The Binghamton Student Managed Adderall Research Team (B-SMART) hosted Matters of the Mind, an event that emphasized wellness, mental health and substance outreach and awareness, on Wednesday.

Held in the West Gym’s lobby, the event featured over 11 on- and off-campus organizations and businesses — including Active Minds, Southern Tier Aids Program, Binghamton Mentors for the Interdisciplinary Nutrition and Distress Study and Simple Form Pilates. They promoted their resources through wellness pamphlets, training, lessons and giveaways, and held activities including Kahoot!, raffles and writing a letter to your future self. The event was founded and organized by Samantha Bonventre, B-SMART’s assistant research lead and a senior majoring in biology.

“We actually started Matters of the Mind last semester,” Bonventre said. “It was mainly just to promote mental health, as well as substance awareness on campus for students walking through the West Gym lobby … I just felt like there wasn’t really an event on campus to have all these organizations come together. We all promote the same thing, which is mental health, and just having resources available for students and knowing their resources on campus if they are struggling.”

B-SMART is a student-run group founded by Lena Begdache, an associate professor in health and wellness studies. Bonventre explained the organization’s principal focuses.

“We mainly focus on investigating illicit Adderall use — along with other substances — and the effect on mental health having to do with mental distress, as well as nutrition and personality,” Bonventre said. “We are going to various conferences, and we work on manuscripts and abstracts to promote our work, as well as we do a lot of outreach on campus.”

In addition to B-SMART, another organization featured at Matters of the Mind was Mindset Mentors — established as part of BU’s COVID-19 Return to Campus planning to aid students in developing a powerful and positive mindset. Francesca Puleo, a member of the program and a junior majoring in biology, elaborated on what the organization promotes at BU.

“We go around campus educating people on stress prevention and … stress resilience,” Puleo said. “[We also] educate people on how to use coping skills and methods in their life to better navigate stressful situations.”

Puleo described the importance of Matters of the Mind and other mental health organizations on campus.

“I think realizing that obviously you’re at school to learn, but that you’re at school to learn more about yourself,” Puleo said. “Going to these events and being able to get out there shows people that there’s resources to do that, [and that] you don’t have to do this alone. There’s so many different clubs and organizations and professors and doctors that are so educated on the topics and so willing to help.”

The event also featured a talk by Bill Clark, a world champion powerlifter, a Guinness World Record holder and an adjunct health and wellness lecturer at BU. His talk emphasized mental strength and conditioning and taking charge of your life. Clark expressed the importance of people who are experts in their field sharing what they have learned.

“Having been places that most people might not get the opportunity to go to — the Olympic Training Center, different countries and experiencing different things — those are the things that I can help give back to other people,” Clark said. “Whatever field they choose to go [into], they now have some tools that they didn’t have before, and I think that’s such an amazing thing for a university … Right here in this college, there are experts in so many different things, so when they share it, everybody becomes better. That’s the idea — we take each other, we lift each other up to better places and then everybody wins.”

With an abundance of information, activities, organizations and people passionate about their cause, Matters of the Mind allowed students to learn more about mental health resources on campus that they might not have been aware of. Bonventre expressed what she hopes people take away from the event.

“I hope this event will reach people that need it — that’s the biggest thing,” Bonventre said. “If someone’s struggling, maybe this makes their day. As many people as we have coming here, I hope someone will walk away and say, ‘this event really helped me.’”