This summer, we bumped into Markie Pasternak in the Capitol Hill cafeteria during Active Minds' Hill Day. She was running between sessions, but we grabbed her long enough to hear about a program she leads. We knew right away we wanted her on the show.
In our new episode, Markie talks about her path from college freshman to Active Minds staff member, what draws young people to mental health advocacy, and how the Mental Health Advocacy Institute is helping students change their campuses from the inside.
From a Facebook DM to a dream job
Markie just celebrated five years on staff at Active Minds, but her history with the organization goes back much further. She has seen it from nearly every angle: chapter member at Marquette University, member and later president of the national Student Advisory Committee, a year on the Board of Directors, and chapter advisor at Auburn University during her first job after grad school.
The summer before college, she kept coming back to one thought: if she had understood mental health and stigma sooner, she could have seeked help sooner. She wanted that to be different for other people.
So one night she searched for mental health advocacy groups on college campuses, found Active Minds, and messaged the Marquette chapter president on Facebook. She hadn't seen her dorm or met her roommate yet. As she put it, she wasn't a student yet, but she would be in a few months.
Active Minds has grown a lot since 2012. What began as an effort to change the conversation about mental health on college campuses is now the nation's leading nonprofit mobilizing youth and young adults, roughly ages 14 to 25, around mental health. Its work now centers communities whose needs have long gone under the radar, including young people of color and LGBTQ+ youth.
Who is drawn to advocacy, and why you don't have to be
Sarah raised something we think about a lot: going through something hard doesn't mean you owe the world a campaign about it. She once worked with a student recovering from cancer who felt pressure to blog about her fight. Markie agreed. Just because something happened to you doesn't mean you have to be its poster child. Healing and getting your own support come first.
For the students who do feel called to advocacy, Markie sees two common threads:
They've redefined success. Many are high achievers who hit a wall and realized they aren't machines built to turn out perfect work. Success can mean asking for help, going through treatment, or helping a friend get support, not just a grade or a title.
They want to pay it forward. They see their own struggle in other students and want to be part of the change. Some are doing this work while still going through something very hard themselves.
Inside the Mental Health Advocacy Institute
The Institute is one of Active Minds' newest programs, now heading into its third year. Each year, a cohort of 70 to 80 students is paid to lead a year-long mental health advocacy project on their own campus. Schools range from community colleges and HBCUs to Ivy League and large research universities, and more than half of U.S. states are now represented.
In the fall, students build an advocacy action plan around an issue affecting student mental health on their campus. In the spring, they put it into action. Along the way they join group trainings on leadership and advocacy and get one-on-one coaching from Markie.
After the first year, the program added a requirement: every student builds a steering committee with at least one faculty or staff member and at least one other student. Markie noticed that students with a campus mentor were the ones who actually got their plans implemented. Those mentors know the system and sit in the right meetings. She also encourages students to recruit someone whose experience differs from theirs, such as an international, first-generation, adult, or out-of-state student.
The results are real. Students have renovated library spaces into zen rooms, put mental health resources on syllabi across an entire school of arts and sciences, started peer support groups, and gotten the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline printed on student ID cards.
A story that stuck with us
We asked Markie for one story from the Institute, and she shared one we haven't stopped thinking about. A graduate student was working on mental health resources for undocumented students when he was detained by ICE mid-program and ended up in a different country, where he didn't speak the language.
Markie told him he didn't need to keep going with the Institute. He insisted on finishing. His project became one of the most successful of the year: a webpage for his college's equity office with mental health, legal, and campus resources for undocumented students and students from mixed-status and migrant families. Those resources are now there for every student on his campus.
The hard parts
Markie was honest about what gets in the way. Students' basic needs are a major barrier. She has worked with students facing homelessness, the loss of family members, interpersonal violence, and immigration crises. Their basic needs come first, and some have had to step away.
Policy shifts are another. One student was midway through bringing an LGBTQ+-informed suicide prevention training to her campus when her university could no longer fund it because of federal regulations.
Markie's own outlook has swung between those realities. As an undergrad, a campus newspaper called her fearless (her reaction: "Me? I have an anxiety disorder"). In grad school at Indiana University, she learned how much the system can stack the deck against students. Today she holds both: a clear view of the barriers, and real hope from watching students push through them.
Looking ahead
Markie's favorite part of the work is seeing projects come to life, often in photos students email her from campuses across the country. Next, she wants to help students keep their projects going beyond their year in the program. She also wants the Institute studied and shared, because 70 to 80 schools a year produce a lot of data, case studies, and stories the field can learn from. (Sarah is already volunteering to dig into the data.)
If her 18-year-old self could see her now, Markie says, she'd be amazed: "So you got your dream job."
Listen to the full episode
There's so much more in our conversation with Markie, including her full take on what makes a campus truly supportive. Listen to the full episode below, and check the show notes for how to apply to the Mental Health Advocacy Institute, find an Active Minds chapter on your campus, or start one.
If you or someone you know is struggling, call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
