“How can Yale profess to care about our mental health when it continues to allow the SIC to burden its student body, particularly its BIPOC and working class students?”

Since classes were moved online, I’ve continued holding biweekly sessions with the therapist I was seeing at the start of the semester. This experience has made me question what mental health therapy at Yale should truly entail. During this time, I went through some of the worst depression and anxiety Read more…

“The most obvious way COVID has affected me is that my sister and I had it– my sister for over 100 days, and myself for around six weeks– the whole part of the semester that was online.”

The most obvious way COVID has affected me is that my sister and I had it– my sister for over 100 days, and myself for around six weeks– the whole part of the semester that was online. For the most part, it was fine. I still did all my work Read more…

“During the first semester of my first year I found myself bogged down in work, in sleeplessness, and loneliness. It wasn’t until I returned home for break that I realized how unhealthy the first semester was for me—how depressed I was.”

During the first semester of my first year I found myself bogged down in work, in sleeplessness, and loneliness. It wasn’t until I returned home for break that I realized how unhealthy the first semester was for me—how depressed I was. When I felt terrible, I treated it as a Read more…

“For me, the rhetoric that bean bag chairs, stress balls, and donut-filled study breaks can somehow be a panacea for mental health problems has been harmful.”

Upon arriving at Yale I was immediately bombarded with a slew of mental health resources—there’s The Good Life Center, groups like Hack Mental Health, an undergraduate publication about mental health, and seemingly endless events during reading period to help me relax. While I appreciate the breadth of resources available, it’s Read more…

“I’m wracked with anxiety when everyone starts talking about jobs and fellowships because I have to ask myself, ‘Is the study of English, which I truly believe has changed my life and my understanding of the world, worthy of study when I’m literally paying the interest on a private loan every month?”

I normally relate to my education as something that can provide new ways of seeing the world and something that affords me a different relationship to self, but the SIC, and the loans that I’ve taken out in order to cover it, strain that relationship a lot. I’m wracked with Read more…

“Now more than ever, with the many additional challenges and constraints presented by COVID-19, it is imperative to level the playing field for all students, regardless of economic status.”

As a student who doesn’t have to worry about the Student Income Contribution, I have faced few restrictions on how I choose to spend my time. I have been able to decide for myself what clubs to join, how many classes to take, which jobs to pursue, and exactly when Read more…