Meet Vaishnavi Sam and Sreeja Reddy | Mental Health & Self-Care Club Co-President

We had the good fortune of connecting with Vaishnavi Sam and Sreeja Reddy  and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Vaishnavi and Sreeja, let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Coming from a highly competitive school, it’s easy to get sucked into the academic stress without taking the necessary breaks or self care habits. There were many months when getting 6 hours of sleep was considered lucky. Each day got longer, and our health and self motivation decreased day by day. Almost everyday you’d catch someone saying, “I can’t do this anymore.” It’s easy to forget that good health is more important than good grades, but we’re so invested in getting that A that we forget to get a good night’s sleep and end up bombing the test anyway. One day, the two of us were talking about how no one at our school was addressing the sleep depravity and low self-esteem of the students, and we wanted to do something to help them out. We wished there was a place where we could spend a bit of time having fun and de-stressing. This conversation birthed the idea that became our club: Mind over Matter, which had the goal of teaching people self-care and inspiring people to be more proactive in taking care of their mental health.

When we first thought of the idea for Mind Over Matter, we ran into the issue that such a club already existed on campus and the administration wouldn’t approve two similar clubs. However, the existing club was inactive and wasn’t doing much with the opportunities available to them. Like all great dreamers, we had the thought, “We could do this better than them.” But unlike most dreamers, we decided to actually do it. We jumped out on a limb and asked the graduating president of the existing club if we could take over the club after she left. Such a move was unprecedented, and there was no guarantee it would work or that she would even respond. Thankfully, because we proved to her that we could put in the time and effort, we were able to take over management of the club and revamped it from scratch as Mind Over Matter.

There were many clubs on campus that people only started or participated in to put into their college applications. We didn’t want our club to be like that. We wanted to truly utilize all the opportunities available to us to create a flourishing organization that actually helped the students. Since we cared about what we were doing, we made sure to do everything very well and on time. Also in order to overcome the stigma surrounding mental health as well as break out of the negative shadow of our preceding club, we were absolutely committed to making our club the best it could be. Whereas other clubs only held maybe one activity a quarter, we held 3-4 activities each month to firmly establish our presence. We also utilized our perspective as young people to do activities that would appeal to young people of all genders and backgrounds. For example, we hosted hands-on activities like slime making, pot painting, and a stress ball workshop. We witnessed our success materialize when hundreds of students showed up to our activities.

Originally, our organization’s management consisted of just the two of us, and we quickly realized that the workload was overwhelming. Publicizing, sending emails, making slideshows, planning events – it was too much. So we elected to get a cabinet of club officers to split up the work. It was difficult at first to delegate all the tasks equally, make sure everyone was on task, and maintain clear communication, but once we got the hang of it, we were able to operate our club fluently. We ran into an issue soon after though. Since our club revolved around mental health, we decided it would be especially important to have a large presence during finals week in each quarter, but it was necessary to balance that with the mental health of our cabinet members as well. To ensure that each cabinet member was not getting stressed out with all our events and had time to study for their finals, we set up shifts and balanced out all the workload. Achieving this work-life balance has definitely been one of the biggest lessons we’ve had to learn, but it is an important skill that will help our organization run smoothly in the long run.

We want our club to be remembered as a safe and fun place that people are excited about and are willing to clear their schedules to go to. Every school should have some organization to promote mental health and provide a welcoming community, and we hope that our club can be a model to other schools. We want to fight against the stigma that mental health is only about disorders and only for select people. Instead, we want people to realize that everyone, regardless of age, gender, or background, should take steps to care for their mental health in their daily life. We want to change the narrative and make people interested in learning more about mental health and its vast field.

What do you attribute your success to?
The key to our success was a simple but essential component: communication. Communication is the foundation of any successful organization, so when we first started the club we wanted to make sure we were operating on the same wavelength and understood each other. Due to our fifteen years of friendship, we practically had telepathy, always finishing each other’s incomplete thoughts, and we shared a vision for the club that allowed us to excel further than we ever expected. Communicating with each other, with our cabinet members, and with our club members was pivotal in the success of MOM because without the communication we couldn’t have executed any of our plans and it would have just been a dream rather than a reality.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
LOCAL POINTS OF INTEREST: Farmers’ Market, Cerritos Library, Little India THEME PARKS: Universal Studios, Disneyland, Six Flags, Knott’s Berry Farm, Crystal cove, pismo beach
BEACHES: Malibu Beach, Laguna Beach, Santa Monica Pier, Santa Barbara,
FAMOUS PHOTO PLACES: Hollywood (walk of fame, Hollywood sign, Chinese and Dolby Theater), Solvang
FOOD: Purgatory Pizza, CPK, In n Out, Creamistry
NATURE: Big Sur, Yosemite, Pacific Coast Highway, Kings Canyon National Park, Griffith Observatory, Joshua National Park, California poppy fields, Death Valley National Park, Channel Islands

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Sreeja Reddy, my best friend and co-president

Instagram: @mom.whs

Other: Email: mindovermatter.whs@gmail.com