Kathleen Hepworth, a senior in public relations, who was part of the P R 424 public relations campaigns class that won the Invent2Prevent competition last fall, is helping tackle one of the biggest problems college students encounter: mental health.
P R 424 is a class that teaches you to develop and implement a campaign, and Invent2Prevent is part of that class. Invent2Prevent is a competition that asks students nationwide to come up with a product, tool or initiative that helps prevent targeted violence or terrorism in the U.S.
When first tasked with this problem, Hepworth and her classmates wanted to figure out what impacts students the most at Iowa State.
“What form of violence do students struggle with?” Hepworth said. “With the research we were given about violence in the U.S., mental health is a risk factor to targeted violence.”
Hepworth wanted to figure out how to target students that struggle with mental health and how to get them involved in something that can help them. That something would be called MIND SPACE.
In December 2023, Hepworth and her classmates submitted their final report for the Invent2Prevent competition. They were invited to present their project in January 2024 in front of a panel of judges which happened to be the Department of Homeland Security.
They won first place for their efforts and received a $10,000 grant to sustain the MIND SPACE project on campus.
MIND SPACE stands for Mental Independance and Nurturing Development and Solitary Place for Achieving Calm Emotions.
“Right now, it’s in the implementation phase with student wellness to create one specific place for students if they want privacy on campus,” Hepworth said.
There is one space here on campus so far and it is located in the library.
The goal is to have one for every major college here in Iowa State, campuses around the country and even all the way at the pre-K level, according to Hepworth.
With the traction that MIND SPACE gained after winning Invent2Prevent, Hepworth was invited to speak at the Eradicate Hate Global Summit in Pittsburgh, Penn., about how MIND SPACE is helping students here on campus.
The Eradicate Global Hate Summit is an event that draws professionals from across the world that work in violence prevention.
The panel that Hepworth was invited to speak at was called ‘Students diffusing hate on campus.’
Hepworth was invited along with another student from Xavier University who won the Invent2Prevent competition in Spring 2023. Where Hepworth’s program revolved around mental health in students, the student from Xavier’s program was centered around diffusing hate and misinformation between African American and Jewish students.
“It was a really unique opportunity to have as a student,” Hepworth said. “To speak on something as complex as targeted violence was pretty scary, but afterwards people came up to us just talking about how proud they were of us and how hopeful they were to see students inspiring hope.”
The Summit had over 1,000 people in attendance along with more than 8,000 attending virtually. Among the attendees was Democratic Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, who survived an assassination attempt in 2011.
“There were all sorts of people there that were really inspiring, and this was kind of a once-in-a-lifetime chance to speak to them,” Hepworth said.
Hepworth said that the attendees can see some burnout if there is no progress with targeted violence, but that these innovative solutions for students gives them a newfound hope.
“It’s just nice to know that there are people who are making progress, even if you don’t see it,” Hepworth said. “Every day, there are people working hard to diffuse hate or at least trying to reduce the chances of it.”
Hepworth came to Iowa State as a political science major and has since transitioned to public relations, but with the strides that MIND SPACE is making, she is finding herself almost back in that political landscape.
“The message that we were trying to get out[with MIND SPACE] was that mental health affects us all,” Hepworth said. “If you support people here, then they usually carry that and pay it forward in other parts of their life. It creates a domino effect.”
Hepworth’s mom is an elementary school teacher, who talks about how some kids with behavioral issues just need a place to calm down and that she’d greatly appreciate MIND SPACE at the pre-K level.
After Hepworth graduates in December, she has a job lined up with the Teachers Retirement System in the State of Illinois where she will continue to spread the world of mental health awareness and what we can do to help it.
“The amount of people that I’ve met who are interested in connecting in the future and helping me keep MIND SPACE alive gives me a lot of faith,” Hepworth said. “It is a lot to manage on my own especially with a lot of people from that class having already graduated.”
In a report from the NCHA in Fall 2022, 44.25% of undergraduate students reported they have a positive relationship with mental health.