While working on a spring 2020 internship for Untold, a Middle Tennessee State University student proposed Untold: The Campus Diaries as a mental health awareness campaign within the campus community. In a "Dear Diary" format, this online blog was designed to resonate with any student who has faced a challenge, crisis, or difficult period through their college years.
The result? Even with COVID-19 and nationwide campus shutdowns, students began submitting the powerful and moving stories of their mental health challenges, adjustments to campus life, celebrations of achievements, and their hopes for future opportunities. The powerful online blog also showcases the need for enhanced mental health awareness on university campuses.
Since its inception, Untold: The Campus Diaries has grown globally, capturing the dramatic impact of student voices. Like other facets of the entire Untold Project, the student's voice is heard through the art of both conversation and written word. It allows for unspoken and silent topics to be given a safe (and anonymous) place, free of judgment, where shared experiences help fellow students through their own hardships.
The project allows students not only to be heard but to foster education, hope, and compassion within the campus community as mental health issues are elevated.
The Campus Diaries project expanded in 2021 to showcase selected, anonymous student essays in a traveling exhibit that is displayed in high-traffic sites on campus. The Untold team is currently partnering with universities to bring this exhibit to campuses around the world and positively impact mental health in student communities.
This book contains unedited entries by anonymous students. These authors' words and thoughts are unfiltered. We hope the original essays will create change within the hearts and minds of the students and across their host communities as we strive for enhanced mental health throughout society.
