Editor’s Note: This article includes mentions of suicide. If you are struggling with your mental health, the University Counseling Center can be reached at (615) 322-2571 or through their Crisis Line Text by texting VANDY to 741741.
Vanderbilt students gathered on Commons Lawn March 21 for the 2026 Out of the Darkness Campus Walk, an event hosted through Active Minds and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention that paired suicide prevention advocacy with reflection, remembrance and community-building.
The event organizers led a brief mindfulness activity before the walk, encouraging attendees to pause and reflect on their personal ties to the cause, the people they were honoring and the broader importance of suicide prevention. Students connected with one another and shared personal experiences. Honor beads were distributed to signal the participants’ personal ties to suicide prevention and loss, giving participants multiple ways to engage with the event and with each other.
Junior Abhiram Chilakamarri, co-president of Active Minds, said the event was designed to bring students and the broader community together to raise awareness and support suicide prevention.
“We want to get a community of Vandy students and the local and national community to come together to rally around this cause, especially for those that have gone through it recently in the local area,” Chilakamarri said.
Check-in opened at 11 a.m. CDT, and at 12 p.m. CDT, students gathered for an opening speech. The walk began on Commons Lawn, with participants making their way toward Peabody Administration before returning to the lawn.
Sophomore Ava Zurawlow, a co-host of the event, described the walk as both an advocacy effort and a personally meaningful experience for her.
“I recently had a friend who died by suicide this past December. This event really means a lot to me to have more advocacy and awareness spread toward suicide prevention because I feel like it isn’t talked enough about,” Zurawlow said.
Throughout the event, organizers emphasized not only awareness but also the importance of how suicide is discussed. The event approached suicide as a public health concern that should be destigmatized and broached with compassion and encouraged students to be thoughtful about the specific language they used when talking about loss and mental health.
Senior Alexis Mowrer, co-president of Active Minds, said she believes the walk served as a reminder that suicide prevention efforts are ultimately about caring for people rather than simply staging an event.
“The Out of the Darkness Walk is a powerful reminder of the work we do for suicide prevention,” Mowrer said. “Ultimately, this movement is not just about organizations or events. It’s about people. It’s about each of us taking small but meaningful steps to look out for one another.”
Seniors Kevin Pham and Lucas Tapia said they attended in memory of a close friend, Adam Nimaga.
“We are here because we lost one of our fraternity brothers to suicide last October,” Tapia said.
“We [were] super close [with] him and wanted to come together for [him],” Pham said.
