UTM psychology student runs non-profit connecting young people to mental health support
Growing up in Hong Kong, Alanna Sethi saw firsthand the lack of accessible mental health support for young people. Financial limitations, stigma around mental illness and other barriers meant peers struggled when seeking help. Sethi decided to create a non-profit to fill this gap. Now, as a psychology student at the University of Toronto Mississauga, she’s growing and strengthening her organization through research, education and advocacy.
“I wish I’d had more peer support and practical youth-friendly resources when I first started dealing with mental health issues,” says Sethi, a third-year student who was born in Hong Kong and attended schools in Hong Kong, Singapore and the U.K. “One-on-one therapy helped, but there was something missing.”
She had a history of activism dating back to her pre-teens, when she founded an environmental non-profit. As Sethi explored the world of mental health and became increasingly knowledgeable about the subject during high school, she decided to shift her focus. “I felt I could make more of an impact in mental health, and I wanted to create the place that I would have wanted when I was in their shoes.”
The result is HOPE, a youth-led organization that offers mental health education and support to young people internationally, with a particular focus on the Asia-Pacific region, where access can be difficult and stigma tends to be powerful.
“Growing up in a traditional Asian household, we didn’t talk about mental health,” says Sethi. Instead, she learned via online sources and through experiences with clinicians and mental health services as well as by training in yoga, mindfulness and a few types of therapy.
In the four years since she launched HOPE, Sethi has established a clinical advisory board; recruited youth volunteers from Asia, Australia, the U.K. and Canada; delivered educational programs at community agencies and secondary schools; and brought together peer support groups.
These days, she’s continuing all of that work while juggling her studies at UTM. Though she had offers from top universities in the U.K. and all three U of T campuses, Sethi chose UTM for personal and professional reasons.
“The architecture of the campus was a big factor,” she says. “It reminded me of where I’d grown up in Singapore and Hong Kong, and I’ve found it helps my wellbeing to be in a place that feels safe and familiar.”
Flexible, experiential academic options and internationally renowned research were the other big draws. “I’ve been able to tailor my degree towards my specific interests,” she says. “I’m taking a course on knowledge translation, for example, which is directly relevant to the community outreach I do with HOPE. Another course focusing on human learning is giving me expertise I can use in my advocacy work.”
Sethi was a fan of Professor Norman Farb’s mindfulness research before she arrived at UTM, and she’s realized her dream of collaborating with him. With funding from the Laidlaw Foundation, her research team is exploring how understanding the psychological benefits of mindfulness affects people’s motivation to practice it.
“The research is informing the training and psychoeducation that I’ve able to provide through HOPE,” says Sethi, who has recruited a number of U of T students to HOPE as volunteers or interns.
In addition to the Laidlaw Undergraduate Leadership and Research Scholarship, Sethi was accepted into the Jackman Humanities Institute Scholars-in-Residence program, which is a four-week paid research fellowship with a cash prize, with UTM linguistics Assistant Professor Ai Taniguchi as her supervisor.
Outside the university, Sethi received a Global Citizen Youth Leaders Award, and she was among 10 finalists selected from over 11,000 nominations for the Chegg.org Global Student Prize, which recognizes exceptional students making a significant impact on their peers and society.
Her most recent accomplishment is being accepted as a UTM representative on the student advisory committee of Inlight, an Institutional Strategic Initiative at U of T that’s enhancing student mental health.
Despite her many involvements, Sethi has accelerated her course work and will graduate in 2025, with hopes to start grad school soon after.
No matter where her academic or professional careers take her, Sethi says she’s committed to reaching more young people through her non-profit every year. “HOPE follows me wherever I go, and I’m excited to see where we go next.”
