Nearing the end of the day on March 9, all students proceeded to the auditorium to listen to a speaker. Active Minds organized the assembly for the school to reduce misunderstandings around what mental health is. Having traveled all the way from Florida, the speaker was able to experience the cold and snow in Ohio’s March. He provided his own perspective and journey with mental health and how he turned it into a career to help others. 

Abraham Sculley, a speaker for Active Minds, delivered a speech at Revere High School that simultaneously entertained with jokes while educating people about mental health. 

Growing up to immigrant Jamaican parents, Sculley did not have any knowledge about what mental health was. His parents instilled a very traditional belief in individualism and stressed that the only valid emotions he should be feeling were simple like anger and happiness. 

“I came from a household where we didn’t have those conversations. Anytime I heard the words ‘mental health’ I associated that with someone that was unmotivated or weak, so that shaped my understanding of mental health in a way where I didn’t think it was safe enough to have those kinds of conversations,” Sculley said. 

During the assembly, he presented common misconceptions about mental health, like the ones he learned when he was younger. After each misconception, he presented the truth that he finally learned after experiencing depression in college. 

“I struggled with depression in college. 2015 and 2016 were really rough for me in college; I was depressed and I didn’t know that there was help. I knew in my heart that this season in my life was for a purpose. There’s something positive that had to come out of this because I had never been that low before,” Sculley said. 

Finally acknowledging that he needed to address the problem, with the help of friends, he got access to therapy and other forms of treatment. He stressed that there will not be a single solution and that he went to multiple therapists in order to find the one right for him. 

“That led me to develop this passion to talk about my struggle, to hopefully inspire someone else if they’re struggling to not do it in silence and to get help if they need to get help,” Sculley said. 

Each person’s mental health will be different and unique to their life and while depression cannot be completely “cured,” Sculley has learned to live with it in a more effective way. Eventually, Sculley discovered Active Minds at an event at his college.

“I think I might’ve seen an Active Minds table and just asked them some questions and got intrigued with what they were doing and got involved,” Sculley said. 

Soon, he became a speaker for the Active Minds national chapter, where high school counselor Emily Rion was able to get him to speak at Revere High School. 

“We saw a whole bunch of videos of different speakers and Abraham was there, and we just knew that he was the one,” Rion said. 

The part that compelled the club to choose him was the fact that he faced mental health struggles when he was a student, which his audience could possibly relate to. 

“I felt that his message was extremely appropriate for our students and he was extremely relatable. It’s coming to a point where I can get up and speak to students all day about my own experiences, but it’s nice to get someone outside our building with different experiences,” Rion said. 

Bringing in this speaker marked a big event for the Active Minds club. It served as a segue into the club’s larger projects in April and May. Rion expressed interest in bringing in more speakers in upcoming years in order to spread the word of the club and decrease the stigma of mental health overall. 

“I don’t know if [speakers] will be a yearly thing or an every other year thing, but I’m definitely going to keep pushing for it,” Rion said. 

March wraps up the club’s women’s history month activities, and April is random acts of kindness month. Rion explained that May is going to be the final wrap up of the year where Active Minds will hold a community wellness fair. Most of all, Rion is grateful that the school is ready to accept the club’s message and hopefully continue conversations surrounding mental health. 

“I just love the fact that we’ve got great students and teachers that not only have been accepting of my message, but welcoming to the message. I think I have a lot of people that are supporting this movement, so I’m very appreciative of that,” Rion said. 

The message that club founders Anna Freeman and Paige Hudnall were trying to convey is similar to that of Sculley’s speech, that mental health is simply a state of well-being. Hudnall echoed Sculley’s statements that mental health struggles are normal and should be talked about. Hudnall stated the reason why the two created the club. 

“It’s not really talked about how you can [get] help [if you are struggling] and how it’s normal to struggle with something,” Hudnall said. 

Hudnall, Rion and Freeman did research on clubs to help with that problem and eventually found one that fit their needs was Active Minds. Since then, the club has been doing monthly themes to try and grow the size of their club. Hudnall mentioned that one of the goals for their club in the future is to expand it so there is no stigma around joining the club or talking about mental health in general. 

“You go because your friends are in it and [there is] community. I hope schoolwide it grows to a point where it’s understandable how mental health needs to be talked about and addressed with everyone,” Hudnall said. 

She mentioned one of the struggles of having these conversations is people do not believe their problems are valid enough. A problem that Sculley addressed in his speech, Active Minds hopes to emphasize how all people’s struggles are valid and there should be a conversation surrounding them. Hudnall hopes that messages in Sculley’s speech will help the growth of the club after she graduates. 

“We hope that Abraham was able to bring across a message and kind of kickstart for the school, once we’re gone next year, that mental health is important and that it’s okay to talk about it,” Hudnall said. 

No matter what a person is going through, the club hopes to eliminate the stigma and fear surrounding talking about a person’s struggles. Freeman talked about the importance of these conversations with a younger audience.

“I think it’s important to establish conversations when you’re young so when you’re older and go through something life changing, like a job loss, [you have] the mindset [to deal with it in a healthy way],” Freeman said. 

The difference between dealing with the stress of school and real life are stresses that people must learn to distinguish and deal with in healthy ways. When talking with the students of Revere High School, Freeman spoke about how Sculley’s speech was effective in reaching the audience in fun ways. 

“He was relatable to the audience. He paused and let things sit with us and made us laugh. We liked how he talked about his struggle as a student in his presentation,” Freeman said.

Freeman incorporated the principles of Active Minds into her future major, as she wants to work in pediatric psychology and work in diagnosis or treatment with younger children. 

“I wanted to [pursue that major] because I think that development is hard for kids and [I want to work with] diagnosis, treatment and assessment with kids,” Freeman said. 

After visiting Revere, Sculley continues on his mental health tour and also talks on his podcast called “Unlearn the Lies.” He also owns and operates a programming and consulting agency called “Speaks2Inspire.” As Sculley believes in opportunity within the worst times, he felt it was necessary to share his experience through “Speaks2Inspire” and helps schools across the country. As for Active Minds, the club has elected new presidents to run the club as Freeman and Hudnall graduate this year.