The MindHandHeart Innovation Fund announced its third round of grant winners at its final steering committee meeting for the academic year, on May 19. In the third and final round of its first academic year, the fund awarded $30,000 in grants to 10 new proposals from a pool of 22 applicants. Winning projects this round ranged widely from public art, to colorful lawn furniture, to high-energy movement classes, to a website, zscore.mit.edu, where students register sleep data.
Each proposal underwent review by the six working groups of the MindHandHeart Initiative; a selection committee comprised of members of the Undergraduate Association (UA) and the Graduate Student Council (GSC); MindHandHeart’s sponsors, the Chancellor’s Office and MIT Medical; and the initiative’s faculty chair, Professor Rosalind Picard of the MIT Media Lab.
Two of the newest Innovation Fund projects employ creative approaches to mental health support. Jared Berezin’s proposed glass sculpture titled, “Helping You, Helping Others” is an interactive display offering a tangible reminder that help-seeking is common on campus. His plan includes offering tokens to the estimated 1,700 students who visit Mental Health and Counseling and approximately 5,000 who visit S3. Students would then deposit the tokens into the sculpture. Rheinila Fernandes of MIT Mental Health and Counseling proposed “Motivate and Move,” a project that brings mental health support directly to MIT graduate students where they live. A weekly BollyX dance workout will be followed by a coping skills cognitive behavioral therapy group, and an optional monthly nutrition workshop.
Other winners in this newest round of funding include an Independent Activities Period studio-arts workshop for students affected by mental illness; "Notice and Respond" facilitator training developed and provided by Cornell University to help faculty, staff, and students recognize and respond to mental health issues; lectures on spectacular failures in “Grad School and Beyond;” professional development workshops for student advocates and peer counselors, and support for the MIT Day of Play and wide distribution of TMAYD (Tell Me About Your Day) bracelets.
Read more at news.mit.edu.