Stomp Out Stigma event helps students learn about mental health through art | University Park Campus News
University Health Services (UHS), Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) and the Jana Marie Foundation hosted a Stomp Out Stigma event Thursday in Hub-Robeson Center.
During the event attendees discussed the stigma around mental health and helped create a “stomper statue art installation.”
The event was part of the larger Stompers Project created by the Jana Marie Foundation, where community members connect their mental health to art, and go through educational workshops to better spread awareness of mental health struggles in their communities.
While they have these conversations, the attendees paint parts of old shoes and sneakers to later be assembled into a human statue, or “stomper.”
The group worked through several activities, discussing personal stories in order to connect and listen, writing down strategies on sticky-notes to help both oneself and others and finally working together to paint the shoes for the statue.
A shoe tongue painted with a smile is held up during the Jana Marie Foundation’s “Stomper Workshop” in the Flex Theatre in the HUB-Robeson Center on Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026 in University Park, Pa.
Stephanie Stama, assistant director of community education and outreach for CAPS, said she wants to help Penn State “stomp out the stigma,” of mental health struggles.
“I think one of the greatest stigmas that we notice at the counseling center is students who maybe don’t feel like their problems are concerning enough or problematic enough,” Stama, one of the organizers of the event, said. “They (may have come) from a family or culture of ‘Do it yourself, you can take care of it,’ or a culture where mental health maybe isn’t considered a problem.”
Emotional and psychological health are “just as important” as physical health, according to Stama.
Stama revealed the final stomper will be displayed on the ground floor of the Student Health Center.
“That way, anyone coming in for health services or for counseling services in the building, they will be able to see the hard work that people have left a legacy for,” Stama said.
Paint is laid out on a table during the Jana Marie Foundation’s “Stomper Workshop” in the Flex Theatre in the HUB-Robeson Center on Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026 in University Park, Pa.
Jason Yoder said both education about mental health stigmas and creating visual representations of mental health struggles are important.
“Once this is up, as they are walking by, it will just always be there 24/7, but I don’t think that’s the takeaway from all of our other outreaches,” Yoder, a CAPS chat coordinator, said.
CAPS wants to spread the message that it cares about students, and they always have resources and people available to them on campus, according to Yoder.
A sticky note reading “Let them feel” hangs on a wall during the Jana Marie Foundation’s “Stomper Workshop” in the Flex Theatre in the HUB-Robeson Center on Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026 in University Park, Pa.
Meet Raje said he attended the event in order to support his friend back home.
“If I were to make something or learn something, I could bring that home to him, and since he is a dear friend of mine, that would mean a lot,” Raje, a first-year studying chemical engineering, said.
Raje said he’s learned that it’s helpful just to talk, whether you’re struggling yourself, or know someone else that’s struggling.
“That’s really all it is — just start talking,” Raje said, “It sounds dumb, but just rambling … makes it seem like they are seen in a way.”
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