Last Updated: Wednesday, Feb. 24 at 1:51 a.m.

Far more often than not, people are not given second chances. Jordan Burnham came to Elon University to speak about the greatest second chance he was given — the chance to live.

Burnham, professional public speaker for Active Minds, a mental health advocacy nonprofit, travels around the United States to share his story. He has addressed Congress and has been featured in several major publications such as USA Today and Sports Illustrated. But on Wednesday, Feb. 17, it was Elon students and faculty who heard his story.

Hundreds of students gathered in McKinnon Hall to hear Burnham speak about his battle with depression. He finds it especially important for his story to reach college-age students, as the stress levels in university environments can be much higher. According to him, there are four main factors that make college different from high school in terms of mental health: sleep deprivation, alcohol abuse, social anxiety and heavy responsibility.

In this busy, fast-paced environment, Burnham said students sometimes neglect their mental health.

“The first thing is taking care of yourself,” Burnham said.

As a 26-year-old suicide survivor, Burnham aims to relate to students and hopefully illustrate why finding a healthy balance in life is so essential for emotional well-being.

Senior Jeremy Recoon, a sport and event management major, introduced Burnham by speaking about his high school experiences dealing with the suicides of his classmates and his baseball coach.

“No religion, college or race is immune [to suicide],” Recoon said.

In his application to Elon, Recoon was prompted with an essay asking what he would do if he were given $5,000 to use freely. He wrote he would bring a suicide prevention speaker to campus to increase awareness about suicide. Nearly four years later, he accomplished that goal.

“If it was up to me, I’d have Jordan come back for the [new] first-year class every year,” Recoon said.

For him, if the event was able to help even one person or allow for the conversation about mental health to continue outside of McKinnon, it would be a success.

Burnham’s speech detailed his experiences from childhood to young adulthood. He spoke about how his transition from a private to public school in the third grade was particularly rough for him and how his struggles continued from there. Suddenly, he was being made fun of for the way he dressed and talked and found himself having to fake a smile just to make it through the days.

Throughout his speech, Burnham stressed the importance of speaking up about any struggles — something he often felt reluctant to do. Though at first he confided in his sister, when she left for college he felt he had lost his support system. He began to rely on alcohol because he was only able to be honest to his friends about his inner feelings when he was drunk. These brief instances of honesty weren’t enough though, and he eventually sought out therapy and was diagnosed with depression.

Burnham explained that depression is not just having bad days — depression is constantly feeling unhappy and not understanding why.

“Depression isn’t like a cold that goes away after a few days of medicine and rest,” Burnham said.

He explained that it isn’t a matter of whether or not he will have depression on a particular day, but rather what level his depression will reach.

On Sept. 28, 2007, Burnham made an impulsive decision that changed his life forever. He jumped out of his nine-story bedroom window in an effort to take his own life.

“I [didn’t] necessarily want to die,” Burnham said. “The part of me that had depression wanted to die.”

Burnham survived his suicide attempt. He still doesn’t remember much of his fall, but as he lay in his hospital bed fighting for his life, he realized he had a second chance to turn his life around and help others. When the Philadelphia Inquirer contacted his family requesting to do a story on him, Burnham decided to take advantage of the opportunity.

Burnham found he could help when he noticed there was a demographic many speakers on suicide and mental health might be missing. He felt that being of similar age to many students as well as being African-American allowed him to reach an audience that may have been previously seeking a similar voice in the discussion.

“I really wanted to speak to college students because I feel like there’s not enough presentations that deal with someone who went through a suicide attempt themselves or dealt with a mental health disorder themselves,” Burnham said. “I was 20 years old when I decided to do this because I feel like we need young voices to tell stories, because that’s what makes it relatable and breaks stigma.”

Burnham ended the event by saying he didn’t want the audience to leave with just his story. He instead urged everyone to continue the conversation.

“Continue making mental health a relevant issue,” Burnham said.

Burnham’s message resonated with those who attended. Sophomore Margo Pierson, philanthropy chair of Alpha Omicron Pi, recognized the pressure that college students put on themselves to always be “OK,” which Burnham mentioned in his talk.

“I think, especially on college campuses, people are really afraid to say how they are feeling,” Pierson said. “There’s this sense that you have to always be fine or doing your work and you can’t take any second to yourself or to say, ‘Oh wait, I’m doing all this stuff but I’m actually not feeling that great today.’”

Burnham’s visit was hosted by a number of organizations across campus including SGA, Liberal Arts Forum, Active Minds, SPARKS and several others. All of these organizations looked to increase dialogue about mental health through Burnham’s story.

The university is working to help facilitate this dialogue by offering resources to students.

Counseling services are available for students 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. Monday - Friday by appointment. To make an appointment, call 336-278-7280. Outside of office hours, students can reach a counselor on-call by calling 336-278-5555. For emergencies, students are encouraged to call 911.

Whitney Gregory, director of Health Promotion & Student Concerns Outreach said an important part of suicide prevention is coordinating events like Burnham’s. She said the most important thing Elon students can do to help end the mental health stigma is discuss the problems they are going through.

“Just opening the door for those conversations [can help],” Gregory said.