Pictured: Dr. Stacie Herrera, Owner of Herrera Psychology, with Kiarra Womack, Senior Scholarships Manager at the Selby Foundation. Provided photo.

The Selby Foundation’s Selby Scholars are exceptional in many ways. Their records of academic preparedness and rigor stand apart. Perhaps even more outstanding is the way they show up in community. They encourage their peers and family members. They actively build their leadership ability with empathy, inclusiveness, and self-reflection.

Our Senior Scholarship Manager, Kiarra Womack, is intentional about the ways we stay in touch with students throughout their college experience. In an annual survey, she consistently learns that mental wellness is one of their top three requests for additional support. This is not surprising.

Five years ago, the American Academy of Pediatrics declared a national emergency for children’s mental health. The organization cited 20% of adolescents (ages 12-17) as having unmet mental health care needs.

Selby Scholars are challenged with the financial ability to pay for their education after high school. Approximately half are first-generation, the first in their families to attend college. Most of our students have supportive parents and caregivers, yet navigating post-secondary education is a new experience. Sometimes, the expectation that the student will help forge a new future for the entire family adds to the overwhelming nature of it all.

The Charles & Margery Barancik Foundation recently partnered with the Selby Foundation on a pilot program with the nonprofit Resilient Retreat. We want to see what is possible if we help students build a mental wellness plan before things get tough. With her years of experience and training as a youth psychologist, Dr. Stacie Herrera developed a results-focused curriculum for Selby Scholars who opted to participate in the 6-month cohort.

It includes mapping personal support networks, understanding healthy social media practices, self-regulation strategies—even practicing use of the Crisis Text Line, a free, always-on resource for confidential mental health support. The skills and practical tools students are developing will provide individual steps to take when they begin to feel help could be beneficial. We’re already hearing that students feel more equipped to deal with challenges.

It’s a tender time for all of us, navigating more information than our brains are prepared to digest, living in a time of change, and working on overdrive to adapt within this paradigm. Big progress in the normalization of conversations about mental wellbeing has been in the works for years, opening spaces for actively taking care of ourselves.

I am personally grateful for Dr. Herrera’s encouragement to attend the recent Resilient Retreat session offered for the Selby Scholars in our pilot program. She reminded me that when leaders demonstrate caring for themselves, it’s good for younger people too.

We never know the load a student may be carrying. Let’s continue to invest in mental wellness for both youth and adults, talk more openly about our own vulnerabilities, and model taking care of ourselves as a common practice, not waiting until we enter a time of deficit.

Scholarships matter. Helping students succeed beyond the financial award makes the investments whole—both in the short-term and in life after school.

Susie Bowie is the President and CEO of The William G. and Marie Selby Foundation.

Pictured: Dr. Stacie Herrera, Owner of Herrera Psychology, with Kiarra Womack, Senior Scholarships Manager at the Selby Foundation. Provided photo.