Many students struggle to balance the pressures of academics, athletics and everyday life. For North Shore High School junior and varsity volleyball player Devyn Mandell, this sense of pressure helped inspire her to create a space where students can talk openly about mental health.
Mandell, a Glen Head resident who recently turned 16, founded Bring Change 2 Mind at North Shore High School, a student club focused on encouraging conversations about mental health and helping students recognize that they are not alone when dealing with stress, anxiety or other challenges.
Mandell said the lack of mental health-focused clubs at the school was one reason she decided to bring the organization to North Shore. Her own experiences balancing school and volleyball also influenced the decision.
“Sometimes it can be difficult, so I wanted to bring this club to let people know that when they’re feeling pressure or anxiety, or any type of feelings related to those, that it’s okay, and that they’re not the only ones going through this,” Mandell said.
The club is part of Bring Change 2 Mind, a nonprofit organization founded in 2010 that seeks to end stigma and discrimination around mental illness by giving students safe spaces to discuss these challenges.
Mandell said she first contacted North Shore Principal Eric Contreras toward the end of the last school year to discuss creating the club locally. After meeting with school administrators and counseling staff and preparing a proposal, the club was approved during the summer.
The organization provides educational materials, including a collection of topics and presentations that the club can use for its meetings. The club also received a $500 grant from the organization.
Mandell serves as both founder and president. The club currently has about 15 members, primarily juniors and sophomores, and she hopes to attract more freshmen and other underclassmen.
“I just wanted to show other kids that it’s okay to struggle from a mental illness,” Mandell said, “and it’s okay (for it) to be normalized to talk about these things,”
The club’s activities are intended to give students opportunities to participate in discussions while also promoting positive messages throughout the school. For an upcoming meeting, members plan to create a banner featuring words of encouragement that will be displayed in the cafeteria for students to sign.
Mandell said the club is also considering bringing in a mental health professional to speak with students. She has created a month-by-month document of potential activities to supplement the materials provided by Bring Change 2 Mind.
The club’s launch has been closely connected to Mandell’s role on the volleyball team. Varsity coach Danielle Bleiweiss, who has known Mandell since she was in 8th-grade, said the team organized a mental health awareness game at the beginning of the school year to help introduce the club.
Mandell and the team’s other captains helped organize a bake sale, while the volleyball players wore shirts reading “Mental Health Matters” during the game against South Side High School. The team raised just under $500 for Morgan’s Message, an organization supporting student-athletes’ mental health.
Mandell also delivered a three-minute speech before the game about her own experiences, the importance of mental health and the goals of Bring Change 2 Mind.
Bleiweiss said Mandell’s decision to establish the club was consistent with the leadership she has demonstrated throughout her time with the volleyball program.
“She knows that she’s not the only one who goes through it,” Bleiweiss said. “So instead of thinking ‘why me?,’ she thought ‘how can I help other people?,’ and that’s who she is to a T.”
Mandell originally joined the volleyball program after playing soccer. Bleiweiss said she noticed Mandell’s potential when she attended an open gym as an eighth grader, despite having little volleyball experience. She ultimately joined the varsity team that year and has been a starter for four years.
Bleiweiss said Mandell has developed into a leader both on and off the court, and that her interest in mental health reflects the broader lessons she hopes to teach her players.
“I am fully focused on the mental aspect of the game,” Bleiweiss emphasized, “and making sure that these girls are advocates for themselves and each other.”
For Mandell, the club represents an opportunity to make mental health discussions a more ordinary part of student life.
The responsibility of running a new organization has not been overwhelming, she said, in part because of the support she has received from her family, school administrators, counselors, faculty advisers and fellow students.
Bleiweiss added that seeing Mandell support other students has been rewarding. “I think that she was meant to (help others),” Bleiweiss said, “and knows that she should be using her voice to make positive change.”
Mandell said the club’s central message extends beyond student-athletes, emphasizing that students facing mental health challenges should know that they are not alone.
“I wanted to bring this club to let people know that how they feel when they’re feeling pressure or anxiety, or any type of feelings related to those, that it’s okay,” Mandell said, “and that they’re not the only ones going through this.”
