On Oct. 9, Fullerton College’s Sociology Club and Health Services’s suicide prevention and awareness event featured With Hope, the Amber Craig Memorial Foundation, and guest speaker Jon Egger.

This is the third year Fullerton College has put on the Suicide Awareness event with Egger’s leading presentation on what leads people to commit suicide, the warning signs and how students can help those affected or receive help themselves.

Suicide is one of the leading causes of deaths for those between ages 15 to 24, and can be prevented if the early signs are caught along with help from others.

“This is definitely one of those life saving events. This can save a student’s life, it can save their friends’ lives. This kind of information is so important,” stated Sociology Club Adviser Angie Andrus.

In February 2011, Egger experienced the effects of suicide when his friend, Les, shot himself . At the time, Egger didn’t know what to do, nor was he aware of what his friend was going through before his death.

Before Les’s death, Egger noticed his friend’s personality had changed but he didn’t know what was going on.

Now, Egger’s goal is to make people aware of the signs of depression and help those in need in order to prevent something like this happening to anyone else.

“When we leave a school, normally there is fallout for the next four to six weeks where kids are going into their counselor and saying, ‘Hey, I’m worried about a person I know,’ and that’s the goal. To get friends to identify if their friends are struggling, so that we can get them the help that they need,” added Egger.

Fullerton College President Greg Schulz was also in attendance.

Schulz delivered a message of his own that expressed the importance of always looking out for each other and making sure that if you need help, you will get it.

The same sentiment was echoed by Andrea Riley, student president of the Sociology Club. Riley believes that this information is especially important to students and young adults because this knowledge will enable them to help others around them, as well as themselves.

“You need to raise awareness for adults and for people who are older because when you’re older you have the responsibility to pay attention to teens and kids and see if they have struggles with depression or thoughts of suicide,” commented Riley.

Health Services Director Vanessa Miller took some time at the end of the event to share that the student health services center is always available for students and non-students as well.

“We will do whatever is possible to get that individual help,” stated Miller.

The health center can be reached at (714) 992-7093 or more information is available on their website.

For more information about With Hope, the Amber Craig Memorial Foundation, you can visit their site.