An annual art contest jointly led by Columbus State University’s Counseling Center and the Department of Art seeks to give students a creative outlet to express feelings around their mental and emotional health. Both have become significant concerns on college campus across the country as instances of anxiety, depression and suicide among students have increased—especially during and following the COVID pandemic.

According to the most recent Healthy Minds national survey, 44% of college student survey respondents reported symptoms of depression and another 37% reported symptoms of anxiety. In addition to this, the survey also recorded that 40% of participants felt that there was a perceived social stigma attached to receiving mental health services.

Similarly, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention has found that suicide is the second-leading cause of death among college students. In response to the growing need for mental health services and advocacy in the Columbus State University community, the Cougars End Suicide suicide-prevention initiative was created to assist students in need while providing CSU employees with information and the context to intervene.

“It is an absolute tragedy any time a student or faculty member dies,” commented Oula Majzoub-Weaver, the Cougars End Suicide coordinator. “That’s really why we started Cougars End Suicide. We want to prevent that tragedy in our community as much as we can. We have enacted this prevention to provide services to both students and employees, as well as through outreach to the university community as a whole.”

The Journeys Through Mental Health Contest is just one outcome of this initiative. This competition allows students to express their emotions through the arts and receive community recognition for their contributions. The contest accepts submissions in five categories: poetry/short story, visual art, music, performance, and slam poetry/rap. Submissions are reviewed by a committee of art, theatre, and English faculty members, with first-, second-, and third-place winners and one honorable mention awarded. Each winning entrant will receive a cash prize funded through the Office of Student Affairs.

“There has been a lot of research around how the arts and art therapy really help students that are struggling,” commented Professor Hannah Israel of the Department of Art. “There’s a saying that 'a lot of great art is created through suffering,’ and we can see some truth in that saying when we look at some of the most famous artists, like Van Gogh. With this contest, students have an alternative opportunity from traditional services to express their emotions, collaborate with peers, and find community in a common experience. A lot of submissions for this contest come from very deep and sensitive places that deserve attention and validation.”

“It’s very important to share and to be heard,” agreed Vinh Huyn, a junior visual arts major and previous Journeys winner.

Huyn’s entry "Other Ego" won first place in the Visual Arts category of the Journeys Contest in 2021. The ink painting is a self-portrait that serves as an expression of Huyn’s grief after the sudden loss of his significant other as the result of a car accident during his freshman year of college.

“While I was grieving, I was very angry and sensitive and anxious. I changed a lot during that time and I wanted to depict a sort of metaphor of that change and show my struggle with being a person I didn’t want to be,” Huyn explained. “I’m grateful that my previous entry allowed me to share my story, and that I found people valuing my story and seeing how serious depression can be.”

“Our main goals with this contest are to spread awareness about the issue of suicide and to fight the stigma attached to receiving mental health services,” confirmed Majzoub-Weaver. “We want students to be able to express their emotions in healthy ways so that we can prevent the tragedy of suicide on our campus. If students don’t have healthy outlets, these heavy emotions become very detrimental to their health overall, and we want to prevent that as much as possible.”

Winners for the 2023 contest were announced during an awards ceremony on March 27 in the Studio Theater at the RiverCenter for Performing Arts. This awards ceremony featured keynote speaker Fatimah AlQadfan, a registered drama therapist who also provided a workshop on wellness and community through play.

This year’s Journeys through Mental Health winners were:

Visual Art

1st Place: Davian Q. Chester, “Sticky Notes”
2nd Place: Shawn’a Lee, “Hidden Disability”
3rd Place: Tea’ya Bivins, “A New Beginning”
Honorable Mention: Alisha Kennedy, “Dark Moon” and Brooke Kelley - “The kind of tired sleep can’t fix”
Poetry/Short Story

1st Place: Charlotte Bortz, “Another Day’s Eve”
2nd Place: Riley Smoot, “Emma”
3rd Place: Molly Thomas, “Ice Sculpture Adrift in the Northern Atlantic”
Honorable Mention: Cynthia Short, “Smoke” and Brandon Ellis - “Welcome to Golden Corral”
Music

1st Place: Jonathan Anuforo, “Jade”
2nd Place: Mia Padilla, “Metamorphosis”
3rd Place: Debrinja Watts, “How Much Longer?”
Honorable Mention: Starr McCrory, “Truth is…”
Performance

1st Place: Brian Thompson, “I Never Knew”
Slam Poetry

1st Place: Theo Pound, “Waffle King”