3B
Wednesday, April 13, 2016 // The Statement
L
SA senior Laura Meyer’s immediate
response to being chosen as Student
of the Year was to share the recogni-
tion with all the other member of the Sexual
Assault Prevention and Awareness Center.
“It’s really fun to be recognized for some-
thing that I’ve worked really hard on,” she
said. “But at the same time a lot of the stuff
that we’ve all accomplished has been done
together, so I want to recognize the people
who have also helped make everything hap-
pen.”
Meyer is volunteer coordinator at SAPAC
meaning she organizes all of the volunteers
to make sure everything runs smoothly and
does community organizing and outreach.
She helped coordinate big events like the
annual Speak Out, Revolution — a spring art
show — and the Week of Activism.
Meyer said she first joined SAPAC because
she wanted to be a part of an organization
that actually took action on a larger scale and
made a significant impact on the community
it is a part of.
“I got involved as a sophomore because
I was really interested in being involved in
an organization that had a more formalized
structure,” she said. “That way I knew that
the work I did would be executed and be con-
tinued into the future. I was tired of being in
organizations and them not being organized
enough to really accomplish anything.”
Meyer has touched the lives of many
through SAPAC, but more introspectively,
Meyer said the organization has greatly
influenced her own life too. SAPAC empha-
sizes reflection for its leadership members,
which has allowed Meyer to think about her
own qualities as a leader.
“It has allowed me to think about my val-
ues, leadership style and identity and how
that impacts how I am as a leader,” she said.
“It’s sharpened my vision into the future and
made me think more about what my guid-
ing values and principles are. I’m constantly
learning from all of these people, and that
has been the biggest place of growth for me.”
SAPAC also focuses on self-care for all
those involved in the organization. Meyer
said if she feels she is not properly taking
care of herself, then she cannot do as much
for others as she would like.
“You can’t do this work if you are at 100
percent yourself,” she said. “Centralizing
that and focusing on it in my own life can be
really difficult. I always made to do more, but
I can’t always accomplish much if I’m not at
100 percent.”
But, for Meyer, the most important aspect
of SAPAC is its social justice element. She
said social justice is a core part of her person-
ality and SAPAC gives her an outlet to apply
that.
“For me something that guides me and
is very central to who I am is the vision of
a socially just world,” she said. “Working in
SAPAC we centralize our work on one issue,
but we complicate that with all these other
issues that also impact that. I am really inter-
ested in social change, and I feel like I can
accomplish that through SAPAC.”
For Meyer, SAPAC has become an incred-
ibly important part of her life, giving her
energy and encouraging her to do as much
as she can to help her community. She also
noted the importance of community within
the group, noting one of the reasons she
became so involved was all of the “bomb-ass
people.”
“I’ve adored my time at SAPAC,” she said.
“It is the engine of my life. It drives me for-
ward. It gives me this energy that I did not
have before. I’m so thankful for the experi-
ence to learn more about who I am.”
Because of her work at SAPAC, Meyer said
she wishes to continue this sort of work with
social justice by working in government rela-
tions for a women’s health non-profit follow-
ing her upcoming graduate.
“Working at SAPAC has helped me think
about what I want to do sort of day-to-day,”
she said. “And it helps me with thinking
about the way you can incorporate social jus-
tice into everything you do and make it more
of a daily practice rather than a broad long-
term goal. I know whatever I do, that I idea of
justice will be with me and shape what I do.”
H
ailing from Manhattan’s Upper
East Side, LSA junior Rebecca
Rosenthal seems to naturally thrive
under the fast-paced lifestyle that accompa-
nies the pressure of a busy schedule and a
variety of extracurricular commitments.
Double majoring in English and Politi-
cal Science, Rosenthal plans to attend law
school after she graduates. But when she’s
not writing papers or studying into the early
morning hours at the library, she’s focusing
on creating positive change on campus.
She joined the Wolverine Support Net-
work, a peer-led mental health support
group piloted last winter, during its inau-
gural semester. She has since then played a
major role in developing and expanding the
program. Next semester, she will serve as a
director of the program.
WSN places participating students, at
random, into confidential, weekly support
groups. Student leaders are trained to facili-
tate dialogue between peers coping with a
wide variety of mental health issues, includ-
ing eating disorders, issues of gender or sex-
uality, anxiety and depression. WSN also
offers “Kickback Fridays” every other week
for both members and the campus commu-
nity at large, in which leaders plan activities
such as yoga or other stress-relieving activi-
ties as relaxing alternatives to other week-
end plans.
“When I came to college, I was lucky
enough to find a niche and a group espe-
cially through joining a sorority that I fit
into quickly,” Rosenthal said, referring to
her sorority, Delta Delta Delta. “So if I ever
needed anything, I had friends to turn to,
but I met a lot of students through different
classes and activities who I could see were
struggling with anxiety or depression — and
they were things that I knew really well —
and I could tell they had nowhere to turn.”
Rebecca said she sees WSN as an impor-
tant alternative resource for students who
may not feel comfortable making appoint-
ments at Counseling and Psychological
Services. She noted that student leaders
are trained to direct students to other pro-
fessional resource centers on campus, such
as CAPS or Sexual Assualt Prevention and
Awareness Center, if they identify a need.
Currently, WSN has 150 active members
and 60 student leaders.
“The hour I lead group every week —
which is Thursday from 8 to 9 p.m. — that’s
the highlight of my week, and it’s the one
hour of my week where I feel like I can be
myself because I know the students enrolled
in my group don’t judge anything I’m say-
ing,” Rebecca said. “I think it’s helped me
being a leader just as much as I hope it’s
helped them.”
As a director of WSN, she plans to both
expand membership and promote mental
health awareness on campus by reaching a
larger audience of students and encourag-
ing them to attend Kickback Friday events.
In addition to WSN, Rosenthal also
helped found Salad’s UP, a salad restaurant
on East Liberty that was opened in Decem-
ber 2014 by then University seniors Robby
Mayer and Max Steir. She currently works
with managing, menu planning, marketing
and design for the restaurant, which is set
to expand this summer.
“It’s been crazy,” she said. “We had no
idea what we were doing when we opened
a restaurant, but it’s been so fun, and I love
that.”
Rosenthal credits her passion and drive
as an active member of the campus and Ann
Arbor community to her parents as well
as her grandfather, who was student body
president during his time at Michigan.
“I’ve always been a busy person,” Rosen-
thal said. “Some people might say I stretch
myself too thin, but I love being busy. I
thrive when I’m busy because I’m more
focused.”
“Sure, some nights I’m exhausted — I’m
getting two hours of sleep and I’m miser-
able, and I wish I could stay at home and
watch Netflix for six hours and go out with
my friends more, but I wouldn’t change it,”
she continued. “I’m so thankful for every
opportunity I’ve been given at Michigan
and that I’ve done outside of Michigan as
well, and I think that I’ve become a more
well-rounded individual.”
After college, she plans to continue
impacting positive social change, either in
the nonprofit or human rights law fields.
B Y LY D I A M U R R AY,
D A I LY S TA F F R E P O R T E R
REBECCA ROSENTHAL
B Y L A R A M O E H L M A N ,
D A I LY S TA F F R E P O R T E R
LAURA MEYER
GRANT HARDY / Daily
MAZIE HYAMS / Daily