Gabrielle Ayzenberg uses mental health discussion to help student-athletes at SUNY Geneseo
GENESEO, N.Y. (BVM) — Recently, the discussion surrounding mental health is becoming a bigger talking point than ever before. At the State University of New York College (SUNY) at Geneseo, senior volleyball player Gabrielle Ayzenberg, has been able to bring awareness and explain the importance of having these tough but necessary discussions.
Back on Oct. 27, the university’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) hosted a roundtable discussion regarding mental health. Along with Ayzenberg, Geneseo’s head athletic trainer Angelo Zegarelli took part in bringing this idea to life and what it means for these student-athletes to speak about their struggles.
“We started to realize how common it is,” Ayzenberg said. “He was telling me how many athletes come to him everyday and are struggling and I’ve had multiple friends come to me who are struggling. It’s now becoming a more spoken about topic for student-athletes and athletes in general.”
Since this is becoming an increasingly talked about topic with student-athletes specifically, Geneseo brought in professional mental health workers and alumni to speak at this discussion. Both groups of people were student-athletes at one point in time and shared their personal experiences with everyone in attendance.
“I felt like it was a great time to reach out to some alumni,” Ayzenberg said. “Some focused on how they started realizing they were struggling with mental health after they graduated college and some talked about their struggles in college.”
Along with Ayzenberg’s role as SAAC President, the Long Beach, N.Y. native is in her final season with the women’s volleyball team. Following the conclusion of this event, she was able to apply this discussion and overall topic of mental health to the Knights team.
“It helps my team personally realize that it’s ok to talk about it,” Ayzenberg said. “Our team is very open with stuff like that, so I think it was a really good experience and great to see that it was normalized.”
With these individuals speaking about what they have gone through, it has helped Ayzenberg and the audience learn what it takes to share personal stories regarding mental health, even if this might be difficult to talk about.
“It takes a lot of courage and strength to speak in front of people and be open,” Ayzenberg said. “They were so willing to help because they made it past the hump of what’s going on with their body and I think the best part, about the whole thing, is that they were willing to be so vulnerable.”
Using this discussion as a starting point, Ayzenberg hopes the biggest take away their audience got is that they are not alone and others are always around to talk with.
“That was mainly our goal,” Ayzenberg said. “We wanted our student-athletes to have resources that they can email, call or text when they had a problem and hopefully make it more normal to open up about your struggles and have an outlet.”
Although this was geared towards other student-athletes at Geneseo, Ayzenberg was one of two moderators during the event. The senior was able to reflect on how this discussion impacted her just days later.
“It opens my eyes to people who have so many struggles in life and go through a lot,” Ayzenberg said. “It also opens my eyes that I can help my friends in so many different ways and there’s always a way to help someone.”
Keeping this discussion fresh in her mind, Ayzenberg’s focus remains on helping student-athletes now and continuing this in the future.
“There was so much positive feedback from the discussion that just made me want to help even more,” Ayzenberg said. “The minute we ended the Zoom, we were wondering who we could get for the next one and when we could do it. It kind of made you want to keep helping people and keep hearing these stories because they’re so common and why not break that stigma of student-athletes having mental health issues.”
For the last two seasons, Geneseo has clinched the top seed in the State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC). They’ve also made the Conference Finals in those seasons, but failed to bring home a championship in both attempts. With fall sports being suspended and their hopes of returning to play in the spring, Ayzenberg and her team are already using this discussion in a positive way.
“I can already see that it changes our team completely,” Ayzenberg said. “This year, the mindset by everyone is so much more positive and I think it does have to do with people being open about what they’re going through. If people are open about what they’re going through, everyone else can have your back.”
