“Self-care, brown-skinned girls and releasing your inner youngster,” “How to be bossy with style and grace,” “Goal setting for the upcoming semester” and “Defining healthier sexual and romantic relationships” are 4 of the nine workshops Creating Ourselves by way of Sisterhood and Service held through their annual mental overall health summit on Friday and Saturday. 

BOSS is a student-run organization at Cornell that facilitates peer mentorship and service amongst ladies of colour, fostering impactful social interactions.

Lasting two days, this year’s mental overall health summit kicked off with a self-care and spa bonding occasion on March 24. The second day involved a mental overall health summit occasion on March 25, with the theme “Connecting Inside and Beyond.” Via this theme, BOSS aimed to encourage mindfulness and cultivate a space for ladies of colour to really feel heard and noticed.

Advertising meditation and bonding, the conference featured a fireside panel and a series of nine workshops facilitated by students and mental overall health experts.

The summit keynote speaker was Freddie Ransome, a creator, net character, occasion curator, DJ and Buzzfeed video producer. Ransome shared her experiences of dealing with imposter syndrome, what she hopes to get out of her profession and the influence she aspires to have on the music business.

“The imposter syndrome has been true, particularly since I have constructed my profession largely about content material creation,” Ransome mentioned. “I do not want persons to assume I am just becoming an Instagram DJ or an influencer DJ. I want persons to know that I respect the craft. I practice so a great deal and want to be respected in this space.”

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Ransome also discussed her efforts to sustain her mental overall health as her profession has shifted. 

“I assume my mental overall health is in a great spot suitable now, since I have produced some hard, scary choices — like leaving my 4-year-old management group,” Ransome mentioned. “Also, becoming conscious of the organization I preserve will lead to my general good results. I like great power. I enjoy to be held accountable, and I want any one in my corner to be like, you got this.” 

Summit co-chair Kelli Williams ’24 commented on BOSS’s speaker choice course of action.

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“[When selecting potential speakers and facilitators], we attempt to assume who could speak to and connect the theme in one of a kind approaches,” Williams mentioned. “For instance, we [had] Jakara Zellner ’23 speaking about nature in terms of mental overall health and how that connection would operate. Then, we [had] mental overall health experts who did a panel speaking about mental overall health and gave abilities and sources to the students, since occasionally it [can feel] inaccessible.” 

Simone Regis ’25, a single of the workshop coordinators, described the connections she forged with her fellow summit planners.

“We have formed some good bonds. …. You connect with persons when you are building points collectively,” Regis mentioned. “I felt like I was connecting inside and beyond when placing all of this collectively.”

Summit attendees Kassidy Scott ’26 and Abbie Jobe ’26 felt that the workshops helped them to far better comprehend their mental overall health. 

Jobe mentioned the workshop led by student facilitator Rumbidzai Mangwende ’24 helped her comprehend the value of staying organized and balanced.

“[Mangwende] discussed how organization is essential and offers you stability. When you really feel steady, you can plug into exactly where you are lacking and generate approaches of building balance,” Jobe mentioned. “If you do not know exactly where you are falling since you are not organized, how do you know how to boost?”

Scott similarly spoke very of the summit sessions, which she mentioned permitted her to comprehend the value of self-care.

“[I] discovered how to apply what I discovered at the summit] to my life, my inner life and … my relationships,” Scott mentioned. “Overall, this summit taught me how to take care of myself as a Black lady and how to defend my mental overall health and my mental spaces.”

Erica Yirenkyi ’25 is a Sun employees writer and can be reached at [email protected]