TL;DR: week three at a glance, PDAR, caring for the stressed out body and mind, work-life balance panel, supporting a friend when concerned about substance use, art workshop, navigating relationships, graduate mental health survey, imposter syndrome survey, manic monologues
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I. Week 3 Events
[gview height=1150px file=”https://mentalhealth.princeton.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/698/2020/11/week3.pdf”]II. Princeton Distress Awareness & Response (PDAR) Training | TOMORROW, Monday, November 16th at noon EST
Become a PDAR partner! Princeton Distress Awareness and Response (PDAR) is an interactive session designed to educate participants on the signs and symptoms to watch out for in students and others who may be in distress and to arm participants with the tools needed to effectively respond. Join via Zoom on Monday, 11/6 at 12pm EST here: https://princeton.zoom.us/j/99353631784
III. Caring for the Stressed-Out Body, Mind and Community | Tuesday, November 17th at 10am EST
Feeling a lot of stress these days? You’re not alone. Join other graduate students and CPS counselors Drs. David Campbell and Joe Cooper on Tuesday, 11/17 at 10am for a discussion about the effects of stress on our minds, bodies and connections to others, and ways to offer care to ourselves and others. We will offer strategies, including mindfulness and meditation practices, to discharge some of the noxious effects of stress, while talking about how to address the sources of stress from a place of feeling centered and supported. Register here.
IV. Work-Life Balance in Graduate School | Tuesday, November 17th at 6:30pm EST
Join us on Tuesday, 11/17 at 6:30pm for panel discussion on fostering work-life balance in graduate school, especially in the midst of a global pandemic. Register here.
Panelists:
- Sarah Marie Bruno, graduate student in Physics
- Brooke Hull, graduate student in Molecular Biology
- Hilary Herbold, Ph.D., LCSW
- Prof. Ned Wingreen, Physics
- Prof. Mona Singh, Computer Science
V. Supporting a friend when you’re concerned about their substance use| Wednesday, November 18th at 2pm EST
Graduate students’ mental health has been affected by the pandemic. For some, this takes the form of pandemic-induced drinking habits and/or other substance use. Concerned about how you can support a friend? Join us for this workshop on offering support to peers. This event is led by UMatter as a follow up to Monday’s PDAR training. Join us on Wednesday, 11/18 at 2pm via Zoom here: https://princeton.zoom.us/j/92745198969
VI. Art Connects to Wellbeing: Interactive Art Workshop | Thursday, November 19th at 4:30pm EST
Join us on Thursday, 11/19 at 4:30pm for an interactive art workshop on Zoom led by interdisciplinary artist, Chanika Svetvilas. This workshop invites those impacted by mental health difference whether personally or by friends and family to create art that explores the experience of stigma and methods of support. Register here.
VII. Navigating Relationships: Conflicts, Community Building and Communication in Graduate School | Friday, November 20th at 12pm EST
Please join Jess Joseph (she/they), from CPS and TigerWell, as they hold space for graduate students to discuss difficulties in community building, ahving conflict, and communicating during COVID-19. Jess will discuss strategies and skills aimed at helping students identify needs and boundaries as well as determine how/if to communicate those needs and boundaries to others. Jess will also discuss some possible ways to navigate socializing, intimacy and loneliness. Please email Jess to RSVP, and she’ll send you a Zoom link. Please also feel free to eemail if you have any questions: jj31@princeton.edu. This workshop is open to all graduate students.
VIII. Graduate Mental Health Survey
Check your email for a message about a 15 minute survey on Graduate Student Mental Health (subject: Longitudinal Research on Graduate Student Stressors). This is part of a project run by Princeton graduate students, including GSG Psychology representative, Abby Novick. The goal of the survey is to better understand graduate student mental health at Princeton, especially in response to new coronavirus stressors, in order to design better targeted mental health interventions. There will be a presentation on last year’s results on Tuesday, 11/24 at 3pm: https://princeton.zoom.us/j/3756770759
IX. Imposter Syndrome Survey
The Graduate Peer Coaching Program (McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning) has put together a survey related to imposter syndrome. GPCP is a group of graduate students interested in bringing together other graduate students to talk about issues of belonging, isolation, and imposter syndrome, among other topics. If any of this resonates with you, please fill out the survey here and add your email to participate in future events and workshops.
X. The Manic Monologues | Call for Personal Short Stories by 11/18
McCarter Theatre’s The Manic Monologues, a virtual theater project directed by Princeton University Professor Elena Araoz, and designed to ignite conversation and disrupt stigma around mental illness – is seeking confidential personal short-story submissions from Princeton undergraduate and graduate students, about your experience with mental health struggles. See the attached PDF for more information.
From the student submissions, we will select a few stories that will be incorporated into an existing set of monologues, to be performed by actors, as part of a unique virtual experience, released in February 2021. Entries are submitted through an anonymous submission form.
- Stories should feel like they are being casually spoken aloud to someone since they will be performed by professional actors as off-the-cuff personal monologues; no “polished” essays or academic papers, please. Monologues should be 1-5 min max in length (when read aloud).
- Stories can be about the struggle of facing mental illness or diagnosis, overcoming stigma, finding resilience, learning to live with mental illness, etc – there are no limitations to the type of content. We are especially interested in stories from students navigating through 2020’s complexities such as the COVID-19 pandemic, working inside activist movements such as Black Lives Matter, or concerns over immigration.
- Stories that are not chosen to be performed by actors, may still be featured in the project – in a dedicated “reading room” section of the interactive web experience, which chronicles written stories for audiences to access.
- By submitting, you give the creators artistic freedom to modify the length and style as needed, for the purposes of filming and the virtual platform.
- To find out if your story is featured, go to www.mccarter.org as of December 1st, 2020 to find updates and information on the project launch date (February 2021.)
DEADLINE for Anonymous Submissions: November 18.
Link to Submit: https://airtable.com/shrUBr5RRPEh9G0jc
Help us break down the stigma around mental illness by sharing your stories.
If you are in need of mental health treatment, please contact CPS at 609-258-3141.
MORE INFO about THE MANIC MONOLOGUES Virtual Theater Project: Project Overview
Questions about submissions, contact: earaoz@princeton.edu
