EDUCATION
Voice your struggles: Pittsburgh university students create spaces to talk about mental health during the pandemic
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Facing a deepening pandemic, another stretch of mostly online classes and a national backdrop of political turmoil, Pittsburgh-area students are turning to their colleges — and to each other — to meet growing mental health needs. Kayla Koch, a senior at the University of Pittsburgh, said students were already struggling with the transition that college life brings, but the pandemic has made everything harder. “The entire pandemic is a time of trauma," Koch said. "We are all living through a trauma and expected to produce and exist as if we are not.”
She's working to create a space for students to talk honestly about mental health. “Our goal is to come into these meetings and say, ‘This is normal.