Do you have a child in college? These stressful times require parents to fully grasp the serious mental health challenges their students may face, and be equipped to provide support. Did you know that the majority of college students today meet the criteria for at least one mental health problem? Or that college counseling centers are often overwhelmed?
Rates of depression and anxiety are high among college students. In fact, many students carry suicidal thoughts. Sexual assault is prevalent among college students. Hazing violence as an initiation rite at fraternities and some student organizations is a serious problem.
All of these factors pose even greater risks for students who arrive on campus with a mental health or substance use disorder.
Failure to understand these realities of college student life today, and to help with issues that may arise, can lead to serious consequences.
The Sophie Fund provides this updated guide to help parents—especially those whose children are attending college in Ithaca—better understand the challenges and how to deal with them.
Some 350 participants trekked a collective total of 361 miles in the rain and raised $20,545.34 on April 14 in the second annual Out of the Darkness Walk for suicide prevention on the Cornell University campus. The organizers surpassed their $20,000 goal and nearly doubled the $11,692.32 collected during the first-ever Cornell walk in 2023.
Cornellians walking to prevent suicide
Donning Big Red caps and brimming with smiles under skies that alternated between sunny and rainy, packs of students including Cornell athletes and fraternity brothers traveled the two-mile route from Barton Hall to Feeney Way, along Tower Road, and then Campus Road back to the starting point.
“You are making a difference,” said walk organizer Cheyanne Scholl, addressing the participants inside Barton Hall. “By showing up today, you are sending the message that mental health is as real as physical health. You are sending the message that reaching out for help is the strong thing to do. You are showing others that the issue of suicide cannot and will not be kept in the darkness. And thanks to you, we remain hopeful.”
Among the participants in this year’s Cornell walk were 18 fundraising teams, with Claire’s Colony bringing in the most funds, $5,001.52. Other top teams included Cornell HR, The Statler Hotel, Cornell Athletics, and Taylor Strong. Jennie Toal was the top individual fundraiser, followed by Jessica Cunningham, Scott Lyerla, Michelle Artibee, and Christine Lovely.
Almost 600 Out of the Darkness walks are held across the United States each year by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) to raise awareness, collect research funds, and send a message that “suicide is preventable and no one is alone.” In 2023, Overnight, Community, and Campus walks raised more than $27.8 million.
In her remarks, Scholl, who led an organizing team consisting of students, staff, faculty, and members of the AFSP Greater Central New York chapter, spoke of experiencing tremendous grief after a close high school friend took their own life just five months after graduation.
Walk organizer Cheyanne Scholl
“I fell apart for months after Jack’s death. I was functioning on the outside, but hollow on the inside,” she said. Then Jack’s mother invited Scholl to take part in an Out of the Darkness Walk, which inspired her to organize a walk at her own university. She spearheaded the first walk at Cornell after moving to Ithaca in 2023.
“This event changed my life,” Scholl explained. “I had never been in a space where mental health was spoken about so openly. Where it was allowed and encouraged to talk about loss and grief. Having mental health coalitions, groups, and other resources in one place where I could approach them and be honest with myself about how much I needed them was huge.”
Another speaker was Tiffany Bloss, executive director of the Suicide Prevention & Crisis Service (SPCS), which is a 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline call center and also provides training and community education.
Bloss said she experienced suicide as a small child when a 13-year-old cousin took their own life. She would then confront the issue even more directly as her young son experienced mental health crises.
“My son is who fueled me to get involved with this mission on a bigger scale. As a mom, I wanted to know more, I wanted to educate others, I wanted people to talk about suicide,” she said.
Upon joining SPCS in 2022, Bloss expanded the 55-year-old organization’s reach by operating 24/7 and covering 17 counties in Upstate New York. The volume of calls, texts, and chats increased from 6,339 in 2022 to 16,793 connections in 2023 to already 8,742 through mid-April this year.
“We are here, day or night. Call. Text. Website chat. Individuals can even email our helpline. We are here,” Bloss said.
Tiffany Bloss, executive director of the Suicide Prevention & Crisis Service of Tompkins County
According to Bloss, SPCS crisis line counselors go through more than 280 hours of training before they independently take calls.
“This is incredibly important work, and we want to ensure that they have the tools needed to engage in these really tough conversations. Individuals who reach out are in a really vulnerable space in their lives. Individuals identify crisis in their own way, and we allow for that. We listen to their story. Their experience. We support their emotions, and we talk them through options by validating what they have been though and working on a plan to stay safe,” she said.
Bloss said that SPCS offers free opportunities for the public to learn about crisis intervention, ranging from a 45-minute virtual experience to a full two-day workshop. In 2023, SPCS conducted trainings with 228 individuals to help the community become suicide-safer.
Sonia Rucker, associate vice president for Cornell’s Department of Inclusion and Belonging and a Presidential Advisor for Diversity and Equity, shared how she was shaken last year by the shock suicide death of a close friend of 20 years.
Though trained as a social worker and having worked on teams dealing with college students in crisis, Rucker said she could not believe that her friend would take her own life. “Not only did I think that things like that only happened to other people, I had another huge blind spot,” she explained.
Over the years, she and her friend often championed how black women have survived the worst aspects of their history by being strong. Rucker said that her friend’s death made her realize the importance of allowing vulnerability and reaching out for help.
Sonia Rucker, associate vice president for Cornell’s Department of Inclusion and Belonging
“We believed that being strong was more important than anything else. We could take more than anyone else. More criticism, more disappointment, more pain, more racism, more sexism. No one could break us. We spent so much time talking about how strong we were, we avoided talking about when we were hurt. We were so good at being strong we forgot to be vulnerable. We forgot to be human,” she said.
“Sometimes we needed to reach out to each other and say, ‘I can’t do this alone. I need help. I need your support. I feel broken, I don’t feel like I can do this anymore, and I can’t continue to hide it.’ Through the loss of my special friend, I discovered that I needed to redefine what it meant to be strong. I discovered my real strength is knowing when to ask for help,” Rucker said.
Cornellians left messages on the “Why We Walk” wall:
For Yiannis
Speak up you will be listened to
To honor lives lived & lost to honor those who mourn
All veterinary professionals—students, assistants, doctors, faculty, techs, animal lovers
You are loved
To my friend!
I am walking for my Dad
For my Uncle Tim
Your life matters
Be Kind
I am walking for Jason Parente
You are never alone
Walking for “You”
Because it does get better!
You matter
I’m walking for anyone who feels alone
Dear Sweet Sister Linda, You’ll always be in my heart, and I’ll always be your kid sista!
Before the walk, an opening ceremony to honor those lost to suicide and their survivors
Walkin’ in the Rain
The Long and Winding Road
Cornell men’s soccer team
Alpha Gamma Rho members
National Alliance on Mental Illness—Finger Lakes
Suicide Prevention & Crisis Service of Tompkins County
Cheyanne Scholl, Touchdown the Big Red Bear, and AFSP Area Director Karen Heisig
Be Kind Ithaca & Free Hugs Ithaca
Heartfelt messages of support
Thank you, mental health workforce!
Cornell University in the light
If you or someone you know feels the need to speak with a mental health professional, you can call or text the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 9-8-8, or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741-741.
Mental health is a big challenge for universities, but not one that many people want to talk about. At Cornell University, there are voices trying to make a difference.
In 2023, individual volunteers from the campus community came together to start conversations about mental illness and suicide prevention and promote local mental health resources. Working with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention’s Greater Central New York chapter, we formed a committee to organize an AFSP Out of the Darkness Walk on the Cornell campus last spring to raise awareness about suicide and fight the stigma that keeps many from seeking help.
Cornellians at the 2023 Out of the Darkness Walk
Our committee is proud to announce that the second annual Out of the Darkness Walk at Cornell will be held on Sunday April 14 starting at 11 a.m. in Barton Hall.
The Walk will follow an accessible two-mile route circling through the center of the beautiful Cornell campus. It is for people of all fitness levels and abilities. Participants may also walk on Barton Hall’s indoor track. The event wraps up around 1 p.m.
More than 500 AFSP Out of the Darkness walks are held across the country each year. They send a message that “suicide is preventable, and no one is alone” and raise funds for research, mental health programming, and support for survivors of suicide loss. The nearly 200 people participating in last year’s Cornell Walk raised $11,692.32.
Established in 1987, AFSP is a nonprofit organization that gives those affected by suicide a nationwide community empowered by research, education, and advocacy to take action against this leading cause of death. The fundraising goes toward lifesaving care, resources, and programming in the mission to reduce suicide rates and advance improved mental health.
2023 walkers on the Cornell campus
For me, as for many other volunteers, Out of the Darkness walks are deeply personal. Just as I was starting college in 2017, I was introduced to AFSP in a traumatic period after my longtime friend Jack Noonan took his own life.
Jack was one of the first friends I made when I moved to a new school in seventh grade. He saw me sitting alone on the bus on the way to a trip for honor choir and chose to sit with me and introduce me to his friends who went on to become my friends as well. I was a very socially anxious kid, and he helped me find a place to belong.
Jack took his own life two months into starting college. As a college freshman you are just learning how to be independent. You are in a new place, learning a new lifestyle, and that is very difficult. It is hard to reach out for help when you do not know where to find it.
I signed up for my first Out of the Darkness Walk in early 2018 after Jack’s mom invited me to join her. It was a life changing experience for me. It was the first time I was in a space where we were encouraged to speak about mental health problems and surviving suicide loss. I felt heard, seen.
After participating in that Walk, I began volunteering with AFSP to try to make a difference. I started an Out of the Darkness Walk at Central College, my small undergraduate school in Pella, Iowa, the following spring.
When I moved from Iowa to Ithaca and accepted a job at Cornell in 2022, I began exploring the possibility of organizing a campus Out of the Darkness Walk here. I was partly motivated by the school’s well-publicized history with student suicide deaths.
I remember reading the Cornell Wikipedia page and seeing an entire section dedicated to students lost to suicide. It is a deeply sad statistic and I became determined to make a difference here.
I have been gratified by the outpouring of involvement I discovered. We quickly formed a committee consisting of passionate Cornell undergrads, graduate students, staff members, and faculty members.
It is a team dedicated to spreading information about mental health and safe spaces to speak about mental health, and improving conversations and ending stigma on the Cornell campus. We organize AFSP fundraising events including the Walk, host tabling sessions to showcase available resources, and serve on several campus committees focused on mental health concerns.
Of course, my goal for the 2024 Cornell Walk is to make it bigger and better to reach a wider audience across campus. The more Cornell community members participate in the Walk, listen to the speakers, and learn about the resources available, the more lives that can be helped—and saved.
Barton Hall is Event Central, with registration at 11 a.m.; a kickoff ceremony; a resource fair featuring local and campus health providers; yard games; AFSP merch; a raffle for donated items from local and campus businesses; a memorial and positivity sticky note wall; snacks including cotton candy, popcorn, and root beer floats; and a selfie station with Cornell’s own mascot, Touchdown the Big Red Bear.
Speaking at the event: Cornell’s Sonia Rucker, associate vice president for the Department of Inclusion and Belonging and a Presidential Advisor for Diversity and Equity; and Tiffany Bloss, executive director of the Suicide Prevention & Crisis Service of Tompkins County.
Sponsors of this year’s Cornell Walk include the Cornell Work/Life Team, Cornell Dairy Bar, Wegmans, NY FarmNet, and UPS in Collegetown.
Allow me another word: You do not have to be personally impacted by mental health or suicide to attend this event. Chances are, you or someone you know has struggled with mental health challenges. I hope you will participate because you care about mental health and suicide prevention. Believe me, the mood of this event is hopeful!
—By Cheyanne Scholl
Cheyanne Scholl is the founder of the Cornell University Out of the Darkness Walk and chair for the 2024 Walk.
If you or someone you know feels the need to speak with a mental health professional, you can call or text the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 9-8-8, or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741-741.
It’s time for The Sophie Fund’s 2023 Cupcake Button fundraiser! Each October, we work alongside student organizations to raise monies for a local nonprofit focused on community well-being.
This year’s campaign is collecting donations for the Greg Eells Memorial Fund at Family & Children’s Service of Ithaca. The fund provides wellness support and continuing education opportunities for the organization’s own staff members.
Greg Eells
Family & Children’s is a private, nonprofit community agency dedicated to supporting, promoting, and strengthening the well-being of individuals and families by providing high-quality, accessible mental health care and related social services, with a particular sensitivity toward the needs of children.
In 2022, the agency provided 1,289 clients with counseling services in nearly 30,000 appointments. More than 1,000 other clients were served in other programs such as psychiatry, geriatric mental health, and community outreach.
The Memorial Fund was created to honor Eells, the longtime executive director of Counseling and Psychological Services at Cornell University, board member at Family & Children’s, and national leader in the student mental health field, who died by suicide in 2019.
The fund was inspired by Eells’s widow, Michelle Eells, who seeks to provide greater support for clinicians and others who spend long hours treating clients with mental health issues including many who are struggling.
Donor Engagement Manager Lovisa Johanson said that the fund has provided wellness opportunities such as meditation workshops, on site massages, and movement sessions as well as social activities for employee appreciation, community building, and resiliency enhancement.
“I am so happy there is opportunity for the community to learn a little more about what the Greg Eells Memorial Fund does for us,” she said.
To donate directly to the Greg Eells Memorial Fund, click here and use the drop-down menu to designate your gift.
Michelle along with their daughter Kayla and several friends also founded Health & Unity for Greg (HUG) “to continue Greg’s work in the world, inspired by Greg’s passion for people and overall wellness in mind, body, and spirit.”
HUG focuses on uniting community through advocacy events that exercise physical and mental health to end the stigma for all. “HUG especially recognizes the work of those serving in the mental health profession and aims to increase wellness support,” she said.
Michelle said that to honor her husband, there are two important aspects of his life and career HUG wants to remember and advance.
“HUG recognizes mental health providers and caregivers who, like my husband, care abundantly for others and need to be supported in caring for themselves,” she explained.
“And we want to continue the work that Greg was doing with Nature Rx, encouraging people to get outside and explore the natural world as one method to improve their mental health,” she added.
With Donald A. Rakow, Eells co-authored Nature Rx: Improving College-Student Mental Health, which described the value of nature prescription programs and cited studies showing that people who spend time in nature have reduced stress, anxiety, and improved mood.
“Greg had a gift for making everyone feel special, like they were the most important person in the world,” said Michelle. “He was known for giving big bear hugs, so in naming the organization HUG, it perfectly captures Greg’s spirit and passions while incorporating his name.”
Students raise money through various in-person activities (and provide donors with Cupcake Buttons) on campus and in the community.
Since 2017 the campaigns have raised more than $6,000 for organizations including: the Suicide Prevention & Crisis Service; the Mental Health Association in Tompkins County; the Advocacy Center of Tompkins County; the Village at Ithaca; The Learning Web; and the National Alliance on Mental Illness–Finger Lakes.
The symbol of the campaign is a Cupcake Button, because the fundraising takes place in the run-up to the Annual Ithaca Cupcake Baking Contest hosted by The Sophie Fund. To enter this year’s cupcake contest, click here.
Do you have a child in college? These stressful times require parents to fully grasp the serious mental health challenges their students may face, and be equipped to provide support. Did you know that 95 percent of college students in a 2021 survey reported negative mental health symptoms because of the Covid-19 pandemic?
Even before Covid, rates of depression and anxiety were high among college students. In fact, many students carry suicidal thoughts. Sexual assault is prevalent among college students. Hazing violence as an initiation rite at fraternities and some student organizations is a serious problem.
All of these factors pose even greater risks for students who arrive on campus with a mental health or substance use disorder. College psychological counseling centers are typically overwhelmed by demands for appointments, and navigating community mental health services and insurance coverage can exacerbate stress. Failure to understand these realities of college student life today, and to help with issues that may arise, can lead to serious consequences.
The Sophie Fund provides this updated guide to help parents—especially those whose children are attending college in Ithaca—better understand the challenges and how to deal with them. Please email us with feedback or suggestions at thesophiefund2016@gmail.com.
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