School is almost back in session, and I am very eager to get back to having actual meetings for NAMI@Emma! Before I return to blogging about the club's activities again, I thought I would share the steps I've been taking this summer to expand the club and further educate myself. Firstly, on June 8th Wendy Burch, the Executive Director of NAMI NYS, and I met with the head of the Rensselaer school district to discuss the development of a NAMI high school club. It was wonderful to be met with such enthusiasm, and as it stands the tentative plan was to have me speak at the Rensselaer Youth Leadership Summit in October in order to recruit club leaders in different school districts. I am very excited about this prospect! Secondly, from June 14th-17th I attended the ANNPower Leadership Forum, run through ANN Inc. and Vital Voices. This was such a wonderful experience for me, especially meeting 50 other girls from across the country who were so passionate about their own projects to benefit their community. I was able to develop a more solid plan for expanding the club, create an elevator pitch, and learn about the Vital Voices Leadership Model, which places a lot of emphasis on creating community-based solutions to pressing issues. In addition we heard from many wonderful speakers such as the CEO of Girls Who Code, Michelle Obama's stylist, and the EIC of Marie Claire. In July I attended a course at Notre Dame called Science, Ethics, and Responsibility. While a majority of the course focused on the ethics of emerging technologies, we spent a day studying Disability Studies, a field in which I saw many connections to the work NAMI@Emma is doing. I plan on perhaps tying in some of this field to a few discussions this year. Additionally we took a trip to the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago and met with two Medical Ethicists. I was very interested in how they dealt with mentally ill patients who refused to consent to treatment, and might use this and the debate surrounding court mandated treatment as a topic for discussions during club meetings.
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Mental illness is nothing to be ashamed of, but stigma and bias shame us all. -Bill Clinton
Katherine WallaceEmma Willard Class of 2017. Archives
May 2017
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