2 — Friday, March 11, 2016
News
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Keynote speaker
discusses app that
uses behavorial
therapy technique
By GRACE CANFIELD
For the Daily
The University of Michigan
Depression Center closed out its
two-day Depression on College
Campuses Conference with a
keynote address from Dr. Robert
Morris
titled
“Crowdsourcing
Mental
Health.”
Thursday.
Attendees
were
primarily
University professors and alumni,
as well as parents of children with
depression.
Dr. John Greden, executive
director
of
the
University’s
Comprehensive
Depression
Center, started the conference 14
years ago in response to increasing
calls for action to address the
stigma surrounding depression and
anxiety on college campuses. He
sought to involve other professors
both at the University and at other
colleges across the United States,
eventually bringing on Todd Sevig
and Daniel Eisenberg, co-founders
of the University’s Depression
Center, to help organize the event,
ultimately expanding to include
450 registered in attendance this
year. Sevig is currently the director
of the University’s Counseling and
Psychological Services.
Greden said though he has been
involved in the conference each
year, the organizational efforts of
other University members have
allowed the program to expand
and improve.
“The credit for organizing a
lot of this just belongs to a team
of students, counselors, RAs, a
number of administrators — I
mean everybody gets together and
says, ‘who should we invite this
year that’s really special?’” he said.
Morris,
the
committee’s
choice, is the founder of the social
platform Koko, an iPhone-based
app that strives to connect users
looking for alternative methods to
cope with depression and anxiety.
Morris explained that he came
up with the idea for Koko while
struggling with depression on his
own as a student at Massachusetts
Institute
of
Technology.
He
encountered a website called Stack
Overflow, which allows users to
post questions while learning how
to program and write code, and
other users will help them solve
their problem.
“Just as we can use this system
to identify and fix bugs in our code,
perhaps we can do something
similar to help us identify and fix
bugs in our thinking,” Morris said.
The app uses an interface
similar to that of Twitter or
Facebook, allowing users to post
about day-to-day situations and
ask for advice, which is given
in the form of “reframes” by
anonymous users. The “reframes”
are a system of commenting and
refining discussion to approach an
issue from a different perspective.
This follows a method of cognitive
behavioral
therapy
in
which
seemingly overwhelming issues
are recast in a different, hopefully
more positive light, with the intent
to help the user find a new way
to think about the problem or
situation.
Morris used a personal anecdote
to illustrate the experience of
using the app, in which he posted
about a stressful situation that he
encountered in his life.
“My wife really wants a baby,
but I’m not sure,” he wrote. “There
is a chance my child will struggle
with depression and chronic pain,
as I have.”
He followed this post with what
he described as a negative thought,
an explanation of the view that
pervaded his way of thinking
about the situation:
“I worry I won’t be able to care
for (the child), as I sometimes
struggle to care for myself,” the
post read.
Morris
then
showed
the
audience multiple examples of
“reframes” that he got from other
users, similar to comments on
MATT VAILLIENCOURT/Dailly
LSA junior Trevor Torres performs a poem as a part of Michigan’s slam poetry team at the Michigan League on Thursday.
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Performance topics
range from family,
to health and
identity
By TANYA MADHANI
Daily Staff Reporter
The University of Michigan
Slam Poetry Club hosted its
final campus performance of the
academic year Thursday in the
Michigan League basement to an
audience of 40 people. The themes
of the poems performed centered
around family, acceptance and
identity.
Performers
at
the
event
were LSA sophomores Laura
Schwendeman and Alyssa Holt
and LSA juniors Trevor Torres
and Eileen Li. The four compose
the organization’s National Slam
Poetry Team. From April 6 to 9,
they will travel to Austin, Texas
to compete in the College Unions
Poetry Slam Invitational against
more than 60 different collegiate
teams.
Schwendeman
shared
a
poem during the event about
her grandmother’s battle with
postpartum
psychosis,
and
another about her relationship
with her father.
“A lot of the poems we read
tonight aren’t specific instances
or experiences that everyone in
the audience might have had, but
hopefully they could connect on
them on some level,” she said.
“That’s sort of the basis of poetry
… to get people to relate to us in a
way we can relate to them.”
LSA junior Coral Lu said she
attended the event to support
Schwendeman and the club as a
whole. One of the most moving
poems for her, she said, was
Torres’ poem about his battle
with juvenile diabetes and celiac
disease.
“They were all really powerful
and all really sad,” Lu said. “It
was just really powerful how his
personal experiences talked to
you … I didn’t really expect it to be
that personal and strong.”
For
Schwendeman,
the
evening’s performance was a
chance for the team not only to
showcase its work, but also to
gain feedback from the University
audience
about
its
poems.
Forming the national team is a
long process, she said, beginning
in January. In the lead up to the
final decisions, there are both a
series of fall events and poetry
slams each month.
Lu said she thought it was
important for students to come
and support organizations like the
Slam Poetry Club, both to provide
feedback to the poets about their
writing as well as to be exposed to
a new art form.
“I think there are a lot of
amazing things going on on
campus that people don’t really
know of,” she said. “They’re going
to nationals and it’s a pretty big
thing, but not too many people
know of it. And they definitely
need to practice, and we need to
get to know how awesome they
are and what slam poetry really
is.”
Kylie
Carpenter,
a
Public
Health masters student, said
she
found
Li’s
poem
about
miscommunication between her
mother’s native language and her
English the most powerful, adding
that she thought slam poetry gives
students an outlet they wouldn’t
otherwise find at the University.
“I thought that was interesting,
like the different perspective
of the culture,” she said. “It’s
something like a hobby that
people have, you can’t express
it during classes. It’s something
you can kind of experience in a
THREE THINGS YOU
SHOULD KNOW TODAY
CAMPUS EVENTS & NOTES
CAMPUS EVENTS & NOTES
ZOEY HOLMSTROM/Daily
Nate Ruess of FUN performs at the Bernie Sanders rally in Crisler Center on
Monday. The rally came just before Michigan’s primaries on Tuesday.
PHOTOS OF THE WEEK
SINDUJA KILARU/Daily
Pitaya employee and EMU student Keanu Palmer folds clothes in Pitaya on Wednesday.
A
Donald
Trump
supporter
was
charged
with
two
counts
of
assault
and
disorderly
conduct
after
punching a Black protestor at
a rally in North Carolina , the
Washington Post reported.
2
The
Justice
Department
responded to Apple
in its dispute over
the
San
Bernandino
shooter’s locked iPhone,
accusing
the
company
of
false
rhetoric
and
“overblown” fear, the New
York Times reported.
Pennsylvania
police are hunting
for
two
attackers
who
opened
fire
at a backyard party on
Wednesday
night.
The
death toll from the shooting
has risen to six people,
according to Fox News.
3
Historic
sites lecture
WHAT: The
International
Coalition of Sites of
Conscience will explore
historic sites and
their contemporary
implications.
WHO: Museum
Studies Program
WHEN: 12 p.m. to 1 p.m.
WHERE: UMMA,
room 125
UMMA after
hours
WHAT: The museum
will open galleries and
special exhibits. Live music
and refreshments will be
available.
WHO: University of
Michigan Museum of Art
WHEN: 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.
WHERE: UMMA
The Big Short
screening
WHAT: A free screening
of the Oscar-winning
movie about the carsh
of the housing market.
WHO: University
Activities Center
WHEN: 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
WHERE: Natural
Sciences Auditorium
ITS Windows
workshop
WHAT: The Computer
Showcase will address
students’ ease of access
with Windows 7 and
Windows 10.
WHO: Information and
Technology Services
WHEN: 11 a.m. to 12 p.m.
WHERE: Michigan
Union, room G-312
Climate change
symposium
WHAT: Presentations
will focus on links between
climate change and social
conflict in the Middle East.
WHO: Center for Middle
Eastern and North
African Studies
WHEN: 1 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
WHERE: Weill Hall,
Annenberg Auditorium
Ross Gay
reading
WHAT: The National
Book Award finalist
and Indiana University
professor will host
a reading of his
poetry and prose.
WHO: Lloyd Hall Scholars
WHEN: 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
WHERE: Literati
Bookstore
Big Fun and
Miles Davis
WHAT: Big Fun will play the
electric music of Miles Davis.
WHO: Campus Information
WHEN: 8 p.m. to 10 p.m.
WHERE: East Quad, Keene
Theatre
l Please report any error in
the Daily to corrections@
michigandaily.com.
Students art
exhibit
WHAT: Chroma’s
opening on Friday will
present narratives of
people of color through
performances and visual
art.
WHO: Middle East and
Arab Network
WHEN: 7 p.m. to 8:30
p.m.
WHERE: North Quad
Conference aims to encourage
dialogue about mental health
Before national competition,
slam poetry team hosts event
See KEYNOTE, Page 3
See POETRY, Page 3
1