Pie For A Purpose
Psi Chi’s Annual Scholarship Fundraiser for Mental Health Advocacy
By Gabi Drobot, Staff Writer
On Feb. 28, 2024, Psi Chi hosted their annual fundraiser, “Pie for a Purpose,” to raise money toward the Christian Ladd Hall Scholarship for mental health advocacy. The main goals of the Christian Ladd Hall Scholarship are to increase awareness of mental health and honor the memory of Christan Ladd Hall who sadly passed away on July 9, 2022.
“He was a college student and he accidentally overdosed on fentanyl,” said Brandy Whitford, the Secretary of Psi Chi at Lynn University. “This is crucial in today’s society, with the increase of overdose and mental health issues, and it shows the importance of taking care of ourselves and others.”
Psi Chi is an international honor society aiming to encourage, stimulate and maintain excellence in psychology and related fields. The organization also works to advance the scientific study of psychology.
“This [scholarship] is given out by Psi Chi to people who advocate for mental health,” said Gabriela Barber, President of Psi Chi at Lynn. “As the Psychology Honors Society, mental health is a huge part of our work, because we all need to take care of our mental health.”
“Pie for a Purpose” raises money for the scholarship by collecting donations for a specific professor. At the end of the event, the professor with the most donations toward their name received a pie to the face! This event adds an entertaining aspect to help get campus members involved. Lynn professors Dr. Patrick Cooper, Dr. Ali Cunningham and Dr. Robert Riedel volunteered to participate.
“[Psi Chi] asked me to be one of the people and I asked Dr. Riedel and Dr. Cunningham to join me,” said Dr. Patrick Cooper, Associate Professor of Psychology. “Dr. Riedel and myself are the co-faculty advisors of Psi Chi. This is a one-of-a-kind event, but we do other things like conferences and a movie night last year, so we
do social and educational events too.”
As the donations came to a close, Dr. Cunningham raised the most funds and received the first pie. After the first pie hit Dr. Cunningham’s face, donations were matched, and all the professors got “pied.” Psi Chi participates in many events on campus and nationwide to help continue to advocate for mental health awareness and progress psychological studies.
