good afternoon everyone I’m glad you
guys stay to the end I just before I
start just wanna shout out sorry my
cousin and my sister they’re my support
system and I hope I don’t cry on the
stage so when I was 13 years old I was
faced with the biggest battle of my life
I was diagnosed with cancer and I was
diagnosed with cancer and I was given to
diagnosis I was given acute
lymphoblastic leukemia which has a 90%
survival rate and about two weeks later
doctors came back and said I was
diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia
which has a 50% survival rate
so the odds were we’re faced against me
I was given rigorous treatment of
chemotherapy radiation bone-marrow
infection I had in my nose and for most
of the treatment I was very optimistic
but it got it got it got too much and
the doctors believed that I was
depressed and I was 13 I didn’t know
what depression was it was just
something that the doctors are saying so
growing up in an African household my
parents are originally from Ghana West
Africa and mental illness is it’s not a
thing there they barely understood it so
my mom when they told me that I was
gonna be put on depression pills my mom
was against it and at 13 years old
taking so much medicine I was like
that’s cool with me I’m good so coming
from an African background
we’re just told to pray and there’s
perfect there’s nothing wrong with
there’s nothing wrong with playing but
there but you have to talk to somebody
there are other many cultures that do
not believe in mental illness or see the
importance of it and it wasn’t until I
came to Cephas in university and I
reached college a psychology department
where I learned the importance of mental
health and witnessed for myself how much
it can take a toll on people almost 20%
of cultural minorities are more likely
to report a serious illness
compared to our white counterparts and
according to APA about 70% of college
directors believe that the number of
students with mental illness has
increased in the past year my speech is
really short but many times we are
afraid to come out and see that there’s
something wrong with us mentally and I
am very guilty of this and I don’t even
catch myself falling off sometimes but I
think that we should take the initiative
and inspire others the courage to get
help and Hannah did a way better job of
saying this but I think we should take
the time to check in on our loved ones
our friends our family and even in
ourselves and tell ourselves that it’s
okay that were not okay like we need
someone to talk to you there is someone
out there who wants to help you there’s
someone out there who wants to talk to
you your friends your family and like
henna said someone wants to talk to you
and they want to help you
you shouldn’t have be afraid of what
others think because I know a lot of
times we are afraid that someone’s gonna
think that we’re crazy
but we all have our downfalls and your
mental health is the most important
thing and I think it’s time that we
encourage others to be open about their
mental health and get the help that they
need
thank you [Applause]
guys stay to the end I just before I
start just wanna shout out sorry my
cousin and my sister they’re my support
system and I hope I don’t cry on the
stage so when I was 13 years old I was
faced with the biggest battle of my life
I was diagnosed with cancer and I was
diagnosed with cancer and I was given to
diagnosis I was given acute
lymphoblastic leukemia which has a 90%
survival rate and about two weeks later
doctors came back and said I was
diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia
which has a 50% survival rate
so the odds were we’re faced against me
I was given rigorous treatment of
chemotherapy radiation bone-marrow
infection I had in my nose and for most
of the treatment I was very optimistic
but it got it got it got too much and
the doctors believed that I was
depressed and I was 13 I didn’t know
what depression was it was just
something that the doctors are saying so
growing up in an African household my
parents are originally from Ghana West
Africa and mental illness is it’s not a
thing there they barely understood it so
my mom when they told me that I was
gonna be put on depression pills my mom
was against it and at 13 years old
taking so much medicine I was like
that’s cool with me I’m good so coming
from an African background
we’re just told to pray and there’s
perfect there’s nothing wrong with
there’s nothing wrong with playing but
there but you have to talk to somebody
there are other many cultures that do
not believe in mental illness or see the
importance of it and it wasn’t until I
came to Cephas in university and I
reached college a psychology department
where I learned the importance of mental
health and witnessed for myself how much
it can take a toll on people almost 20%
of cultural minorities are more likely
to report a serious illness
compared to our white counterparts and
according to APA about 70% of college
directors believe that the number of
students with mental illness has
increased in the past year my speech is
really short but many times we are
afraid to come out and see that there’s
something wrong with us mentally and I
am very guilty of this and I don’t even
catch myself falling off sometimes but I
think that we should take the initiative
and inspire others the courage to get
help and Hannah did a way better job of
saying this but I think we should take
the time to check in on our loved ones
our friends our family and even in
ourselves and tell ourselves that it’s
okay that were not okay like we need
someone to talk to you there is someone
out there who wants to help you there’s
someone out there who wants to talk to
you your friends your family and like
henna said someone wants to talk to you
and they want to help you
you shouldn’t have be afraid of what
others think because I know a lot of
times we are afraid that someone’s gonna
think that we’re crazy
but we all have our downfalls and your
mental health is the most important
thing and I think it’s time that we
encourage others to be open about their
mental health and get the help that they
need
thank you [Applause]
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