Student organizations are participating in the 2020 “Cupcake Button” fundraising campaign organized by The Sophie Fund to aid the Village at Ithaca, an organization that advocates for excellence and equity in Ithaca and area public schools.
Every October, The Sophie Fund along with students from Cornell University, Ithaca College, and Ithaca High School organize a fundraising campaign to support a local nonprofit focused on community well-being. Normally students fan out across Ithaca to collect donations in person, but this year’s effort is entirely online due to social-distancing needs during the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic.
The Village at Ithaca strives to fulfill its mission by developing strategic community relationships, programs, and services to support all students, particularly Black, Latino/a, low income, and other underserved students.
Village Support Services include academic mentoring, tutoring, family advocacy, emergency outreach, youth employment, and recreation programs. These services are the “village” it takes to raise a child, and are there to support historically marginalized families in accessing the opportunities they deserve.
The Village at Ithaca also serves as a hub for youth activities, from making music, creating rock paintings, and designing t-shirts to kitchen skills—where else can kids learn how to make pickles, create sauces, and dish up sushi, zoodles, and collard greens?
Previous “Cupcake Button” fundraising campaigns have raised monies for the Suicide Prevention and Crisis Service, the Mental Health Association of Tompkins County, and the Advocacy Center of Tompkins County.
Student groups participating in the 2020 Cupcake Button campaign include:
—Active Minds at Ithaca College
—Active Minds at Ithaca High School
—Cornell University student organizations: Cornell Minds Matter; Alpha Phi Omega Gamma Chapter; Phi Sigma Pi honor fraternity; PATCH (Pre-Professional Association Towards Careers in Health); and Building Ourselves through Sisterhood and Service (BOSS).
2020 Cupcake Button (detail from Evolution, a painting by Sophie Hack MacLeod)
Student organizations are fanning out across Ithaca to support this year’s “Cupcake Button Fundraising Campaign” organized by The Sophie Fund, which will hand over all donations to the Advocacy Center of Tompkins County.
Students will be tabling at GreenStar Natural Foods Market, on college campuses, and other locations around town, collecting donations in exchange for a colorful button featuring a painting of a cupcake. The campaign is held in conjunction with the annual Ithaca Cupcake Baking Contest, which will be held in the Ithaca Commons on Saturday, October 19.
“We are honored to designate the Advocacy Center as the recipient for this year’s Cupcake Button Fundraising Campaign,” said Scott MacLeod, a co-founder of The Sophie Fund. “The Advocacy Center does incredibly valuable work in our community, fighting sexual assault and domestic violence and providing essential support to victims of abuse.”
Last year’s cupcake button campaign raised $1,367.50, which was given to the Mental Health Association in Tompkins County.
Student groups participating in the 2019 campaign include:
—Active Minds at Ithaca College
—Active Minds at Ithaca High School
—Cornell University student organizations: Cornell Minds Matter; Alpha Phi Omega Gamma Chapter; Phi Sigma Pi honor fraternity; PATCH (Pre-Professional Association Towards Careers in Health); and the Mortar Board Der Hexenkreis senior honor society
Image caption: Detail from Evolution (2009), a painting by Sophie Hack MacLeod
Cornell University’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) is holding its annual fundraiser next week featuring a spikeball tournament and a bench press challenge. This year’s theme is mental health and all proceeds will be donated to The Sophie Fund.
The “Spike for Sophie” fundraiser will take place in the Richard Ramin Multipurpose Room of Bartels Hall on December 5 from 2–4:30 p.m. The spikeball tournament is open to the whole campus, a single-elimination event with a $10 per team entry fee. Pick-up spikeball will be available. Teams, which will compete for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place prizes, can sign up for the tournament at this link.
The event also includes “Bench Press for Sophie,” where Cornell student-athletes and coaches will raise money from their sponsors—family, friends, and professors—by bench pressing as many reps as they can—55 lbs. for women and 95 lbs. for men. The event will take place in the Friedman weight room.
There will be bench press t-shirts, sports massages ($1/minute up to 10 minutes), free food, and mental health information tables. Public Health Fellow and former Cornell football student-athlete Baba Adejuyigbe will staff the Cornell Health table. It will focus on educating students on the various mental health support services on Cornell’s campus in addition to counseling, with an emphasis on the new resources available to student-athletes. Representatives from The Sophie Fund will also host a table with information about the organization and to answer questions from students.
SAAC is the voice of student-athletes on the Cornell campus, and strives to promote a positive student-athlete experience through providing feedback to conference and national legislation on campus issues, organizing community service events, and acting as a communication line between student-athletes and campus administrators.
The NCAA Division 1 SAAC as a whole has put a focus on mental health awareness in athletics this year, so our SAAC here at Cornell took it upon ourselves to raise awareness and address the mental health issues on our campus. We believe mental health is a big and unaddressed issue in the student-athlete community at Cornell and we are committed to changing this culture.
Student-athletes face all the struggles of a normal student at Cornell, in addition to the time restraints of practices and workouts. Although student-athletes have superior time management skills, it is very common to feel extremely overwhelmed. Additionally, we constantly deal with the pressures of performance on a daily basis, which can take a toll on the mind.
National surveys show that more than 30 percent of student-athletes have experienced overwhelming anxiety. And 30 percent of college students reported feeling so down at some point during the previous year that it was difficult to function. A lot of student-athletes feel the pressure to be perfect all of the time, and the false perception equating mental toughness to mental health creates a negative stigma and culture where student-athletes are less likely to seek help. Student-athletes also deal with injuries, which can lead to a recovery process that is extremely taxing mentally. While being an athlete is not our sole purpose in life, it is still a huge part of our identity. Injuries can take this away from athletes, being unable to train with your team or compete in the sport you have dedicated so much of your life toward.
One in four college students has a diagnosable mental illness. Student-athletes in particular have reported 2 percent higher rates of stress than non-student-athletes. Mental health is a key component of athletic performance. As student-athletes, it is important to understand that mental toughness and mental health are separate ideals. Seeking resources is an act of strength, not a sign of weakness. With everyone’s help, we can decrease stigma around mental health and bring resources to create a culture of acceptance.
This is the message we strive to send with our #DontBearItAlone campaign. We were inspired by mental health initiatives such as #damworthit and #powe6fulminds launched at schools and Division 1 conferences around the country. Our #DontBearItAlone campaign aims to raise awareness and continue the conversation around mental health support on Cornell’s campus, with an emphasis on the unique struggles and support needed for the athletic community. This fall, we started hosting mental health awareness games through #DontBearItAlone in which athletes wear green attire such as shoelaces or ribbons in support of mental health. These games also have tables to give out mental health information, and educate students and other audience members on where to find support on campus.
SAAC’s mental health effort is in conjunction with all of the work that Cornell Minds Matter (CMM) and other campus organizations have been doing for years. They work closely with administration, faculty, staff, and students to help decrease the stigma surrounding mental health, increase awareness of this important public health problem, and improve existing frameworks surrounding support systems. SAAC focuses on raising awareness within the athletic community in particular, but we work together with other student organizations on campus to make our voice and our efforts stronger. “Spike For Sophie” is co-sponsored by CMM, the Spikeball Club, Athlete Ally (LGBTQ+ inclusion in sports), and the Red Key Athlete Honors Society.
—By Morgan Chall and Jenna Phelps
Morgan Chall ’19, a varsity gymnast, is co-president of Cornell University’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) and the NCAA Ivy League SAAC Representative. She is a student in Global and Public Health Sciences.
Jenna Phelps ’20, a volleyball middle blocker, is the SAAC public relations chair. She is a student in applied economics and management.
The Sophie Fund organizes an annual “Cupcake Button Campaign” each fall to support local mental health organizations. College students fan out across campus and the wider community soliciting donations and awarding generous souls with buttons depicting a colorful cupcake. The campaign is a run-up to the annual Ithaca Cupcake Baking Contest, held in the Commons in mid-October.
“Cupcake a Cornellian”
Students from Cornell University outdid themselves this year: they collected some 300 donations totaling $1,367.50, smashing last year’s record of $829.50 that went to the Suicide Prevention and Crisis Service.
The 2018 goal was to raise monies for the Mental Health Association in Tompkins County, a nonprofit advocacy and service organization that runs critical training and education programs as well as community social events. The Sophie Fund will present the Cupcake Button Campaign donations to the Mental Health Association at a ceremony in January.
The student groups behind this year’s fundraising included Cornell Minds Matter (CMM), Alpha Phi Omega Gamma Chapter (APO), Phi Sigma Pi honor fraternity, PATCH (Pre-Professional Association Towards Careers in Health), and the Mortar Board Der Hexenkreis Senior Honor Society.
A highlight of the campaign: “Cupcake a Cornellian,” an event held in Cornell’s Arts Quad on October 12 in which students made donations in exchange for the opportunity to mash a gooey cupcake (or just a heaping plate of whipped cream) into the face of a student leader.
APO President Winnie Ho praised the Cornell organizations and spoke about how the campaign raised awareness as well as money:
“Every penny of our fundraising total this year was due to the hard work of volunteers who engaged students and community members at Ho Plaza, the Arts Quad, and at the Collegetown GreenStar Natural Foods location. Beyond the impressive totals, the conversations that were fostered continue to be the most valuable experience of each year’s fundraising.
“Donors leave more than a monetary contribution—oftentimes, they leave us with their thoughts, experiences, and hopes for what mental health will look like in our society. Everyone from fellow students who ask how to get involved, to former and current practitioners who share both grim and hopeful stories in the workplace, have stopped and allowed for genuine interactions that are crucial in our fight to de-stigmatize conversations around mental health. While there are many battles left to have around mental health, there are so many people committed to this fight.”
One of the tactics in the fight, noted Chelsea Kiely, CMM vice president for events and co-chair of Cornell’s 2018 Mental Health Awareness Week, is getting mental health out in the open.
“The turnout for ‘Cupcake a Cornellian’ was incredible, and was so much fun all around,” she said, adding: “I especially enjoyed cupcaking Matt Jirsa, the co-president of Cornell Minds Matter.”
This Thanksgiving, The Sophie Fund thanks our community’s student mental health champions.
Winnie Ho, cupcaked
Matt Jirsa, after a colorful cupcaking
Winnie Ho and Matt Jirsa, survivors of “Cupcake a Cornellian”
When I first got involved in mental health advocacy as a freshman, Cornell University was behind in the game. Cornell is an Ivy League school with a very “work hard, play hard” mentality that creates a lot of mental health issues. There are various intersections with related issues, such as high sexual assault rates and substance abuse rates. Cornell is situated within a rural health system, not in an urban area that has a large number of top-rated physicians and psychiatrists. Over time, I saw my friends suffer from the grueling amounts of stress, diagnoses of depression and anxiety, and difficulties finding help including the stigma around seeking help.
Memorial Room, Willard Straight Hall, Cornell University
These factors led me, along with some fellow students, to establish a student task force on mental health earlier this year. The task force consists of more than 20 students from various backgrounds and campus communities, people with different motivations and different goals. Some of the task force members had been on leaves of absence related to mental health. Some had struggled with anxiety and depression themselves. Others were just very active advocates in the community, whether in service generally or in mental health issues specifically. We all had the common goal of improving mental health at Cornell and in the wider Ithaca community.
Over the course of six months we have worked diligently to research initiatives and policies, gain an understanding about the systems and issues that face Cornell specifically, and develop recommendations with the hope of making Cornell the gold standard for student mental health. We sought to reflect on ourselves critically, and explore areas where efforts were lacking. Is it the administration? Is it students? Is it staff? Is it faculty? Is it mental health services? Or is it the connection with the Ithaca community?
We focused on three key areas: mental health services, academics, and leaves of absence.
We examined what mental health services are provided to students at Cornell, specifically professional help. This involves the Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS), but it also involves a lot of other players including therapists and clinics in the Ithaca community. At Cornell, there has been an uptick not only in depression and anxiety but in help-seeking behavior. Both these things are causing CAPS to be overloaded regardless of how many qualified counselors they hire. We need to hire more counselors. We need to reduce the long wait times for therapy and psychiatry appointments. We want to make sure there is a strong system for referring students to therapists in the community. We need to ensure that students who require regular and constant help are getting it either at CAPS or in the community.
Another priority of our task force is the intersection of academics with mental health. We asked, “In what ways are academics either contributing to the mental health epidemic or supporting it?” We found that specific campus communities, or tracks, at Cornell are very stress-inducing. For example, cultures around engineering and architecture support students staying up past 2 a.m. to do work and destroy their bodies for the sake of their future careers. This is obviously not very conducive to a solid mental health foundation for any individual. We looked at measures such as the implementation of mandatory training for Resident Assistants, faculty, and staff that enables us to identify students in distress more quickly. We would like to see leeway given to struggling students, such as a check on their attendance even when they are unable to attend classes. We cannot have academics causing students to cascade into very stressful situations or even suicide.
The third priority is the university’s leave of absence policy, and whether it is conducive or not for students seeking leaves for mental health reasons. We would like to see the administration better supporting such leaves. We ask, “How can we align students with better support as they seek a leave of absence, when they are on leave, and when they are returning from a leave?”
The task force will host a community forum on Friday, October 19 from 5–7 p.m. in the Memorial Room of Willard Straight Hall. We will present our findings and recommendations, and solicit more student input as well as comments and suggestions from the Ithaca community. We seek a candid and open discussion about how student mental health can be improved.
Soon, following the input we receive at the forum, we will circulate our recommendations, invite signatures of support from students, faculty, staff, and others, and present them to the Cornell administration. Our message will be: “Here is what we found. How can we as students continue to work with you on this.” We don’t want it to necessarily be a bash of the administration. We want the recommendations to highlight the critical things that the administration is not doing or could do better, so that we can all work together to achieve the mental health goals we want to see in our community.
We applaud the administration’s recent announcement that it will pursue a “comprehensive review of student mental health.” We call on the administration to ensure that this review is independent, thorough, and transparent. There needs to be multi-stakeholder involvement, including administration, staff, faculty, and community members. And the independent review must include full student participation. We the students know what we need. We the students know what needs to be changed.
—By Matthew Jirsa
Matthew Jirsa ’19, a Biology and Society major in Cornell University’s College of Arts and Sciences, is the co-chair with Joanna Hua of the student task force on mental health. He is also co-president of Cornell Minds Matter, and co-chair of Cornell Mental Health Awareness Week 2018.
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