Byron Terry, a sports management major at Kennesaw State, is not one to shy away from being a person who takes charge and inspires, regardless of where he is or what he is doing.
Byron grew up in McDonough, Georgia. In high school, he was a part of two state football championship teams for his high school. Off the field, however, he would face many different challenges in his personal life.
In high school, Terry faced bouts of depression and anxiety and at the same time was faced with internally dealing with things in his home. He mentioned in our interview together how having divorced parents would create a strain on certain aspects of his life, especially after his football games.
In October of 2015, during his junior year in high school, Byron was robbed at gunpoint while out on a run in broad daylight. He would use running as an escape or a way to combat depression or anxiety. The initial reaction to being robbed stunned him, as he made his way back home. Word soon traveled around his school and within his football team, but it was not until a few weeks later that Byron began having PTSD from the event.
During his time at KSU, Terry has made it a goal of his to leave a positive impact by means of humanitarian work, through mental health advocacy as well as suicide awareness.
“When I transferred to Kennesaw State, one of my goals was to make an impact,” Terry said. “I chose this school because I thought I could make more of an impact here than elsewhere. Impact as in helping others, showing people kindness, inspiring others and trying to make KSU a better place than how they discovered it.”
Byron has worked with the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, which put on the first-ever mental health panel that KSU has had, and was hosted by Terry himself. He has worked with Miracle at KSU, KSU Unified Sports and Gamma Phi Beta’s sorority via a charity 7v7 flag football tournament, where the winning team decided which organization the prize money went to. Byron’s team won the tournament.
He searched around for locations and organizations whose messages were near and dear to his heart and stumbled upon the Never Alone food pantry in Woodstock, Georgia. The winnings, estimated to be $200, provided 1200 pounds of food, or enough food to cover eight different four-person families.
Byron has exemplified what it has meant to be a “Lead Owl”, per his professors and staff here at KSU. Byron graduates this spring, but he still knows there is more work to be done before his time at KSU is over.
“I want to inspire people more, there is still work I can do and things I have planned.” When asked what advice he would give to upcoming KSU students dealing with mental health struggles, he replied, “You are not alone. It’s okay to reach out to those around you. The people I have met here have helped and supported me through a lot of things… It’s okay to ask for help.”
Byron can be found on Instagram and Twitter – @bjt_era
To learn more about Byron, visit his blog on Medium.
