In the lead-up to a fall 2020 semester full of chaos and uncertainty, Iowa could be sure of one thing: Winter was coming. By mid-October, chilly temperatures were driving students back into their residence halls, the normal stress of midterms loomed, and darkness was descending on campus. Supporting the mental well-being of our students at the University of Iowa Tippie College of Business was never more important—yet more challenging.
The social media team used Instagram’s native tools to reach out to our student body with a mental health check-in on Instagram Story. In addition to listing available resources, we direct-messaged every person who ranked their mental health at a zero. At the end of the day, we messaged more than 100 people. This campaign ultimately met student need at a critical time, and generated opportunities to share how professional schools can support students with local media, social media peers, and our business school accreditation association.
From the Judges
Creative way to highlight important mental health resources at a time when those resources were most needed by students! This is an effort that could easily be replicated by other schools as demonstrated by the fact that they’ve already presented their processes to other groups. The steps taken to reach out directly to those who expressed through the digital poll that they were struggling was also commendable. Way to go the extra mile!
