OUR COMMUNITY

One Thing I Wish 
You Knew
Friendship Circle’s UMatter presents 
its fourth annual, “One Thing I Wish 
You Knew” event March 13 from 
5-6:30 p.m. at Seaholm High School 
Auditorium in Birmingham and 
virtually via livestream. 
 The free in-person and virtual event 
will focus on empowering individuals, 
with a specific focus on teens, to 
shatter the stigmas surrounding 
mental health challenges.
“One Thing I Wish You Knew” 
provides teens and the entire 

community an opportunity to 
highlight the vulnerability and 
honesty of telling the people in 
their lives what they wish they 
know about their mental health 
journey. Participants will also discuss 
how their attempts to overcome 
challenges have often felt isolating 
and alienating. 
The event features a diverse group 
of speakers who will share their 
own personal struggles and their 
experiences working to overcome 
them. 
 Speakers include Yaffa Klausner, 
a senior at Farber Hebrew Day 

School who has struggled with 
self-worth, confidence and 
mental health challenges; Nancy 
Cutler, a mom, wife and pediatric 
cardiologist who lost her son to 
suicide; Merrik Michaelson, a junior 
at Frankel Jewish Academy who 
will share his unique experience of 
suffering from an eating disorder 
as a male; and Emma Feldberg, a 
senior at Cranbrook Schools who 
has struggled with mental health 
throughout high school.
Register at www.eventbrite.com/e/
umatters-one-thing-i-wish-you-knew-
tickets-261853239087. 

24 | MARCH 3 • 2022 

F

arber Hebrew Day School 
of Southfield held its first 
UMatter Club meeting on 
Jan. 25. UMatter operates within 
Friendship Circle and is a program 
focused on empowering teens to 
shatter the stigmas surrounding 
mental health challenges and sui-
cide. 
Elissa Sternberg is the high 
school’s social worker and oversees 
the club along with senior Yaffa 
Klausner, who’s in charge of the club 
that meets on a weekly basis. Yaffa 
says the group has about a dozen 
members, and says she feels hon-
ored the club is getting recognition. 
“We tackle mental health-related 
struggles that students at our school 
may face and ways in which the 
school and other students could 
accommodate them,
” Yaffa said, 
adding that the club is busy at work 
organizing the school’s UMatter 
Week coming up in April. The 
week will be dedicated to the many 

themes of the UMatter program and 
is filled with mental health- 
related speakers, activities and, more 
importantly, open conversations. 
Yaffa says the goal of this year’s 
UMatter Week is to make sure every 
single person in the school knows 
and feels they are being heard and 
cared about and to not be ashamed 
or scared to reach out for help if 
they need to. 
“The UMatter Club is a really 
great opportunity to have open con-
versations about mental health and 
how to improve our school’s overall 
environment,
” said Daniella Weil, 
class of 2022. 
While topics may be tough, the 
students say it’s a fun environment. 
 “I really appreciate and enjoy the 
UMatter Club because it’s mixture 
of discussing commonly ignored 
topics surrounding mental health 
while also being a fun experience for 
everyone,
” said Nava Feldman, class 
of 2025. 

ABOVE: Farber students at the first meeting of their UMatter 
Club on Jan. 25.

Friendship Circle program empowers 
teens to shatter stigma of mental 
health challenges.

RACHEL SWEET ASSOCIATE EDITOR 

Farber Launches 
First UMatter Club

