On November 15, 2013 I participated in the tenth annual Active Minds Conference hosted in Washington, D.C. Active Minds is a club at Stockton that addresses important issues such as suicide awareness, lessening stigmas for students on campus, and the importance of having good mental health. The Active Minds Conference is an annual event in which Active Minds chapters meet from across the nation in order to do various workshops and listen to speakers for three days. I was luckily able to attend this event by recently becoming nominated as the public relations officer for the club here at Stockton. What I at first thought was going to be a semi-boring event turned out to be an experience that would forever change my opinion on this club and the ideas it stands for.

At the conference, there were many speakers who shared their stories with all of us, and most of them were able to touch our hearts in one way or another. These speakers were able to show us the importance of being confident enough to share our stories. This, in turn, would help give others the strength to share their experiences as well, which would strengthen our bonds as individuals. There were also many other workshops and events that were held throughout the three day conference. One of these events that I particularly enjoyed was a leadership workshop for those of us that had leadership positions in our chapters. During this workshop we did activities such as human bingo, planning our dream vacation, and learning how to troubleshoot problems that chapters often face, such as recruitment and fundraising. Overall, this was not only an insightful experience, but also one that truly helped me better connect with the core concepts of the club Active Minds.