Mike Evans has served in the U.S. Army, run for a seat in the House of Representatives and has been nominated to the Democratic National Committee's Veterans and Military Families Council by Howard Dean - all while coping with depression.
But Evans, a senior in the Kogod School of Business, said it hasn't been easy, and universities - including AU - could do more to support students dealing with mental illness.
Evans said he began feeling depressed after being honorably discharged from the Army in 1998, but "wasn't able to identify [the depression] until I was in school in 2001." Evans dropped out of AU in 2003 to deal with his depression.
In 2004, at the age of 25, Evans ran for Missouri's Third District as one of the youngest people to run for Congress.
Evans said he ran because he wanted to lift "the stigma of a person with a mental health disease from our generation. ... I wanted to give them a say about what is going on in the world."
In 2006, when Evans reapplied to AU to finish school, he said "the process of reapplying was very, very strict." Since Evans did not withdraw properly, he had to disclose his personal reasons for initially leaving to the registrar in order to reapply, he said, including detailed information about his struggle with depression.
"It was disheartening to disclose all of this very personal information in depth to [AU admissions]," Evans said. "These are all areas that AU and other universities can improve upon."
The university needs to do more to help students with mental illnesses, Evans said.
"I think even at AU, mental health diseases are diseases that are on-going and they require some input from the administration," he said.
Evans has recently attended meetings of AU's chapter of Active Minds, a national student-run mental health awareness, education and advocacy organization.
Active Minds educates students about mental health through materials and panel discussions, but since they are a student-run organization, they are not qualified to provide mental health services. Instead, they refer students to doctors in the area to receive help, said AU Active Minds chapter President Beth Soderberg.
Soderberg, a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences, said although the administration has been "extremely supportive" of Active Minds, it can do more to improve its mental health resources.
Faith Leonard, dean of students, said AU offers mental illness help through the Counseling Center and the Student Health Center.
"The Disability Support Services provides services for students with documented mental health disorders who need accommodations to be successful academically," Leonard said in an e-mail.
Although the university has helped students with mental health problems through a psychiatrist in the Student Health Center, there is too much demand for one person and the university needs to create more appointment times, Soderberg said.
Leonard recognizes the difficulty in spreading mental health awareness.
"Making sure that students know about the resources available and how to access them is always a challenge," Leonard said.
Leonard said in addition to information given at orientation programs, "it's helpful to have as many people in the community aware of services as possible so that appropriate referrals can be made."
Evans has not let depression stop him from achieving his political goals. He remains active in politics and during the midterm elections, he returned to Missouri to work for Senator-elect Claire McCaskill.
"I have this disease, but I can do things out of the normal possibility," he said.
