Scholar Success Story: High School Student Advocates for Teachers' Mental Health
By the time Student E started her Scholar Launch research program, she already had a bevy of accomplishments under her belt. Her academic interests in psychology, history, and political science lay the foundation for her ongoing dedication to mental health advocacy. Not only had this high school junior co-founded a nonprofit organization and started a wellness club at her school while maintaining a near-perfect GPA, but she also started a psychology section in her school’s newspaper.
Despite the significant progress she’d already made in her quest to promote good mental health, Student E still needed guidance on how to transform her meaningful initiatives into sustainable change. So, she approached Scholar Launch with a clear mission: to help raise awareness of teachers’ mental health struggles and develop and implement official policy prioritizing their well-being. The best way for her to do this was to participate in advanced research and gather the findings she needed to spearhead real action.
During her research program, Student E got to work studying public health, psychology, and education policy under the mentorship of her Faculty Advisor, a former Yale Medical School professor. She scoured academic articles and other multimedia resources to learn about human rights, mental health support for teachers, teaching unions, and any potential barriers she may face with policy development. With the help of her Teaching Assistant, a Ph.D. candidate in Development Psychology from UPenn, Student E bolstered her findings by interviewing local teachers. Her TA also helped her structure, format, and write her final paper, a 20-page call-to-action that she leveraged to help build a real-world system that prioritized protecting teachers’ mental health in her community.
From founding a mental health nonprofit and wellness club to adding a psychology section to the school paper and promoting research-backed health policy locally, Student E’s commitment to her work was astounding. Her demonstration of academic fortitude, empathy, and compassion are precisely the kind of well-rounded qualities selective universities look for in applicants. It’s no surprise that her research program was a resounding success. She not only earned a letter of recommendation, which she used in her college applications, but her Faculty Advisor also offered her the rare opportunity to become their Research Assistant, stating:
“E has a strong sense of vision for what she wants to achieve. Not only did she work consistently well throughout the project, but she kept sight of the long-term aim of introducing a new policy to her local school board, which is an ambitious goal, but one that she’s likely to fulfil. Based on these attributes, I have asked her to join my small team of research assistants.”
Student E’s FA went on to compliment her confidence in the face of complex challenges, the quality of her work, and her commitment to her goals. “It is exceptional for someone of her age to be able to initiate, design, execute, and analyze a research project,” her FA continued, “even with supervision.” This Scholar Success Story is the perfect example of a self-motivated student who’s strategic about their extracurricular activities and sincere with their efforts to make a positive impact on the world around them. Combining our research programs with real-world action toward clear goals is a sure-fire way to rise to the top of the applicant pool and earn stellar admissions results by impressing colleges and universities.