By Maurisa Warren

Mental Health Forum

Darren Rovell enjoys visibility with sports fans and team personnel in his role as sports business analyst with ESPN. Recently, he raised awareness about the mental health of college students as one of four speakers in the “We’re All a Little Crazy” #SameHere Sit-Down College Tour.

West Chester University was one of only 15 schools nationwide chosen to host these interactive, immersive, uplifting dialogues, the focus of which is to enhance the way mental health is approached on university campuses and provide strategies on managing stress, anxiety, and trauma.

WNBA player Imani McGee-Stafford, singer/songwriter Luke James Shaffer, and Eric Kussin, a former sports industry executive, each shared personal experiences and encouraged young people who may be suffering in silence that there is strength in admitting vulnerability and intelligence in asking for and getting help.

Global Hispanic Film Festival

Returning for the fourth year, the Global Hispanic Film Festival at WCU provides the chance for the community to be immersed in Hispanic culture with weekly screenings on the five Mondays in October. All five Spanish-language films are subtitled in English and showings are free and open to the public. The screenings are intentionally timely, falling within Hispanic Heritage Month (Sept. 15-Oct. 15).

Each screening is hosted by a faculty member who will facilitate discussion “before and after each film to draw critical connections to our lives in Pennsylvania,” said organizer Iliana Pagán-Teitelbaum, assistant professor of languages and cultures.

“We want students to be exposed to other realities that they are not familiar with,” said co-organizer Megan Saltzman, also an assistant professor in the department. “A universal problem is that we dislike the stuff we don’t know. With these films (and any foreign culture) students will see for themselves that the simplified ‘us versus them’ narrative that we constantly hear and see in mainstream media and politics is problematic.”

The films will be shown at 7:20 PM in Mitchell Hall Room 102 (675 South Church Street). For more information, e-mail Pagán-Teitelbaum (ipagan@wcupa.edu) or Saltzman (msaltzman@wcupa.edu).

Community Service

After Hurricane Harvey devastated parts of Texas and the Gulf states last September, then senior Waneeza Mughees devised a way to support relief efforts. As former president of the Muslim Student Association, Mughees had previously organized a spring interfaith dinner. She simply added an at-will donation request to the dinner celebrating the Muslim holiday Eid-al-Adha.

This is just one example of how campus constituents give back. The Office of Service Learning and Volunteer Programs (OSLVP) reported that students logged more than 712,000 service hours between July 1, 2017, and June 30, 2018, counting both service-learning courses and co-curricular activities, with more than 6,800 students participating.

“During the 2017-2018 academic year, community engagement expanded across the curriculum and students demonstrated how to meaningfully contribute to our community as active citizens,” said Kate Colyer, OSLVP assistant director.

Department of Theatre and Dance

The department will present Antigone from Oct. 12-20 in the Madeleine Wing Adler Theatre located in the Swope Music Building and Performing Arts Center on 817 South High Street. Tickets can be purchased here.

In Antigone, a young girl believes that the highest priority, over the laws of the country and the commandments of leaders, is that one must do what is right. One girl, thousands of years ago, dared to stand up for her beliefs and face the consequences.

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