May is Mental Health Awareness Month — an opportunity to reflect on the role that mental health plays in the lives of college students and throughout a university. Unaddressed mental health challenges pervade all aspects of life, especially academic performance, and can leave students feeling unmotivated and alone.

Oglethorpe University has long been a tight-knit community where students are individually supported. To further strengthen that safety net, the university has recently rolled out new mental heath initiatives and expanded resources through the counseling center.

The recently-formed Petrel Assessment and Care Team (PACT) is a campus-wide group of multi-disciplinary professionals that helps ensure campus is safe and supportive. The group uses early intervention strategies to identify concerning behavior from students, faculty and staff and coordinates with resources on and off campus to help mitigate risk to the community.

Oglethorpe President Nick Ladany, a trained psychologist, has placed a greater emphasis on mental health support on campus.

“Meeting a student’s mental health needs are foundationally as important as meeting their nutritional needs. As educators, we can’t support student academic success without seeing to their health needs first,” said President Ladany in a recent op-ed for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Ultimately, though, what puts Oglethorpe in a prime position to support the mental health of students is its small community.

“You will feel like part of a family, and Oglethorpe does a great job of making sure that not only just students and staff, but everyone is out to help you,” says accounting major Angie Zaraza Gomez ’25.