Augustana College’s National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) was nationally recognized by NAMI in a promotional video feature on Oct. 24 at Augustana’s NAMI “Let’s Taco About Mental Health” event. This video will be used to help expand the knowledge and participation of the NAMI on-campus brand. 

Augie’s NAMI has been in close contact with the NAMI national organization for a few years now. In 2022, the executive board at the time communicated with the local Mississippi NAMI to become an official chapter. Farrah Roberts, assistant dean and staff advisor, said that the 2022 exec board put in a lot of work to become an official part of the organization. 

Roberts said NAMI chose Augustana because of how these connections between NAMI national and the college’s chapter stayed strong throughout the past few years. She also said NAMI saw that Augustana’s chapter has been very active with their weekly meetings and social media. 

“If you say NAMI to anybody in the mental health field, they know what it is. So for us to be basically the spokespeople for their campus project for the whole country is like, ‘Wow,’” Roberts said. “That’s a big deal. They chose us to recognize us for the work [we have done].” 

At the “Let’s Taco About Mental Health” event, videographers from NAMI came and interviewed students on the executive board while also filming the event. This event was a combined effort between Augustana’s counselors and NAMI. They gave out NAMI merchandise and free walking tacos to students who answered trivia questions correctly about mental health. 

The event provided Augustana students with a space to ask questions and learn more about NAMI and its efforts to support students’ mental health. President of Augustana’s NAMI, senior Maya Doss, has been a member of NAMI since she was a First-Year and helped make the chapter official.

“I think that it’s incredible. I never thought NAMI would’ve gotten this big,” Doss said. “When I joined, it was like we were just there trying to improve mental health on campus and have these open conversations, and we felt amazing that NAMI national reached out to us even for this opportunity and wanted a chance to highlight what NAMI on campus can do for college campuses.”

Doss said she will be graduating early and stepping down as president in December. The vice president, junior Zoe Snell, will fill this spot. Snell said she plans on hosting more events in the spring to relieve stress. She also plans on hosting more events with therapy dogs.

“Some of my future goals are getting more members involved, getting more people on the executive board and also having more events in the spring,” Snell said.