On March 22, 2023 the Washburn University United Methodist Campus Ministry hosted “Mental Health Matters,” an event that addressed mental wellbeing of students throughout their academic career.

The event was hosted by Earl Williams, campus minister at Washburn University United Methodist Campus Ministry. The main objective of the program was to help students recognize the hurdles they face during college and encourage them to ask for help when needed.

“I want the students to be able to understand, when they’re in the learning point in life, that they need help. They have to reach out and first recognize it and not feel ashamed,” Williams said.

Williams added to this thought stressing the importance of having someone to talk to about the difficulties of being in college.

“A lot of parents think you guys are okay. They send a student to college, everything’s good. But they don’t understand what you guys are going through trying to be successful building relationships,” Williams said. “For me and a lot of students this is something that is needed because who do you talk to about what you’re going through if you’re depressed, you don’t want to talk to your friends or family. But it’s what each individual student is going through. And it’s not really been recognized.”

Benjamin Morton, owner and managing attorney of Morton Law Group, was the key speaker of the event and presented on mental health issues of students. During his presentation, he highlighted how a student fails to acknowledge and address such challenges as well as how to overcome them.

In his opening remarks, Morton talked about adverse consequences that career and academic incompetence may have on an individual’s state of mind. He shared about how he overcame depression and suicidal thinking that came along with his failures on the bar exam for law school.

Morton also talked about his experiences playing basketball and associated it with the ways to confront the negativity that came along in the academic world.
Understanding the power of a positive “PIVOT” was the main focus of his presentation. “PIVOT” is a philosophy that teaches us how to navigate through whatever life has to offer by embracing challenges in the most unimaginable pivots.

“You have all those options. So that’s sort of the genesis of this whole pivot thing,” Morton said.

As the event progressed, he also discussed how PIVOT stands for owning the problem, recognizing it and visualizing the issue in a constructive way.

“Not losing is focused on ‘double G.’ It means having positive growth. Nobody ever tells you that growing is a loss, because we are trying to grow so I’ll never lose again. The analogy is given back when you grow, and we ever lose,” Morton said when speaking about failure.

The event emphasized confronting issues head-on rather than avoiding them, embracing and finding the profound wisdom that lies within your heart and adapting it to your life. Broadly speaking, the event was about how opening up about your struggles and mental health issues can help to alleviate the prejudice that surrounds mental health in society.

Anybody in need of support or assistance can reach out to Benjamin Morton through: Power Positive Pivot.

Edited by Simran Shrestha and Rakesh Swarnakar