EUnitas Echo Edition 3

Hellooooo!

By Anna Gudimova

After a week full of King’s Day celebrations, orange outfits, and questionable dance moves, we’re back -  and ready to kick off the spring season with a fresh dose of updates, tips, and fun!

This month, the spotlight is on our Public Relations (PR) Committee, who have been working hard behind the scenes to bring EUnitas closer to you through creativity, communication, and connection.

Leading the team is our Head of PR: Noémie Meyer, alongside the talented and dedicated members: Saartja van Ree, Develyn Milliane Budiono, Maya Wnuk, and Mattia Canepa. Together, they ensure that everything you see, hear, and read about EUnitas truly reflects the vibrant spirit of our community.

The PR Committee plays a vital role in how we share our stories, engage with our community, and present EUnitas to the world - and we are thrilled to have them hosting this month's edition!

We hope this issue brings you useful insights, new opportunities, and a few moments of fun along the way. Stay connected, stay curious, and let’s make this spring a vibrant one together!

Cheers!

• The Community Networking Committee 

Mental Health

By Aminata Cisse

Once again this year, Mental Health Europe, the EU’s largest independent mental health NGO, is celebrating European Mental Health Week from May 19th to 25th. There is no doubt about the importance of the topic: the World Health Organization (2024) estimates that one in seven 10–19-year-olds experiences a mental disorder, accounting for 15% of the global burden of disease in this age group. Depression alone affects 1.4% of adolescents aged 10–14 and 3.5% of those aged 15–19. Yet many do not receive the help they need due to stigma, lack of resources, or late detection.

How a Weight-Loss Clinic Uncovered the Roots of Mental Illness

In 1985, Dr. Vincent Felitti, a  Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of California since 1982, with over 50 years of experience in the field of Internal Medicine, noticed something odd: although many patients at his obesity clinic were successfully losing weight, 50% were dropping out. Frustrated, he investigated further and found that 55% of these patients had experienced childhood trauma. Some women even described using weight as a protective barrier against sexual advances. This discovery led to one of the most influential studies in public health: the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) study, conducted in the late 1990s in collaboration with the CDC. Over 17,000 adults were surveyed about their exposure to different types of childhood trauma. The study identified 10 ACEs, grouped into: Abuse (Physical, emotional, and sexual abuse); Neglect (Physical and emotional neglect); and Household Dysfunction (Domestic violence, substance abuse, untreated mental illness, parental separation or divorce, or parental incarceration).

The findings revealed that a large number of people have experienced at least one ACE (64%), while 17.7% of children (one in six) reported experiencing at least four ACEs. Specifically, 28% of women and 16% of men reported experiencing sexual abuse in childhood. Additionally, men and women that experienced ACEs had a 35% and 66% chance of developing depression respectively, compared to the 12% chances of those that did not experience traumatic experiences.

While some might argue that this is intuitive as neglected children are more likely to adopt unhealthy habits like smoking, which in turn leads to worse health, but beyond that Dr. Felitti’s key insight was that childhood trauma doesn’t just influence behavior, it can change the brain itself.

How Childhood Trauma Rewires the Brain and Increases Depression Risk

The ACEs study revealed that when a child is repeatedly exposed to high levels of stress without stable, supportive relationships to buffer that stress can alter the size, connectivity, and function of key brain regions involved in emotion, memory, and regulation and how the brain and body respond to the world well into adulthood. The most important changes involve the:

●  Amygdala: This small region is the motor control for fear and emotional regulation. It detects and responds to threats. In children exposed to trauma, it can become hyperactive and over vigilance, meaning that even minor stressors or neutral situations may trigger intense emotional reactions. 

●  Prefrontal Cortex (PFC): The PFC is responsible for higher-order thinking: self-control, decision-making, and managing emotions. Trauma and chronic stress can delay or disrupt its development, especially during critical windows in childhood and adolescence, making it more difficult to regulate their mood, calming themselves down, or “talking themselves out” of negative thoughts. 

●  The hippocampus: This brain structure helps form and recall memories and provides context for experiences (e.g., “That happened in the past and I’m safe now”). When experiencing chronic stress it can shrink and have impaired functions, leading to memory problems, difficulty concentrating, and trouble distinguishing between past and present threats. 

●  The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis: This pathway is the body’s central stress response system and can become dysregulated as a consequence of  Chronic or unpredictable stress in childhood. When it becomes dysregulated the body stays in a heightened or blunted stress response,  leading to emotional exhaustion, sleep problems, immune dysregulation, which further impacts brain functioning and fuels depressive symptoms like low energy, anhedonia (loss of interest), and poor concentration.

Thanks to great discoveries like that of Dr. Felitti, we know that to prevent and decrease the current burden that mental health poses in our societies we need to focus on early life stages, but how do we do that? Part of the answer may lie in using models from cognitive development and public health.

Depression as a Developmental and Life Course Issue

Thanks to such findings we now understand that mental health must be seen as a developmental journey, not just a moment in time. This is where public health and in particular the Life Course Approach can make a real difference.

This model recognizes that health outcomes in adulthood are deeply rooted in earlier life stages, and that our experiences are interconnected with those of our families and communities. In terms of mental health, childhood and adolescence are particularly sensitive periods due to rapid brain development, the emergence of emotional regulation, and identity formation. The Life Course Approach highlights three main pathways that help explain how early adversity contributes to depression later in life:

1. Accumulation of Risk A child living in poverty may also face food insecurity, poor housing, limited healthcare access, and a parent struggling with mental illness. On their own, each stressor might not cause depression, but together, they build a “risk load” that overwhelms coping mechanisms.

2. Timing The same event can have drastically different impacts depending on when it happens. For example, trauma during early childhood, a period of intense brain growth, can derail neural development more than the same event occurring later. Critical windows like infancy, school entry, and puberty are not just points of vulnerability, but opportunity. 

3. Pathway Dependency Early developmental delays or emotional difficulties often set off a chain reaction. A child with language delays may struggle socially and academically, leading to low self-esteem and peer rejection, which in turn increases emotional distress. Without intervention, these early struggles can shape a lifelong trajectory.

Prevention Starts Early

We now know that the roots of adult depression often stretch back to childhood. Prevention and intervention must begin early, focusing on supportive relationships, safe environments, and timely mental health care. That’s why public health initiatives like school-based mental health programs, parental support services, and early trauma screening are essential. Resilience is real, and change is possible, but only if we act early and systemically.

Mental Health Week is not just about raising awareness. It’s about demanding action so that every child has a chance at a mentally healthy future.

Curious About Your Own ACE Score?

Take the ACE quiz and learn more about how early experiences might shape health later in life: 🔗 Take the ACE Quiz (via NPR)

 Events

By Lexie McConnell

[DISCLAIMER: events are subject to change - keep up to date through our social media!]

Date (s)	Name	Time and Place	Description
EVERY Wednesday	Stammtisch	8:30pm John Mullins Irish Pub	Wednesday is calling... and that means Stammtisch is back! Join us this week for another round of good company, great conversations, and the perfect midweek break. No pressure, no planning - just show up, settle in, and let the tradition continue. See you there!
Wednesday 07.05.25	Presentation Skills	11:00pm  Tongerezaal	Refine your presentation skills and learn what makes you stand out. Presenting is a skill that can serve you for a lifetime, come to this session to learn practical ways that you can improve and practice a bit!
Thursday 08.05.25	Networking 101: ‘market yourself’	4:30pm  Keulenzaal (UNS 40)	Looking to land your dream internship or just want to feel more confident promoting your skills? Join us for Market Yourself, an interactive personal branding workshop featuring a special guest speaker! You’ll learn how to polish your CV, improve your LinkedIn presence, and pitch yourself like a pro. Free snacks, real talk, and practical tips guaranteed.
Thursday  08.05.25	Complex Party	10pm Nido 11pm Complex	Get ready for a disco themed night of nonstop beats, flashing lights, and dance floor domination! The DJs are spinning, the drinks are flowing, and the vibe is set … Join EUnitas and Universalis for an unforgettable night.
Tuesday 13.05.25	Eurovision Watch party	8pm  Location TBC	Get ready for a night of glitter, drama, and unforgettable performances! EUnitas invites you to our Eurovision Watch Party - a cozy evening of flag-waving, scorecards, and (of course) snacks. Whether you’re team ballad, banger, or bizarre, come dressed in your country’s colors or just your comfiest clothes and enjoy the show with your fellow students!
Wednesday 14.05.25	NATO General members trip	2pm  Meet location TBC	Suit up for a unique chance to step into the world of international diplomacy and defense … EUnitas’ Education committee is thrilled to take you along. So be sure to get your tickets quickly before they sell out!

Course Tips! 

By Devanshi Chawla

Now, we know that the Law reading is getting dreadful. Believe me, we all have been there. The jargon is too jargon-y, the words are flying over your heads, and it just doesn’t make sense on why you’re being told to read something only to discuss it later on in… another perspective? 

Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered! Here are some tips that would make the law a little bit more fun, and less dreaded.

• Watch Videos 💻: Really! YouTube! There are channels out there that are meant to help make law seem more digestible and less intense as it seems. 

• Draw It 🖍️: Both CTR and MDR are full of step-by-step procedures (think: application → assessment → approval → post-monitoring). Turning those into flowcharts or timelines can untangle the chaos and help you see what happens when and why.

  • Use pretty colours to see why things happen the way they do, it’ll be easier to pinpoint the logic there when you see it visualised. 🎨

• Make it a Game 🎲: Every time you read a regulation, stop and ask yourself, “Okay but why should I care?” That puts things into perspective, because if one thing didn’t exist, for all you could know, you might not even be having Instagram to this day. This is why the GDPR is important. (And the CTR and MDR 🤫)

• Play it Out: When in doubt, make it fit in a scenario. Like, in the case of the CTR, you want approval? Well, the bouncers are there to check your ID (approval), they’re there to make sure everyone’s having fun without anyone getting hurt (ethics), and after it all, if something goes wrong, they report it to the club owner (safety monitoring).

As for the non-law? As dreading as it sounds, all of that is important. Yep, this means those curves, those models, those words: adoption, diffusion, language models, big data. That seems like a lot, but it’s all important! But hey, you’ll do great! 

Awareness 

By Michael Naftel

The US designated May as Mental Health Month in 1949, and many other countries also organise mental health initiatives in May. In 2025, this is recognised across Europe during European Mental Health Week from the 19th to the 25th of May, with the theme: “Care for Mental Health, Invest in Social Rights.” Mental health does not exist in isolation and is shaped by social conditions. Academic pressure, financial stress, housing problems, and loneliness all contribute to worsening mental health status. For some, these challenges become overwhelming and lead to suicidal thoughts. Suicide is commonly one of the leading causes of death among young people in Europe, including those in higher education. Rotenstein et al. (2016) conducted a systematic literature review that analysed 183 studies with a total of 129,123 participants across 47 countries. It found that:

• 27.2% experienced depression or depressive symptoms

• 11.1% reported suicidal ideation

• Only 15.7% of students who screened positive for depression sought treatment

These results highlight how common poor mental health is and, more importantly, that too few students are accessing support. The UM offers a range of services to support students' mental wellbeing:

• Quick Psychological Referral (QPR)

• Support in accessing mental healthcare in the Netherlands

• Workshops on topics like stress, grief, and burnout

• External resources for mental health

For more information: UM Psychological support

Rotenstein, L. S., Ramos, M. A., Torre, M., Segal, J. B., Peluso, M. J., Guille, C., Sen, S., & Mata, D. A. (2016). Prevalence of Depression, Depressive Symptoms, and Suicidal Ideation Among Medical Students: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. JAMA, 316(21), 2214. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2016.17324

Student of the Month!

EUnitas is pleased to recognise Lieke Gerritsen as EPH’s ‘Student of the Month’ for May of 2025 as nominated by a peer. 

Lieke recently finished her extracurricular activities at the “SHE Collaborates” program. Her team has been recently nominated for a grant and possibly even implementing their project in real life. She not only excelled at this, but also does not fail to uphold excellent academic standards. Good job Lieke!