Academy of Success launches its first scholarship cohort

This spring, the Academy of Success welcomed its first fully-funded scholarship cohort — 50 students from communities where Mental Health education and support have historically been hardest to access. For most of them, this is the first formal exposure they've ever had to psychology as something practical, rather than something clinical and distant.

The idea for a scholarship cohort came directly out of feedback from our regional clinic partners, who kept describing the same pattern: by the time someone reached them, they were already in crisis. What was missing wasn't more crisis response — it was earlier, preventive education that could help people recognize what they were feeling long before it became an emergency.

What the curriculum actually covers

The program pairs practical psychology education with structured mentorship, giving students language and tools for emotional regulation, resilience, and help-seeking that many said they'd never been taught directly before. Sessions run twice a week over fourteen weeks, split between group workshops and one-on-one mentor check-ins.

“Our students didn't lack the capacity to handle hard things. They lacked a vocabulary for what they were feeling, and permission to talk about it. That's what this program gives them.”

— Academy of Success facilitator

Roughly a third of this cohort had never spoken to anyone — a friend, a family member, a professional — about a Mental Health struggle before enrolling. By week six, program facilitators reported that same group was leading peer discussions unprompted.

Funded entirely by donors

Every scholarship in this cohort was funded directly by gifts to the World Mental Health Fund — from the $25 first-time donor to the founding $135,000 gift from Academy of Success itself, which made this launch possible in the first place. There was no tuition charged to any student in this cohort, and there won't be for the next one either.

The next cohort begins enrollment later this year, and we're aiming to more than double its size. That depends entirely on continued donations — if you'd like to help fund a seat in the next class, every gift, of any size, goes directly toward tuition, materials, and mentor stipends.