Morgan’s Message: What is it and How Can I Get Involved?

What is Morgan’s Message?

Morgan’s Message is a non-profit mental health organization specifically geared toward student-athletes. The main goal of the organization is to raise awareness around athlete mental health and lessen the stigma surrounding it. This organization’s mission is “to amplify stories, resources and expertise to strengthen student-athlete mental health, build a community by and for athletes through peer-to-peer conversations and provide a platform for advocacy.” Morgan Rodgers’ family founded this organization after Morgan, a Division 1 lacrosse player, died by suicide in 2019.

Morgan’s Story

Morgan was a 22 year old lacrosse player at Duke University. Morgan’s family described her as a very tenacious person that gave 100% to everything she did. She was a loving friend, and she was passionate about her artwork. As an athlete, she trained hard and pushed herself on the field. During her senior year of high school, Morgan began to experience high levels of anxiety. She reached out and received professional help and support from her friends and family.

Going into college, Morgan was feeling optimistic about her future. However, at the start of her sophomore season at Duke, Morgan endured a severe knee injury. The next year was very tough for Morgan and she underwent surgery and went through rehabilitation. This injury caused such a shift in Morgan’s life that she began to feel out of control of her life, and her self- worth suffered. As her anxiety worsened and she began feeling more isolated from those around her, Morgan suffered in silence. This struggle ultimately led her to take her life in July of 2019. After her passing, Morgan’s family shared her story and struggles with mental health nationwide. Her story garnered much attention, and helped lead to the creation of Morgan’s Message in July of 2020.

How can I get involved in Morgan’s Message?

Morgan’s Message has an education program that helps them spread their message nationwide. Volunteers make up the program, which includes a three-part ambassador system. The three parts of the program are student- athlete ambassadors, at-large ambassadors, and club and young organizations. Each part of the program has the same goal, to raise awareness about mental-health for student-athletes. However, each part targets a specific age level. For this article, I am going to focus on the Student-Athlete Ambassadors Campus program because it is what I have the most experience with. 

Student Athlete Campus Ambassador Program

This program consists of student volunteers ages 14+ that are motivated to be active leaders and spread Morgan’s Message in their schools and communities. The organization expects ambassadors to dedicate 2-4 hours per month spreading awareness and growing the movement, in addition to participating in bi-monthly calls with other Morgan’s Message ambassadors. Finally, the organization expects ambassadors to lead at least one chapter meeting per month at their school/campus. For example, I am a part of Morgan’s Message at Cornell College, and we have a meeting every month where we talk about mental health related topics and participate in activities. This program has been very beneficial for me and I have really enjoyed getting to spread awareness around athlete mental health.

If you or someone you know is interested in becoming a Morgan’s Message ambassador, and you meet all the criteria, all you have to do is fill out this application! 

Personal insights and experiences

During our monthly meeting this year, we have discussed a variety of topics surrounding athlete mental health, but we have also participated in some fun activities! During first semester, we did an activity called “I got your back.” For this activity, we each taped a piece of paper to our backs and the other members went around and wrote positive messages on them. We also did a Just Dance night. We broadcasted this as an event to dance out the winter blues and promote physical activity for seasonal depression. Finally, for valentines day, we all came together and made goodie bags and wrote notes for our friends/loved ones. 

All of these activities helped us spread Morgan’s Message and highlight how small actions can have a huge impact. For more mental health resources, check out this story!

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