Meaghan Airey's Senior Creative Thesis
Welcome to my Senior Creative Thesis Page! Come explore my work toward advocating for mental health on Arcadia Univeristy's campus.
About Me
My name is Meaghan Airey and I am a Media and Communications major with a concentration in Public Relations at Arcadia University. I am a fourth year, preparing for graduation in May and interning at AKCG – Public Relations Counselors. This is my seventh and final semester working for 1853 Communications, the student-run public relations agency I founded beside my peers in 2020. It is bittersweet to spend my last year with the firm serving as a Co-Director. Outside of my studies, I love spending time with my puppy Duffy, working as a social media manager, and binging trending Netflix shows.
Thesis Overview
For my creative thesis, I wanted to dedicate my time to advocating for Mental Health Awareness on Arcadia's campus. I chose this topic because it related to my thesis on Social Learning Theory and the television series, Thirteen Reasons Why. I decided to host an event surrounding the topic, create a mental health resource guide for students and design this website to inform people of my journey.
I hope you enjoy it!
Blog #1: Welcome!
Hello! Since I was young, I always found myself being wary of my actions and words around my peers. As I would tell my mom “You don’t know what other people are going through”. As I got older, I learned this to be truer than ever.
Advocating for suicide prevention is something very crucial to me and something I believe we, as humans, just don’t do enough. So when I was tasked with coming up with a capstone project, I was immediately intrigued in producing an event on campus that could benefit our Arcadia community.
As a Senior Media and Communications major with a concentration in Public Relations at Arcadia University, I’ve had the opportunity to plan many events. I learned it is a passion of mine, and something I hope to continue to do in my professional future.
At Arcadia University, I am the Co-Director of 1853 Communications, a student-run public relations firm on campus, as well as the PRSSA chapter, and the Treasurer of the Cabaret club. As an active member in the Arcadia community, I learn more and more every day about the communications industry. I am excited to take you on this journey with me!
Welcome to my capstone page!
Arcadia Mental Health Resources
Prior to hosting my event, I created this mental health resource guide to hand out to students on campus. This includes emergency resources, ways to get involved on campus, counseling services, alcohol and drug programs, the CASAA and the warning signs of a student struggling. My hope for this brochure is to educate students on the resources Arcadia offers them within their tuition and how to help those in need.
I love how this brochure turned out and so did my peers! In fact, a Resident Assistant on campus asked me if they could print out their own copies to hand out to their residents during wellness week. I was more than happy to share and they told me that the counseling services should keep this outside of their office. I was proud to hear that people found this useful.
Blog #2: Research - Following the RACE Model
For the first step of my project, I am following the R.A.C.E model and conducting research for my future event. I posted a survey on a Arcadia Instagram account that features all events organized on campus, and asked a series of questions. Here are my findings:
Would you like to see events on campus regarding mental health and suicide awareness?
Out of 69 surveyors, 93% answered yes, and 7% answered no.
Are you likely to attend an event on campus during the weekend?
Out of 99 surveyors, 77% answered yes, and 23% answered no.
Are you likely to attend an event on campus during the week?
Out of 99 surveyors, 67% answered yes, and 33% answered no.
Are you likely to participate in a campus walk, around Haber Green?
Out of 69 surveyors, 65% answered yes and 35% answered no.
What activities would you like to see featured at this event?
Out of 74 surveyors, 41% answered ‘Bake Sale’, 27% answered ‘Cornhole’, 23%
answered ‘Auction’ and 10% answered ‘Other’.
Would you pay a small fee to participate in a cornhole tournament on campus (proceeds donated to charity)?
Out of 52 surveyors, 35% answered yes and 65% answered no.
After looking over my research, I concluded that our audience is interested in seeing an event revolving mental health and suicide awareness on campus, but that it would need to be free. Moving forward, I plan on putting together a list of enticing gifts we can have donated to give out as resources to students during the event.
Public Relations Plan
As part of my thesis, I created a PR Plan discussing my goals, strategies, and tactics for education Arcadia University students on the mental health resources available to them.
You can review my PR Plan here.
Blog #3: Updates - Action and Planning
I am planning on hosting an event on campus this spring. I dove head first into researching similar events this week. Though I am not completely set on any organization that I hope to raise money for (or if I can raise money at all) but I am moving forward with the idea to host a walk around campus.
I would love for this to be an event that can unite the Arcadia community and downtown Glenside residents. I am hopeful that we can organize this event to have partnerships with clubs and organizations on campus, who can set up pop-ups throughout the Green, where students and community members can stop to learn about suicide awareness. This also can be used as a resource for students to learn where they can decompress, create community, and talk to professionals when in need.
I have reached out to the Campus Life coordinator, and we are scheduling a meeting to go over how I can make this happen. From there, I will be able to map out how to market the event and what kind of fundraising opportunities I can provide. I am super excited to get the ball rolling on this project!
My Event
Blog #4: The Game Plan - Action and Planning
Last week I had a meeting with the Director of Campus Life. I was able to have a brain-storming session of the logistics of my event. I scheduled my event on Haber Green for Reading Day, May 2, 2023. Keonna believed this would allow me enough time to prepare, but would also serve as an enticing offer for students to get out of their rooms and take a break. In the Great Room, Campus Life will be holding a de-stress event surrounding the same hours as my event (11am-3pm). My event will be leading them into the de-stress activity.
My next step is to put together a detailed itinerary for what I plan to do that day and what resources I will have available. Keonna asked me to reach out to some clubs on campus to see if they would like to sponsor/co-host the event with me. I also had the idea to hand out ‘goodie’ bags to students as final resources. I am going to
Social Posts
Blog #5: Communication Channels
This week, I've begun to create social posts to promote my event! I used to believe that I wanted to be a Social Media Manager in the past. This became one of my favorite parts of the project.
I decided that I wanted to create an educational brochure to hand out at my event. This brochure will have on-campus and off-campus mental health resources, to educate the Arcadia community on the resources they have available to them.
Event Set Up
Blog #6: Changes in my Execution
Due to my event being past Thesis Day, I changed my date and am collaborating with Campus Life to bring a spoken word poet to campus, who will shed light on mental health through his poems.
The event will feature Writers Block (a student organization on campus) performing their own poems prior to ODD?Rod performing.
We will be handing out green ribbons for guests to wear, representing mental health awareness. I am also creating a banner, with materials provided by Campus Life, for people to sign, write inspirational notes, etc.
Evaluation
Blog #7: Evaluation
My event was a success! I was able to get 23 people in attendance outside of those working the event, and the speaker himself. It was an interactive and welcoming space that really allowed everyone to understand the effects of mental health and how to use different outlets to ensure success.
I was able to share promotional materials on both the Arcadia Knight Life and the Media and Communications department's Instagram. I was able to reach 462 accounts in total.
We handed out my mental health brochures, as well as mental health stickers, ribbons, and counseling service materials.
Students signed a banner with inspirational sayings regarding mental health awareness.
At the end of the event, we were able to get pictures with ODD?ROD himself, and participated in a traditional photoshoot with his rental car, which he displays on his social channels.
I am so happy this event was a safe space for the students at Arcadia.
