Kaitlyn Speiser

Dr. Merck

Psych 410-H04

21 April 2020

Anti-Stigma Project

My initial idea for the project was to have a charity concert with the a cappella groups on

campus and to raise money for charities that provide free resources to people struggling with

mental illness. The first change that was made to the project was that speakers were added to the

concert. The goal was to have one speaker between each a cappella group that performed. This

turned into a huge project that about half of the class started to work on. We started coming up

with ideas to fundraise such as bake sales, inviting speakers, promoting the event, and raising

money.

I played a significant leadership role in this project, which was something that I did not

expect. Initially, I was going to try to do the whole project on my own, which I now understand

would have been incredibly hard. Once people started to express interest in the project I began to

assign roles. I got people to create graphics, contact speakers, fundraise, help with bake sales,

and handle money. I oversaw all of these individual projects, as well as helped with all of them. I

also organized all of the a cappella groups that were going to perform. I specifically planned the

concert for March 19th because there were going to be two out of town groups coming to

perform, one from the University of Hartford and one from New York University. I also worked

with Humans of Carolina to speak at meetings and keep everyone informed on how participation

points were going to be distributed amongst the students involved in my project.

 The project had almost completely come together before it was canceled. All of the

speakers were lined up and ready to speak. We had three charities, the National Alliance of

Mental Illness, Mental Illness Recovery Center Inc., and the Federation of Families. We also

would have had Dr. Mark Weist come to speak, a professor at USC, and Korinne Schwartz, the

president of Humans of Carolina. The a cappella groups performing were Cockappella (USC),

The Carolina Gentleman (USC), Resonance A Cappella (USC), Mass Transit (NYU), and

Hawkapella (UHart). We raised over $860, and about $750 was from my family and family

friends. I worked with the president of Cockappella and I booked the Russell House Theatre on

March 19 from 6:00 to 10:00pm; the concert was going to be from 7:00 to 9:00pm. I also booked

another space on Greene Street and we did a bake sale to raise money, as well as planned on

doing one more tabling session the week after spring break.

The biggest challenge I faced was giving up control and allowing other people to take

charge of tasks that needed to be completed in a timely manner. I tend to micromanage and I also

like to get things done ahead of time, so it was very hard for me to let go and trust that everyone

would complete everything by the time that it needed to be completed. The biggest stumbling

block was, obviously, the coronavirus. I was so devastated when I learned that we would have to

cancel the concert. My grandparents had already booked a hotel to come so that they could see,

my dad and his girlfriend were planning on driving down from Charlotte, and I had all of my

friends clear their schedules so that they could come. This project was so important to me

because I am so passionate about mental health as well as music, and I thought that this was the

perfect way to put the two together. I was so proud of our progress, everything was done except

turning in the money for the microphone rental and creating the program. I loved doing this
project and I put so much time, hard work, and energy into this concert. I really want to work on

this in the fall semester because I put too much into this concert for it to not happen at all.

I learned so much from this project. While tabling I learned that a lot of people don’t

really understand the stigma behind mental illness. I had multiple people ask me what we meant

by breaking the stigma. I also learned that it is so important to be a happy and positive figure

when advocating. People were so responsive when I approached them with kindness instead of

with force, as lots of people do on Greene Street. I would love to possibly work with the class

next semester to complete this project.

I participated in almost every aspect of the project and worked closely with a lot of my

classmates. There were a few people who really stuck out to me as extremely helpful. The people

who helped me the most were Susannah McInnis, Jackie Dinh, Sarisha Menon, Sarah Porter,

Sydni Parnell, Kayla Dewey, and Virginia Rose. I also received help from Alexandra Fischer,

Carolina Hough, Casey Beetle, Jordan Deger, Andrew Z, and Warner Westberry. There are

others who also participated, but I don’t have their names in our group chat to write down.

Overall, I had an amazing time planning this project. This event allowed me to explore

my leadership skills and made me realize how much I love to work with others. Although it

never actually happened, I am so proud of how far we came and how amazing our concert would

have been. I hope to do this in the future and continue to spread awareness about how important

it is to break the stigma behind mental illness.