They’ve hosted events as varied as a yoga night, gingerbread house building and a concert. The Happy Hour supports members’ mental health in many ways and creates opportunities to learn about mental health and share resources.

“These conversations that we have in our meetings, just create a safe space for students to share their stories, hear the stories of others and it reinforces the idea that these struggles are normal and that no one is truly alone,” said Gabriela Berkeley, the club’s vice president of outreach and a senior majoring in psychology as well as theatre.

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Saphia Zaman, a senior majoring in communication, founded the club in January 2022 after experiencing a gap in connecting students with mental health resources. Zaman said she had trouble finding a therapist in Los Angeles after moving to USC from Houston.

“I had heard students say they tried to go through USC, and it was difficult,” said Zaman, who serves as the club’s president. “I wanted to bridge that gap and make that process smoother and easier, because I believe that everyone should get the help that they need, and there shouldn’t be those barriers.”

The club focuses on normalizing the struggles of mental health among college students through conversations with experts and club members. They also keep a list of mental health resources in L.A. on their website.

The Happy Hour was formed using funds awarded by the Kaleigh Finnie Memorial Endowment Fund. Established in 2019, the fund supports students from the Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism who work to foster conversations about mental health.

Among their speakers, The Happy Hour has featured Victoria Garrick Browne — a former USC athlete who discusses depression and anxiety — and Caroline Leaf — a researcher of memory formation.

This year the organization hosted “Kind Fest” and “How sweet is it to be an Annenberg student,” which were among its largest attendance turnouts. The events were produced in partnership with Annenberg, providing increased funding for production expenses and guest speakers. 

At Kind Fest, The Happy Hour invited Rachel’s Challenge, an organization that focuses on combating bullying and violence in schools. 

“We’ve heard so much about Rachel’s Challenge, and it’s known nationally,” Berkeley said. “We knew it was a bigger deal, and it also cost more money. So we were like, ‘If we’re going to A. get the funds and B. get this very important presentation out to a larger audience, why don’t we combine this with either other organizations or another part of the school that can make this a bigger thing?’”

The event had the slogan “Kind Trojans Are My Kind of Trojans” and included T-shirts, refreshments, water coloring and a “kind tree” where students could leave uplifting messages for one another. Attendees were challenged to start a chain reaction of kindness. Zaman hopes Kind Fest becomes an annual event.

“I would just like to see it continue to grow,” Zaman said, “and maybe even eventually it could become a USC-wide event. So there’s nowhere I’m looking to stop, but I definitely have high hopes for it.”

The group’s meetings include conversations about academic burnout, eating disorders and sexual violence, often occurring simultaneously with activities meant to promote wellness. Recently, the group discussed coping strategies for members experiencing anxieties regarding graduation and major life changes.

The Happy Hour tailors its events to promote student wellness and advance their goals of promoting mental health. With their yoga event, the club wanted to give students a relaxation space, and they raised money for the Anxiety & Depression Association of America with a concert they held in November 2022.

“So many people just are struggling with anxiety,” said Sophia Marriott, the club’s fundraising and outreach coordinator and a senior majoring in film and television production. “I feel having a space where they can talk about it or have a brain break and do yoga outside, listen to a presentation or talk to a speaker, ask the speaker their questions and things like that [is] just really helpful.”

As much of its executive board prepares to graduate, the club hopes to see continued efforts to support mental health on campus. Zaman specifically wants to see increased support for embedded counselors. The program has been implemented by some schools and student spaces to help students with issues specific to their area of study or identity. 

“Instead of being USC-wide, having it in each school makes it more personal and easier and not as scary to reach out, because you can actually build that one-on-one connection with one another,” Zaman said.

Other leaders said they would like to see continued destigmatization of mental health conversations and more kindness and openness to individuals taking care of their mental health. 

“[We are] making sure that we’re allowing our students to be heard, and we’re validating their experiences and continuing to create these safe spaces on campus,” Berkeley said. “That starts with The Happy Hour, but I hope that expands into our classrooms and our administration.”