MCC hosts zine workshop for World Mental Health Day to help students de-stress
After drawing a high turnout and praise from students, Mesa Community College faculty say they plan to host more events like the World Mental Health Day zine workshop.
A creative outlet for student well-being
In mid-October, Student Life and Leadership, Center for Community and Civic Engagement (CCCE), and MCC Libraries collaborated with professors to create a zine workshop on campus in an effort to dedicate class time to students’ mental health and well-being in early October.
The MCC Navajo Room played calming music over speakers and was filled with craft supplies, magazines and materials for the event. Students were provided mini-templates that gave instructions on making zines from Wasted Ink Zine Distro, based in Phoenix.
A zine is an informal, short magazine, usually in the form of self-produced booklets made for niche audiences.
Faculty collaboration brings zine making to campus
“I wanted to do a creative event, and [Alejandra Maya] had brought this idea to me, and I loved it,” Student Life and Leadership staff member Allison Nguyen said. She thought zines were intuitive and provided students a creative outlet.
A nearby table also displayed mental health-related books from MCC Libraries available for students to check out. Kristina Santiago, MCC lead manager for the library instruction program, who is enthusiastic about zines, brought in the library’s collaboration.
Alongside CVP was a large sheet titled “Employee Celebration,” where students wrote positive messages and recognized their favorite MCC staff members, monitored by two CCCE federal student workers.
Zines offer students a way to decompress
“If your mind is all scattered, if you’re stressed out, if you’re worried, if you’re not well in your head, then you’re not gonna be able to sit with information that’s challenging, you’re not gonna be able to really parse through things, and think about them like slowly and critically,” said Santiago,
“So when this workshop idea came up, I was especially interested in creating a space where we can just take a minute, and decompress, and use a creative outlet to get yourself a little bit more space in your mind, so that you can go back into your next class and feel a little bit more prepared for whatever it is that you’re being tasked with that day,” said Santiago.
Positive feedback inspires future events
Both Ngyuen and Santiago said they received positive feedback from students after the event, prompting them to do something similar in the future.
“Students said things like ‘this is really nice to do something creative with my peers,’ or ‘this really helps me to feel more relaxed,’ or there were even comments like ‘I feel like I’m more in touch with my emotions,’ said Santiago. “I just thought that was all super profound because it’s really showing that these sorts of spaces can help students to be much more connected earnestly with themselves and each other.”
