The USC Speak Your Mind Challenge was started at the University of Southern California near the end of March 2025. The event is to raise awareness about mental health by participating in the ice bucket challenge, where you dump cold water onto yourself.
Originally, the challenge was for ALS, or Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, a disease which still has no cure. This took place back in 2014 where many famous people and political figures participated in it as well.
To participate in this trend, you need to be nominated by someone who also took part in the challenge. After you do it, you need to nominate others to join you as well, and then they nominate others, and awareness spreads all over the world. It goes between states, countries, and eventually throughout the world.
Do you know what the true meaning of the USC challenge is?
Gurnoor Sandhu, a freshman at Pitman High School: “Um, it’s to like.. pour water on your head I think. It’s for like your mental health, yeah it’s for mental health awareness.”
Some people do this challenge as a trend to see their friends get ice cold water dumped onto them, but that is not what this is about. There have been more than 353,490 suicides just in this year alone. That is three hundred fifty-three thousand four hundred ninety human lives lost.
75% of all suicides worldwide are men, which include fathers, sons, brothers, and uncles. 25% of suicides worldwide are women, which include mothers, daughters, sisters, and aunts. These are someone’s children, not just countable lives. Many of these people had families they left behind, but they were not paid attention to until it was too late, which is what the problem is.
Knowing what this event is raising awareness for is important because it’s not just a “trend”, it’s to let those who struggle with their own mental health know that the world is there for them and that there are resources. Reaching out is never embarrassing or a burden, your life matters in the world.