as anxiety, and it manifested as nausea and a tight feeling in her stomach.

During her sophomore year of high school, when her teacher called on her while she sat in a Spanish class full of students, her nerves increased even more.

“If I got called on, I wouldn’t be able to come up with what I was saying, and then when I’d see a word, I couldn’t say it out loud,” Palazzi said. “Anxiety is something I always deal with every day, and I feel like it’s made me resonate with people that are going through something.”

While her own experience with anxiety influenced her to start SU’s IfYoureReadingThis chapter, she was also inspired by a close friend, Julia Stanisci. Stanisci started the chapter at Villanova University, and is now the national director of brand and marketing for the organization.

Jane Desmond, Palazzi’s roommate at SU and the organization’s outreach chair, had total faith in Palazzi throughout the process of starting SU’s IfYoureReadingThis page.

“She took something she loves and that means so much to her, and seemingly by herself brought it here and is making it this huge thing,” Desmond said.

She has had some help, however. SU sophomore Ella Mathas, the vice president and editor of the SU chapter, has become even closer friends with Palazzi while working on the website.

“Because of her ability to work hard and be kind and compassionate to everyone she meets, she’s a really great person to be leading IfYoureReadingThis,” Mathas said.

As the president of SU’s IfYoureReadingThis chapter, Palazzi and her mentor in the organization, John Norcross, meet every other week over Zoom to keep things on task and make decisions for the SU chapter. Norcross is on the Board of Directors nationally for IfYoureReadingThis.

In the future, Palazzi and SU’s IfYoureReadingThis team are hoping to incorporate more activities for those on campus to participate in, such as stress relievers or peer mentorship opportunities.

“A lot of people have reached out to me and been like, ‘I was in a bad head space today and decided to go on the IfYoureReadingThis Syracuse page and was able to do some self-care and pull myself out of it a little,’” Palazzi said. “Little things that make me think, ‘Wow, that’s pretty cool.’”