The Happy Hour student organization aims to tackle mental health at USC

STEFAN DE LA GUARDIA: Can you elaborate a bit on what The Happy Hour is?

SAPHIA ZAMAN: Of course. So I recently founded the Happy Hour. It is a student-led organization dedicated to a lot of different aspects of mental health, but primarily focusing on accessibility of mental health and just kind of a place for the student organization of USC to come together as a community as providing a safe space for everybody. One day, I was just on my laptop, checking my emails as one does, and I got an email from Annenberg that was talking about a scholarship. So I clicked on it and I ended up reading an article and it was called the Kaleigh Finnie Memorial Scholarship. And immediately, the article just drew me in. So I’m from Houston, Texas originally, and this girl, her name is Kaleigh Finnie. She was a previous Annenberg student after the first semester. She was struggling with mental health issues, but it wasn’t really aware to other people, and she ended up taking her own life back in Houston— and, just as being someone from Houston, and I’ve also struggled with mental health illnesses, and I’ve seen it firsthand... it really just spoke to me, and I’ve always wanted to do something with mental health.

So essentially, I gave my pitch of an idea of a mental health research project, and I thought that the best use of my research would be a mental health club because I feel like community is a huge thing that I’ve seen at USC, and I felt like a place where everyone can come together, but also, you know, have a good time. That comes with the name the Happy Hour. It’s just like kind of positive, but also like, talking about the important aspects of mental health and creating a bridge because I know so many people, I’ve seen so many people, even at USC, stop and not get the help that they deserve, that they need, because the process is too difficult or they’re not educated. They don’t know where to go, so accessibility is huge and I’m using the funds. The scholarship, they are funding the club and I’m using my budget for various different things and just founding. It has been a big part of it. So it’s been doing really well so far and I’m really excited about it.

JUSTIN HEO: Amazing. That sounds incredible. I know that your club, you guys meet and discuss mental health issues. What kinds of topics can we expect to hear in the upcoming weeks?

ZAMAN: So each different meeting, we’re going to go over a different topic. So a lot of people, when they think of mental health, they just think like anxiety, depression, but there is so much more to it. So the first meeting could be about, like I know this week is National Eating Disorder Awareness Week, so our next meeting, we are going to have a guest speaker to come and talk about eating disorders and because there’s a lot of different things that go in with that. So there’s going to be like body image issues, anxiety disorders, panic disorders and then various different topics that come with that depression and then suicide awareness and many more. We have different committees. We have outreach committees, program committees to come up with fundraisers and outreach to reach out to guest speakers and stuff like that. It’s all in the works and it’s exciting because everybody gets a big part in it. Like although I founded it, I’m getting help from everybody and it just like it really empowers students to be able to feel like they’re making a difference. And it’s super rewarding, so it’s been it’s been a great time so far.

You can find The Happy Hour on Instagram @thehappyhourusc.