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Building a Network of Grief Support onCollege Campuses: A National GrassrootsInitiativeDavid Fajgenbaum a , Benjamin Chesson b & Robin Gaines Lanzi ca University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USAb Hedrick, Garduer, Kincheloe & Garofalo, LLP, Charlotte, NorthCarolina, USAc University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, USA

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To cite this article: David Fajgenbaum, Benjamin Chesson & Robin Gaines Lanzi (2012): Building aNetwork of Grief Support on College Campuses: A National Grassroots Initiative, Journal of CollegeStudent Psychotherapy, 26:2, 99-120

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Journal of College Student Psychotherapy, 26:99–120, 2012Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLCISSN: 8756-8225 print/1540-4730 onlineDOI: 10.1080/87568225.2012.659159

Building a Network of Grief Supporton College Campuses: A National

Grassroots Initiative

DAVID FAJGENBAUMUniversity of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

BENJAMIN CHESSONHedrick, Garduer, Kincheloe & Garofalo, LLP, Charlotte, North Carolina, USA

ROBIN GAINES LANZIUniversity of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, USA

About one in four college students report grieving the death of afamily member or close friend within the past year. Although griefmay be difficult at any time, there are several factors unique tothe college age and environment that can make it particularlydifficult. These factors include geographic distance from homeand usual support systems, academic demands, college’s “care-free” social life, lack of grief support from peers, and many collegecampuses’ limited resources for grief support. Thus, grieving collegestudents are at greater risk than their peers of a host of academic,social, and developmental issues. In spite of this “silent epidemic,”few targeted, supportive interventions existed on college campusesuntil 2006, when National Students of AMF was created by grievingcollege students to support their fellow grieving students. NationalStudents of AMF primarily achieves its mission by creating CampusChapters, which are university-recognized student organizations.They include a targeted, peer-led Support Group for grieving stu-dents to connect with others who “get it” and a Service Group that

We wish to acknowledge National Students of AMF Board of Mental Health Professionals,particularly Dr. Andrea Walker, for your expert advice and counsel in developing this pro-gram, all of the members of National Students of AMF who have shared their time, loveand support with so many others, and the Lisa J. Raines fund for financially supporting thisresearch.

Address correspondence to David Fajgenbaum, National Students of AMF, 3344Hillsborough St, Ste 260, Raleigh, NC 27615, USA. E-mail: davidfajgenbaum@gmail.com

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encourages students to channel their grief towards championingcauses that have impacted them. Abundant anecdotal evidencesuggests that students, especially males, who shy away from sup-port groups and professional counseling, have found participationin service activities in honor of deceased loved ones to be a prefer-able therapeutic outlet. Campus Chapters also leverage the “studentvoice” to promote the other, often underutilized supportive griefresources on campus. Today, there are 43 university-recognizedCampus Chapters. In this article, we discuss findings and outlineseveral vital steps that university counselors and administratorscan take to facilitate the continued growth of supportive outlets,like National Students of AMF, for grieving college students.

KEYWORDS college, student, grief support, mental health

About one out of four college students (rates range from 22–30%) havereported grieving the death of a family member or close friend within the last12 months (Balk, 2008; Balk, Walker, & Baker, 2010). Though grief is uniqueto each person, common grief reactions can include depression, emptiness,anger, loneliness, fear, and guilt (Balk, 1997; LaGrand, 1981; LaGrand, 1985;Rando, 1995; Sklar, 1990). Although bereavement is a normal life transi-tion that most meet with resilience (Bonanno, 2004), there are instances ofcomplicated grief reactions, which involve maladaptive coping mechanisms,produce functional impairment, and last at least six months (Prigerson et al.,1995). A lack of emotional support is a risk factor for complicated grief(Stewart, 1999) and is especially relevant to grieving college students whoare often geographically distant from their usual support systems (Schnider,Elhai, and Gray, 2007). The prevalence of grief among college studentsalong with the potential mental health impact of such experiences makegrief work a crucial part of a college mental health professional’s practice(Servaty-Seib, 2004). Likewise, mental health professionals in administrative,clinical, training, and research-related roles are uniquely positioned to assistthis population (Servaty-Seib, & Taub, 2010).

THE GRIEVING COLLEGE STUDENT’S ENVIRONMENT

While the process of grief may be difficult at any time during one’s life, thereare several factors unique to the college age and the college environmentthat can make grief among college students particularly difficult (Moos &Schaefer, 1986). These factors include geographic distance from home andusual support systems, academic demands, college’s “carefree” social life,

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Building a Network of Grief Support 101

lack of grief support from peers, and college campuses’ limited resourcesfor grief support.

Campus life in the United States involves dealing with competingdemands for jobs, making career choices, coping with academic pressures,and maintaining a “carefree” social life (Balk & Vesta, 1998). This care-free atmosphere often promotes the use of alcohol and other drugs, andmany bereaved college students may turn to alcohol and drug use (Kadisonand DiGeronimo, 2004; LaGrand, 1985). In the midst of this environment,bereaved students may wish to turn to friends to talk about the death of aloved one (Balk et al., 1998). However, few nonbereaved peers are com-fortable talking about death or are willing to assist their bereaved peers(Balk, 1997; Balk et al., 1998; Balk & Vesta, 1998; Rickgarn, 1996; Vickio,Cavanaugh, & Attig, 1990). Few nonbereaved students understand the poten-tial importance, significance, intensity, or duration of grief (Balk, 1997; Balkand Vesta, 1998). Furthermore, a recent study found that there has been ageneral decline in empathy among college students in recent years (Konrath,O’Brien, & Hsing, 2011). This general lack of understanding and specificlack of grief support from peers can cause grieving students to feel isolatedand unsupported (Balk, 2001; Balk, Tyson-Rawon, & Colletti-Wetzel, 1993;LaGrand, 1985).

OPPORTUNITY FOR SUPPORT

There are a variety of supportive services that could mollify some ofthe consequences of grief on college campuses nationwide. Accordingto Schlossberg, Waters, and Goodman (1995), individuals who use mul-tiple coping strategies are able to more effectively cope with transitions(Schlossberg et al, 1995). Specifically, health risks and psychological prob-lems can be lessened or avoided if proper support is made availableto the bereaved and subsequently utilized (Leick and Davidsen-Nielson,1991; Lieberman & Videka-Sherman, 1986; Nerken, 1993; Rando, 1984; Reif,Patton, & Gold, 1995; Sanders, 1992;). Research has shown that group workis one of the most effective approaches to supporting the bereaved (Harvey,2000; Price, Dinas, Dunn, & Winterowd, 1995;Worden, 1991; Zimpfer, 1991).Among bereaved college students, pilot studies of support group andcounseling group interventions indicate positive effects, but these studieshave not evaluated long-term benefits (Balk, Tyson-Rawson et al. 1993;Berson, 1988; Dodd, 1988; Janowiak, Meital, & Drapkin, 1995). Loss supportgroups allow people to share common problems and provide mutual aid,thus helping the bereaved develop a community and new social supportsystems (Janowiak et al., 1995). Benefits from support group involvementinclude improved emotional, mental, and physical stability during and after

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participation (McCallum, Piper, & Morin, 1993; Thuen, 1995; Yalom andVinogradov, 1988; Zimpfer, 1991;).

Similarly, many bereaved students find it helpful to speak with friends,counselors, Resident Assistants, clergy, and professors (Balk & Vesta,1998). In fact, referrals to appropriate student services offices can providemuch needed support and information to grieving students (Balk, 2008).Professional counseling can help the bereaved to express their feelings, nor-malize their emotions, and help them to conceptualize the meaning of theloss (Larson, 1993). Nevertheless, counseling psychology has directed rela-tively limited attention to death and dying in research, training, and practice(Servaty-Seib & Taub, 2010). Professors have regular contact with studentsand may be able to detect the negative academic effects of bereavement atan early stage. Resident Assistants may be most likely to observe changesin daily functioning due to bereavement (Servaty-Seib & Taub, 2008). Manybereaved students report using religious or philosophical beliefs to copewith death and make sense of it (Neimeyer, 2002; Park, 2005).

Even though the central mission of a university is to create a support-ive environment for learning and scholarship, universities have been largelyinattentive to the unique needs of their grieving students (Balk, 2001). Thisfinding was corroborated in a comprehensive study we conducted of 54 uni-versity administrators (counseling center directors, deans of students, VPsof student health) to assess current university practices, policies, and pro-grams regarding bereaved college students. Confirming and extending Balk’swork, we found that professional counseling was the primary resource avail-able, other general resources (campus ministry, local bereavement centers,etc.) were underutilized, and very few universities provided additional, tar-geted resources. Nevertheless, university administrators’ responses revealeda desire for change. They stated that students are in greater need of supportfrom friends and peers than from counselors and that universities shouldprovide an array of resources to match these needs (Fajgenbaum & Lanzi,2007).

CALL FOR CHANGE

Several researchers have made calls for greater university engagement (Balk,2001; Balk, 2008; Fajgenbaum & Chesson, 2007; Rickgarn, 1996; Servaty-Seib, 2006; Taub & Servaty-Seib, 2008; Wrenn, 1999;). Over a decadeago, Balk (2001) declared the need for engaging members throughoutthe university community to provide an array of specific approaches forsupporting bereaved students as well as educating the campus commu-nity about bereavement. Specifically, Balk stated the need for a center toimprove peer support through training nonbereaved peers, provide struc-tured interventions for students at risk of complications, raise awareness

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about bereavement on campus, and conduct research. Servaty-Seib (2006)further called for “swift interventions” to reach students, such as drop-in,peer-run support groups and bereavement training of faculty members andresident assistants (Servaty-Seib, 2006). Building on this, Taub and Servaty-Seib (2008) called for training about loss and bereavement for residentassistants and faculty/staff, specialized training in loss and bereavement forcounseling center staff, and the creation of programs (e.g., grief groups andgrief workshops) to support grieving students (Taub and Servaty-Seib, 2008).At the time that we conducted our study in 2007, only one university admin-istrator reported having a university-recognized organization dedicated tothe needs of grieving college students (Fajgenbaum & Lanzi, 2007). Thatstudent-run organization was “Students of AMF,” which offers targeted peer-support for grieving students. Students of AMF was originally founded byone of the authors, Fajgenbaum, at Georgetown University where, at thetime, he was a student grieving the death of his mother.

Since that time, the “grassroots” efforts of Students of AMF atGeorgetown University and National Students of AMF Support Network,which Fajgenbaum and Chesson cofounded a year after Fajgenbaum estab-lished the alpha chapter at Georgetown, have been cited frequently in theliterature and have “obtained wide institutional and even national support”(Balk, 2008; Balk, 2009; Balk, 2010; McGowan, 2008; Perkey, 2010; Sandersa,2011; Wescott, 2008). The remainder of this article highlights this grassrootseffort and its role on college campuses.

NATIONAL STUDENTS OF AMF CASE REPORT: BUILDING ANETWORK OF SUPPORT ON COLLEGE CAMPUSES

The National Students of AMF Support Network (NSAMF) was created in2006 by grieving college students to support grieving college students.NSAMF represents a nationwide, grassroots, collaborative effort blending theexperiences of grieving college students with the expertise of mental healthprofessionals, bereavement researchers, university administrators, and non-profit leaders to pursue the goal of enhancing the level of support providedto grieving college students.

History

The vision for NSAMF began in 2005 during Fajgenbaum’s sophomore yearat Georgetown University. During his mother’s 15-month battle with braincancer, Fajgenbaum struggled with feeling alone and unsupported. Twoweeks before she died, he promised her that he was going to create aprogram in her memory to support grieving students who, like him, werestruggling. Following his mother’s death, Fajgenbaum began to work with

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other grieving students and administrators at Georgetown University fromthe Counseling Center, Campus Ministry, Student Health, Student Affairs,and Residential Life to identify what was currently available on campus andwhat additional resources could be helpful. This planning group found thatpsychotherapy through the counseling center was the only “grief supportservice” available on campus and no avenues were in place for peer-support.The student representatives most commonly reported feeling “alone on cam-pus,” “helpless with regards to my loved one’s experience,” “guilty for beingaway at school,” and “like no one gets it.” The needs assessment andstudent reports offered intervention possibilities and helped to identify amultifaceted response.

Shortly thereafter, the Georgetown University Students of AMF SupportNetwork was founded. The acronym “AMF” stands for “Ailing Mothers &Fathers,” but the support network includes all college students grieving theillness or death of a family member or friend. (“AMF” are also the initials ofFajgenbaum’s mother [Anne Marie Fajgenbaum]). The student organizationendeavored to meet the needs of grieving college students by providing arange of early interventions, including a peer-led grief Support Group, aService Group of bereaved and nonbereaved students that would championcauses affecting support group members, and a faculty mentoring programfor support group members.

What began as a group of five bereaved students grew to include morethan 400 members of the Georgetown community. The group was namedthe 2005 “Outstanding Direct Service Program” by Georgetown University.Soon, dozens of college students from around the country learned aboutGeorgetown’s unique program and requested information about startingchapters at their universities. The second author, Chesson, who was a sopho-more at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill at the time, launchedthe beta chapter and the group flourished. Shortly thereafter, Fajgenbaumconducted research with Dr. Lanzi on college student bereavement anduniversity policies, practices, and programs. Supported by a grant fromGeorgetown University, the two authors surveyed 54 directors of counselingcenters and Deans of Students. Fajgenbaum, Chesson, and Lanzi determinedthat this lack of support extended far beyond Georgetown and UNC.

After months of requests from grieving college students about estab-lishing a chapter of Students of AMF at their campuses and dozens oftestimonials from students, faculty, and staff on Georgetown’s and UNC’scampuses about the positive impact the initiative was making, Fajgenbaumand Chesson created a vision for a national organization dedicated to reach-ing every grieving college student. Funded by a grant from the University ofNorth Carolina, Chesson and Fajgenbaum set out to pursue their vision.

NSAMF was formally established as a nonprofit organization in April2006. First, Fajgenbaum and Chesson, both college students, enlisted thesupport of nonprofit, for-profit, and academic leaders on the Board of

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Building a Network of Grief Support 105

Directors. Next, several prominent college student mental health leadersand college student grief experts agreed to serve on the Board of MentalHealth Professionals and endorsed the organization’s goals. Then, a numberof college students volunteered to serve as unpaid NSAMF staff. Finally, toensure that the organization did not turn away any grieving college students,National Students of AMF dropped “Ailing Mothers & Fathers” from its name,but kept “AMF” as a continued reminder of the legacy behind the program.

Considering the goal of improving the resources available to grievingcollege students, it was particularly important to develop a true sense ofcollaboration and include the voices of college students, university adminis-trators, mental health professionals, and bereavement experts when decidingwhat should be offered and a corresponding implementation strategy.To achieve this, NSAMF volunteer staff gathered and synthesized testimonialsand feedback from more than 50 grieving college students and univer-sity administrators and created a framework for Students of AMF CampusChapters. This provided the basis from which the Board of Directors andBoard of Mental Health Professionals developed a Strategic Plan and aCampus Chapter Guide. The Strategic Plan and the Guide define NSAMF’sstrategies on a national, campus, and individual student level and sets forthhow NSAMF executes these strategies and what specific goals guide NSAMFleadership.

Lastly, Fajgenbaum and Chesson enlisted the financial support ofdozens of donors. With a clear vision, professional expertise, and finan-cial support in hand, NSAMF was able to begin national operations, whichcontinue to expand today.

Overview of NSAMF

NSAMF is a national, grassroots nonprofit organization that aims to supportcollege students grieving the illness or death of a loved one. The organiza-tion accomplishes its mission by creating Students of AMF Campus Chapterson college campuses nationwide, raising awareness about the needs ofgrieving college students, and hosting national grief support programs andevents, like the National Conference on College Student Grief. In the last5 years, the organization has developed 43 Campus Chapters (they are offi-cially recognized as a student organization by the college or university), sup-ported over 1,500 grieving college students, and worked with students fromover 160 different colleges and universities to start up Campus Chapters.

Overview of Campus Chapters

Campus Chapters are student-led, faculty/staff-advised, and university-recognized student organizations. Campus Chapters consist of a peer-ledgrief support group, a service group open to the entire campus community,

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and a mentoring program that connects grieving students with supportivefaculty. The Support Group connects grieving college students with others“who get it” and empowers members to support one another. The groupalso offers information about and connects students with other supportiveresources available on campus, such as professional counseling. The ServiceGroup empowers college students to get involved in community service and,if grieving, to channel their grief towards positive outlets.

NSAMF Campus Chapters enhance the level of grief support offered oncollege campuses in several ways. Each Campus Chapter adds three griefsupport resources: a peer-led grief “support group,” a “service group,” and afaculty/staff “mentoring” program. Furthermore, although several other griefsupport resources already exist on many college campuses, they are oftenunderutilized or unknown by college students. Therefore, each CampusChapter utilizes the student voice to connect grieving college students withother active coping strategies already available on their college campus.For instance, Psychological Counseling Center services and contacts withinthe Center are shared at every Support Group meeting. By actively market-ing these resources to students campus-wide, Campus Chapters are able toreach students that would not typically participate in active coping strategies.A student from Western Oregon University shared the following comment: “Ifelt so alone and was ready to leave school completely, but getting involvedwith AMF changed everything.”

SUPPORT GROUP

The Support Group, which is open only to grieving college students, is apeer-led, open-format, open-discussion group that brings grieving studentstogether to share their thoughts, feelings, and experiences in a positive,supportive, and uplifting environment. Support Group meetings are heldevery two weeks in an informal, private, on-campus location. Support Groupmeetings are not counseling sessions and are not professionally led. With thiscaveat made clear at the beginning of each meeting, members are invited toshare experiences, not advice. Nevertheless, careful planning by the SupportGroup leader is essential to help ensure a Support Group’s success.

The Support Group Leader is determined by the Campus Chapterleadership based on ability to establish connections with peers, notbased on knowledge about grief support. Support Group Leaders undergoleader training, which is overseen by the NSAMF Board of Mental HealthProfessionals.

The first meeting of each semester begins with an opportunity for mem-bers to share topics they would like to discuss during the semester. Each60–90 minute meeting begins with a student sharing a personal story or the“leader” posing an agreed upon topic. At meetings, students discuss specificsituations they have encountered, empathize with one another, and share

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Building a Network of Grief Support 107

various coping techniques that they have utilized, such as how to cope withgrieving during the holidays. There is no curriculum and no expectation formembers to participate in the discussion. Several significant goals are typi-cally achieved: help students to feel less isolated by interacting with otherbereaved students; give students the opportunity to help others and in doingso help themselves; offer quite possibly the only forum for discourse aboutgrief, in turn normalizing and legitimizing students’ grief-related thoughts;and direct students to other resources, if interested. A student from GeorgiaSouthern University shared the following comment about his experiencewith a Campus Chapter Support Group.

It has been so empowering to be part of a group where they know howI feel even before I’ve told them my story because they’ve all been there,and they want to be there for me.

SERVICE GROUP

The Service Group, which is open to all students on campus, motivates andempowers students to volunteer and raise awareness for service projects.Each service group is free to choose its own projects, ranging from par-ticipating in a local cancer walk to volunteering at a children’s hospital;activities are often chosen in honor of a loved one or in support of a causethat has directly impacted the campus community. Campus Chapter ServiceGroups may partner with other service groups on campus and participate inthose organizations’ fundraising activities. Participation often serves as a pos-itive, therapeutic outlet for students to direct their grief. Service events alsooffer an opportunity to get nonbereaved students involved with the CampusChapter. Support Group members often feel great comfort and support whentheir nonbereaved peers participate with them in Campus Chapter ServiceGroup activities. A student member shared the following comment abouther involvement with a Campus Chapter Service Group:

AMF attended the Walk to D’Feet ALS in honor of my dad. I felt likeI could actually do something besides feel sad and helpless about mydad’s illness. We raised money for the walk and many of my friends andother members of AMF joined me, for which I was extremely grateful.

MENTORING PROGRAM

Although not a component of every Campus Chapter, several chapters alsoinclude a mentoring program that connects students with preselected facultymentors. The members of the support group nominate and select 10–20 fac-ulty or staff members on campus to serve as mentors. If the faculty/staff

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members agree, then they are paired with support group members to sup-port the students on an as needed basis. Students and mentors may connectas much as once a week for coffee, during times of crises, or only once asemester by e-mail.

PROMOTING THE CAMPUS CHAPTER

In order to reach out to the most students, a variety of approaches to promo-tion are utilized. All chapters are encouraged to place flyers around campus,send letters to department heads, write e-mails to electronic mailing lists,place a story in campus newspapers, include events in community calen-dars, and utilize a Facebook page. While all of these approaches successfullypromote the Service Group, not all are effective for reaching Support Groupmembers. Grieving college students typically need to hear about the groupfrom an individual, particularly a faculty member or close friend, even ifthrough e-mail, before attending a meeting.

INTERACTION AMONG CAMPUS CHAPTERS, THE COUNSELING CENTER,AND OTHER ON-CAMPUS RESOURCES

Campus Chapters also utilize the student voice to highlight other resourcesavailable on campus. When students inquire about Students of AMF, CampusChapter leaders use the opportunity to share additional information aboutCounseling & Psychological Services, Campus Ministry and other faith-basedorganizations, and other local support groups (i.e, local hospices).

Chapter leaders are instructed to meet with the director or the outreachcoordinator from the university counseling center during the early stages ofdeveloping a chapter to clearly define the role of a campus chapter as addinga resource to, and offering a student voice in support of, the existing cam-pus safety network. The leader should emphasize that the Campus Chapteris not attempting to replace any part of the campus safety network. However,some students who would not consider going to a counseling center for helpmay be more willing to talk informally with a peer (Balk, 2008). In addi-tion, chapter leaders may present information about the Campus Chapter atcounseling center staff meetings, display flyers throughout counseling cen-ters, distribute counseling center handouts to support group members, andexchange links between the two groups’ Web sites.

Considering that university counseling centers are expanding their focusbeyond direct psychological counseling (Kitzrow, 2003) and that there aremore students with severe psychological issues who are enrolling in univer-sities (Gallagher, 2009), Campus Chapters and university counseling centersmust have a strong working relationship to broaden the safety network toreach unsupported students. Based on 6 years of observations, we conclude

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Building a Network of Grief Support 109

that the most successful campus chapters utilize a strong working relation-ship with the counseling center. For instance, students at the University ofPennsylvania are frequently referred to the Support Group by the CounselingCenter and conversely are encouraged to see someone in the CounselingCenter by leaders in the Support Group; many students participate in bothmodes of support. Support Group leaders are trained to identify and seekadditional help for students who experience serious changes in daily func-tioning, such as social isolation, skipping classes, weight fluctuations, riskybehaviors, or aggressive behaviors (Servaty-Seib & Taub, 2008). If a mem-ber expresses suicidal or homicidal thoughts, the group leader is instructedto immediately contact the faculty advisor, the counseling center contact,campus security, and emergency 9-1-1.

In addition to widening the campus safety net, Campus Chapters alsoprovide faculty and administrators with an additional resource to share withstudents. An Associate Dean from a private university shared the followingcomment about a Campus Chapter:

This is a wonderful idea! A number of my advisees are dealing with theserious illness and/or death of a parent and I suspect that many of thesemay feel more comfortable in a well-run group than in the one-on-oneframework of counseling or would welcome a group as well as whatCAPS can offer.

CASE REPORT: MARISSA

The following is a glimpse into the experience of one college student whoparticipated in NSAMF. Marissa was two months into her freshman year incollege and it was parents’ weekend. She was looking forward to seeing herparents for the first time since moving in. Her father arrived in a wheelchair;however, Marissa found out that he had been diagnosed with ALS six monthsprior. Marissa’s parents chose not to tell her, because they did not want herto make her college decision based on his disease. Marissa was devastatedand insisted that she drop out of school immediately. In her own words:

I felt completely isolated. I had only been at X [University] for a coupleof months and, though I’d made some friends, I felt like no one elsecould understand what I was going through. Everyone just wanted tohave fun, and we rarely talked about our families.

That week, a front page story ran in the student newspaper about “astudent-led grief support group” called “Students of AMF.” Marissa’s motherinsisted that Marissa go to one meeting before she dropped out. Marissaagreed, though reluctantly. After attending the support group meeting,Marissa described a welcomed change:

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I immediately felt like a huge weight had been lifted. I wasn’t alone.In fact, I became close friends with a girl who had lost her father inthe previous semester. I felt so lucky to have found other students whocould offer me support and guidance, and could give me a chance totalk about my family. I also learned that several members of the groupalso saw a counselor, so I decided to give it a try. I really benefitted fromparticipating in both services.

During Marissa’s sophomore year, she became the Treasurer of AMFand also worked on increasing membership. Marissa’s AMF chapter partic-ipated in a service event in honor of her father that fall. She invited hernonbereaved friends to participate as well, which for the first time openedup lines of communication with them about her father.

During her junior year, Marissa became the Vice President and theDirector of the Faculty Mentoring Program. “My Mentors are so kind to meand make me feel like I have someone to turn to even though my family isso far away.” As a senior, Marissa became the President of Students of AMFat her university. During this time, her father died.

Not only do I continue to receive support from the other group mem-bers, but I also get to help students who are new to AMF, which makesme feel so happy. AMF has helped me more than I can say. I honestlybelieve that it’s the main reason I was able to stay in school—whichis what my dad wanted—rather than moving home. It has made mefeel more connected to the community and offered me a place totalk about the sorts of things that don’t come up over pizza in thecafeteria or by a keg in someone’s backyard. It showed me that Iwas not alone in feeling torn between being at school and being athome. The greatest support I receive from AMF comes from the mem-bers who’ve already lost parents, whose example shows me that lifedoes continue after the death of a parent. They personify the mostpowerful aspect of AMF’s contribution to the community, and to me:hope.

Marissa is now a second year Law Student at George WashingtonUniversity and a member of the National Students of AMF Board ofAlumni/Student Leaders.

OVERVIEW OF NATIONAL OPERATIONS

NSAMF provides an array of resources to facilitate the creation of CampusChapters and empower students to support one another. NSAMF contin-ually updates and distributes a Chapter Toolkit guide and Support GroupLeader guide, which include best practices regarding how to lead Support

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Group meetings, how long they should be, where they should be heldon campus, and how they should be promoted. Chapter Leaders arepaired up with a volunteer Chapter Coordinator to guide them throughthe process outlined in the Toolkit. NSAMF hosts monthly conferencecalls to discuss chapter development. NSAMF offers direct financial sup-port for costs, such as T-shirts/promotional items, refreshments at meetingsand events, and printing/copying. NSAMF covers all expenses for oneor two chapter leaders from each campus to attend and receive fur-ther training at the annual National Conference on College Student Grief.Training at the conference focuses on support group facilitation, mar-keting on campus, and leadership skill improvement. Occasionally, theBoard of Mental Health Professionals is called on for specific advicerelated to a campus or a student member. Finally, NSAMF devotes probono Google Adwords resources to raise campus awareness about CampusChapters.

Although chapter development is the primary way NSAMF endeavorsto achieve its mission, it also engages in national programming, includingraising awareness about the needs of grieving college students and hostingthe annual National Conference on College Student Grief.

NSAMF’s awareness-raising strategy focuses on social media, televisionand print media exposure, and word of mouth. NSAMF was selected as a2007 BRICK Award winner, which placed the organization on network televi-sion (the CW©) and on the back of 40 million bags of Cool Ranch Doritos®.Reader’s Digest© selected NSAMF as one of 10 “Make it Matter” stories of2008, and the organization was also featured on NBC’s Today Show© in2008. Eli Lilly selected NSAMF as the recipient of the 2011 Welcome BackAward in Community Service for creating and improving “community pro-grams that foster a supportive, caring environment for those suffering fromdepression” (Eli Lilly and Company, 2010). Between 2008–2011, the NSAMFWeb site, www.studentsofamf.org, averaged between 2,000 and 5,000 visitseach month.

The annual National Conference on College Student Grief, held ini-tially in 2008, provides a national forum for student leaders, grieving collegestudents, university faculty, and college mental health leaders to discussissues and future directions in college student grief support. Organizationaloperations are currently overseen by the Board of Directors and exe-cuted by a full-time Executive Director and a host of volunteers. TheBoard of Mental Health Professionals provides additional guidance for allChapter Development operations. The Board of Advisors provides supportfor fundraising activities. The Board of Alumni/Students Leaders offers guid-ance and a student voice to the Board of Directors. A former student leaderstated: “My involvement with AMF was the highlight of my college career,so I would really like to be able to give back and help other grieving collegestudents in any way that I can.”

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DISCUSSION

Despite the clear need for support on college campuses, few programs haveattempted to meet this need and those that have attempted have been metwith mixed success and poor student participation (Balk, 2001). NSAMFhas been successful because of both the overall need and several uniquecharacteristics and strategies of the organization. Notably, grieving collegestudents, the very people NSAMF endeavors to serve, created and developedNSAMF and are instrumental in every decision. Each Campus Chapter andSupport Group meeting is entirely student-led.

Fortunately, in addition to student leaders, NSAMF has also benefitedin its planning and execution from the expertise of nonprofit leaders, pro-fessional staff, college student mental health professionals, and bereavementexperts. The success of a Campus Chapter on a particular campus dependsheavily on the campus leaders’ passion and leadership ability, the facultyadvisor’s level of engagement, and the relationship between and engage-ment with the campus counseling center. The individual characteristics ofthe university, such as size, type, and mission, are less relevant to the successof the organization than one would expect.

The Support Group utilizes principles of peer support, which is theprimary modality that grieving students need according to university admin-istrators, and group work (Fajgenbaum & Lanzi, 2007). Bereaved collegestudents report that attentive listening and personal presence, both accom-plished through group work, are the most helpful actions that an outsidercan provide (Vickio, Cavanaugh et al., 1990).

NSAMF Campus Chapters do not set out to replace any pre-existingservices. Rather, they endeavor to supplement and connect students to thecampus safety network. By utilizing the student voice to promote servicesalready available on campus, it is hoped that more students in need willengage in available resources. NSAMF conducts its own fundraising activitiesto support each Campus Chapter. There are no chapter dues, and everyCampus Chapter meeting and event is free.

NSAMF Campus Chapters utilize civic engagement, volunteerism, andcommunity service as a therapeutic modality, which is common in sev-eral other realms (Ostrander, 2004) but atypical in thanatology. Researchersin other fields have found that, in addition to the community benefits ofvolunteering, there is a direct personal benefit to helping others (Piliavin,2003). This has certainly been the case for students within NSAMF CampusChapters. Chapters provide opportunities for students to support others inneed and also participate in service activities in memory or honor of an illor deceased loved one.

The benefit of having service as a therapeutic arm is most evidentamong males. Not unlike other realms of society, male students participatein Campus Chapter support groups much less frequently than females, but

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they participate in equal or an even greater proportion in community ser-vice activities. Anecdotal evidence indicates that males find more therapeuticbenefits from participation in service than the support group, because theyare able to tangibly do something and because of stigma against males insupport groups appearing “weak.”

In addition to finding meaning and benefit in helping others, par-ticipation in NSAMF Campus Chapters enables students to maintain aconnection with their loved ones through volunteering in their memory,cultivating memories, and sharing stories with peers. Chapters also providea mechanism for motivating, mobilizing, and developing student talents andleaders.

The timing of this grassroots effort happened to coincide with severalsignificant research discoveries indicating the large prevalence of college stu-dent grief and the significant impact it can have on academic performanceand social development. Researchers had made several calls in the litera-ture for university programs and “swift interventions” to combat these issues(Wrenn, 1999; Balk, 2001; Servaty-Seib, 2006). Though NSAMF CampusChapters do not exactly match the literature’s call for administrator-ledoffices for bereaved students, Campus Chapters organically evolved to con-duct several of the actions recommended by Wrenn, Balk, and Servaty-Seib:(a) a “place on campus” to go for support (Support Group), (b) improvedsupport from nonbereaved peers (Service Group), (c) structured interven-tions for the at risk (referral to Counseling Services), (d) consciousnessraising on campus (Service Group), (e) faculty assistance of bereaved stu-dents (mentoring program), and (f) a conference on these issues (NationalConference on College Student Grief).

Limitations

One potential limitation of NSAMF is that licensed professionals do not leadCampus Chapter Support Groups and student-leaders may not be equippedto handle difficult situations. However, NSAMF’s peer-led, group structure isnot uncommon among grief support avenues. The model has been informedby the input of hundreds of grieving college students and the advice ofdozens of experts (Fajgenbaum & Chesson, 2007). Furthermore, StudentLeaders are trained to facilitate support groups, identify when a studentmay need additional help, and reach out to the Faculty Advisor and uni-versity officials for advice and support during difficult situations. A secondlimitation is that NSAMF Campus Chapters are not equipped to provide theresources necessary for all grieving college students, particularly those withserious mental illness. For this reason, a protocol has been put into placeand utilized on several campuses for helping students “whose needs arebeyond the scope of what NSAMF can offer” find other resources. A thirdpotential limitation is that NSAMF Campus Chapters are at risk of being led

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by students in a harmful or inappropriate manner. To address this concerneach student leader and faculty advisor is comprehensively evaluated duringthe start-up process. Systems are in place to ensure that if a student leaderor faculty advisor acts harmfully or inappropriately, the NSAMF Board ofDirectors and Board of Mental Health Professionals will be alerted and actpromptly. Fourth, although NSAMF has hundreds of testimonials to the bene-fits of participation, the program needs to be quantitatively and scientificallyassessed for effectiveness and potential areas for improvement. NSAMF iscurrently seeking grants to support such research.

Current Activities and Future Directions

NSAMF hired its second full-time Executive Director in July 2011. Currentactivities include sustaining existing and developing new Campus Chapters,aggressively marketing to college campuses that do not have CampusChapters, developing long-term partnerships with national advocacy orga-nizations and potential funding sources, expanding the annual NationalConference on College Student Grief, and creating an Alumni Network tokeep alumni engaged with NSAMF. Future activities include hiring addi-tional full-time employees to lead chapter development, developing campusworkshops about grief for students and faculty members, developing innova-tive methods to utilize social media and technology to connect and supportgrieving college students, and disbursing student tuition scholarships andresearch grants to evaluate program effectiveness.

In addition to AMF, there is another student-led movement in the col-lege student grief arena. At Purdue University, several student governmentleaders and Heather Servaty-Seib, who is a faculty member and member ofthe NSAMF Board of Mental Health Professionals, proposed and success-fully campaigned for a student bereavement leave policy (H. Servaty-Seib,personal communication, August 15, 2011). Approved Spring 2011, the pol-icy provides consistent guidelines for the length of time a student can missschool for a death and gives students an opportunity to show evidence theycan meet the learning objectives for missed assignments (Purdue UniversityNews Service, 2011).

Action Steps for University Administrators and CounselingCenter Directors

Based on our research with university administrators and counseling cen-ters and work with NSAMF, we have identified several action steps thatuniversity administrators and counseling center directors can take to helpgrieving college students on three levels: student, campus, and national.Each is discussed below.

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STUDENT-LEVEL STEPS

First, many students troubled by grief present to the counseling centerwith problems that are secondary to the loss, such as reliance on drugsor insomnia. Thus, mental health professionals should conduct a thoroughloss assessment as a part of all routine intake interviews. Both death andnondeath losses are important to understanding the experience of col-lege students who present for counseling (Servaty-Seib & Taub, 2010).Campus professionals must be familiar with current bereavement-related the-ories, attuned to the behaviors that could indicate an internal struggle withbereavement, and prepared to intervene appropriately (Neimeyer, Laurie,Mehta, Hardison, & Currier, 2008). Second, it is important that campus pro-fessionals communicate directly with grieving college students that they arewilling to speak with them during times of grief. A third critical componentis that campus professionals educate bereaved students about the uniquechallenges that they may face and share information about the various,underutilized grief resources available (e.g., Campus Ministry, ResidentialLife). Fourth, campus professionals should encourage grieving college stu-dents, particularly males, to participate in service activities, such as a localcancer walk in memory or honor of a loved one. And, finally, campus profes-sionals can share information about NSAMF and its nationwide communityof supporters with students and colleagues and encourage their students tostart a Campus Chapter if one is not already established.

CAMPUS-LEVEL STEPS

First, campus leaders should determine if there is a contact or identifi-able location on campus where bereaved students can go to seek support,such as the counseling center, student health service, or campus ministry(Balk, 2001). Second, campus leaders should facilitate, as many universitycounseling center staff already have, the development of NSAMF CampusChapters at their universities. If administrators are interested in helping tostart a Chapter, they should contact NSAMF through www.studentsofamf.orgfor more information. If a Campus Chapter already exists, university admin-istrators and counseling directors can serve as Faculty Advisors or informaladvisors to grieving students. At the very least, it is important that administra-tors share information with community members, including college studentsand other faculty/staff, about NSAMF. Third, holding an informational griefworkshop on campus is another excellent mechanism for supporting stu-dents. NSAMF has many resource materials for planning one of these events.Fourth, campus administrators should determine if supportive policies, suchas bereavement leave policies, are in place to assist bereaved students.If policies are in place, administrators should review current policies todetermine if they are aligned with recommendations presented elsewhere

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(see Servaty-Seib & Taub, 2010). If no policies exist, administrators shouldadvocate for such policies. Finally, professionals can promote the idea ofan annual memorial service or memorial garden for the loved ones of stu-dents who have died (see Hamilton, 2008, and Knudson, 2011, for furtherinformation for supporting).

NATIONAL-LEVEL STEPS

Active support of these student and campus-level efforts by campus coun-selors is critical to sustaining them on the national level. First, the annualNSAMF National Conference on College Student Grief is an excellent wayto learn more about the experiences, needs, solutions, and opportunities forsupporting grieving college students. Second, national efforts can involvesharing information about NSAMF with colleagues from other universities,who may ultimately become interested in starting Campus Chapters. Third,NSAMF feeds off the experiences, ideas, and advice that university admin-istrators and counseling directors can offer. There are many roles for newvolunteers, including serving on an advisory board or conducting quantita-tive research into the effectiveness of National Students of AMF programsin meeting the needs of bereaved college students. Fourth, national mentalhealth membership associations should include college student grief the-ories as a standard part of program training (Servaty-Seib & Taub 2010).Finally, campus professionals should engage in continuing education regard-ing grief and mourning through organizations such as the Association forDeath Education and Counseling (www.adec.org).

CONCLUSION

NSAMF is a grassroots, national organization, created through the collabora-tive efforts of grieving college students, college mental health professionals,and bereavement experts, to offer supportive interventions on college cam-puses. By creating student-led, student-focused outlets for grieving collegestudents on college campuses, NSAMF provides an effective forum forgrieving students to support one another. In order to most effectivelyachieve their shared mission of supporting college students in need, CampusChapters and university counseling centers must develop a strong, workingrelationship.

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