UNMC students offer ‘penny for your thoughts’

College students throughout Nebraska are being welcomed to school this semester with wooden pennies.

It’s part of the “Penny for Your Thoughts” campaign to help students feel more comfortable discussing mental health issues and utilizing counseling services. The campaign’s tag line states, “1 in 5 Nebraskans have a mental illness. 5 in 5 can make a difference.”

The wooden tokens also provide a link to the campaign website, which contains crisis information and hotlines along with content about common mental health conditions and other resources, such as on-campus counseling services.

Student mental health organizations, including Active Minds and student chapters of NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness), distributed the pennies at welcome events.

“Any outreach to educate others about mental health issues is a step toward awareness and acceptance,” said Abby Stewart, secretary of the Wayne State College Active Minds chapter. “Also, these tokens are clever little ways to get a foot in the door of people’s lives. Even if one person internalizes the quotation on the back, it may be just enough to get the gears turning and start a revolution in his or her thinking.”

Student organizations at UNMC, University of Nebraska at Omaha, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, University of Nebraska at Kearney, Southeast Community College, Clarkson College and Wayne State College have distributed the wooden pennies. Other student organizations interested in the campaign and handing out the tokens may contact Laura Holly for more information.

The Penny for Your Thoughts campaign originated from a group of undergraduate students attending BHECN’s College Ambassador Conference in 2015. Students were tasked with creating their own mental health awareness campaign, and Penny for Your Thoughts was selected as the winning project. With funding from the Behavioral Health Education Center of Nebraska, the students’ design was turned into reality.