From Campus to Capital

Caroline Hanson ’27 says higher education isn’t utilizing their best experts when it comes to student mental health — the students themselves: “If you’re going to talk about youth mental health, why would you not listen to the youth?”

A psychology major from Lowell, Massachusetts, Hanson is chair of the new Coalition for Student Wellbeing, (C4SW) a nonprofit run by students across the U.S. who desire to help colleges and universities better understand young adult mental health.

“We’re a bridge between students and administration,” Hanson said. “People who are making these decisions for a college should hear the student voice and opinion, and we’re able to provide that.”

Assembling a team

Following her own struggles, Hanson has been an advocate for student mental health support, speaking with multiple organizations, such as the Mass Association Mental Health. She also served on the youth council for the Mary Christie Institute, which focuses specifically on higher education.

Through her work with this and other organizations, Hanson and other students “realized an opportunity existed to highlight student voices and involve students in these spaces where they should be considered valuable stakeholders,” she said. This inspired her to help start C4SW in August 2024, to ensure that her generation had a voice in their own care. She noted the group was launched due to the support of the nonprofit Mary Christie Institute.

“A college student’s mental health is intersected with so many other aspects of their life, so we felt that wellbeing is so much more representative of their life and the message we’re hoping to send,” she said.

Using her network of contacts built through her advocacy work, Hanson assembled a group of students and experts who can act as consultants and provide input to colleges and universities.

“It works like advising in a way,” she said. “If schools have a question for us, they reach out and we give them our thoughts and opinions.” 

The organization also works with students and faculty on white papers discussing policy changes that better inform colleges and universities’ approach to student mental health, and maintains a blog detailing student perspectives. Currently, the coalition has about 20 to 25 student members, or youth voices, as Hanson referred to them.

The coalition is still in what she referred to as a “slow launch,” but she expects it to be fully up and running by mid-2025.

Hanson noted that while the students are experts in their own experience, they don’t claim to have all the answers: “We recognize that we’re still college students and there’s a lot we don’t know.” The coalition is also supported by an advisory board composed of mental health professionals.

Speaking on a national stage

“Having worked with different mental health organizations and through this work you build a really unique network of people,” she said. “I’ve done this work independently and for organizations, so I have had advocacy opportunities.”

So far, the biggest of these was speaking at the White House in September 2024. Hanson was contacted by the White House Office of Public Engagement to take part in a Sept. 16 round table discussion on mental health, treatment, and suicide prevention across the United States.

“The moment where I actually walked into the White House was such a crazy moment for me,” she said. “Just, like, ‘Wow, I’m at the White House.’” Contingents from various communities were invited, such as veterans and people identifying as LGBTQ+; Hanson was representing higher education.

“It was such an incredible, humbling experience,” she said. Despite this opportunity, Hanson still had to balance her education and her activism: “I took my exam one morning, then flew out to D.C. It was interesting to be going with these adults in their 50s and 60s who have established careers, and I have to run back and take a stats exam.

“I was one of the youngest people in the room,” she continued. “I had people come up to me and say that for the first time, they really saw how valuable youth voices were. This is why we do what we do.”

Overcoming stigma

The White House round table was not the only time Hanson has had to contend with prejudices about her age or generation.

“Age is a major barrier,” she said. “There have definitely been situations where it’s been me and nine other 50- to 60-year-old white men.” She said she reminds herself that this is part of what she’s trying to fix: “If you have only one demographic represented, then you’re only going to fix the issue for one demographic.”

Most often, Hanson said she faces a comment from other generations that such challenges were not an issue when they were in school. To this, Hanson has a reply: “Everyone says ‘When we were in school…’ Well, you’re not in school, we are, and that’s why we’re doing this. Times have changed, and the youth today are facing different situations.”

Hanson encouraged other youth activists facing similar resistance to not let themselves be intimidated or humored: “You deserve to be there just as much as anyone else does. So if you are sitting somewhere and in a meeting, speak out, get your thoughts and opinions out there — it doesn’t always feel that way but you’re there for a reason.”