August Students4Good Recap

community outreach students4good webinar Aug 23, 2023

As the sun-soaked days of August envelop us, it is time for students across the globe to enjoy their final moments of summer break. In this season of summer, some changemakers—Krishnni Khanna, Matthew Stevens, Jared Lane, and Shreya Gautam—shed some light on their amazing contributions to their communities. Despite being young, they have shown that with passion, you can raise awareness and lend others a helping hand.

Detoximind

Krishnni Khanna, 16 years old and based in Austin, Texas, is passionate about psychology, neuroscience, and advocacy and is a competitive public speaker in multiple speech formats. She is the founder of Detoximind, a student-led movement that promotes inner well-being in tweens, teens, and young adults.

Detoximind was found in July 2022, and has reached 300+ individuals, and operates in 2 countries. Krishnni started Detoximind so that there existed a safe space for individuals to find solace, share struggles, and embark on a journey of self growth.

Krishnni herself initially struggled when she moved from India to the US as she was marred with ostracization and toxic “friends”. In addition to that, she also struggled to find safe spaces to express her feelings to overcome the hardships. She hopes that people can use Detoximind to learn practical tools for practicing self care and to create a supportive community for sharing.

Detoximind hopes to expand to 2 new countries by mid-2024, and would also like to develop a psychology and neuroscience-based research lab, to study the relationship between traumatic/experiences and neural activity in humans.

Platforms4Good

Matthew Stevens is a current Political-Science student at Le Moyne College in Syracuse, New York. He is the founder of Platforms4Good, which is a student-led organization dedicated to promoting positive use of social media.

Platforms4Good was founded back in June 2021, and has so far reached 200+ people with the number growing daily. Matthew has had the philosophy “If not you, then who?” drilled into his head for years; which sparked the creation of Platforms4Good.

Platforms4Good covers various topics such as mental health, social media, substance use and abuse, leadership, etc. On top of addressing these topics, they also provide resources related to these subjects and investigate the depth to which social media influences our lives.

HealthyLife

Jared Lane, from Saint Francisville, Louisiana, and currently attends West Feliciana High School. He was the Executive Vice-President of HealthyLife in 2022-2023, and is the current President for HealthyLife (HL).

HL started from Jared’s love for baking and eating raw cookie dough; however raw cookie dough can get one sick. When he joined the Young Entrepreneurs Academy of Baton Rouge, he wondered why not create a healthy cookie dough company where he can also practice his passion for philanthropy. HL strives to be a beacon of support in communities that they serve, from cookie deaux give-back to speaking at summer camps or schools, they truly are committed to community involvement.

So far they have given back 8+ hours, 200+ cookies, and a lifetime of memories. Most of the funds they generate go to a specific event or cause; and in most cases they include at-risk kids or health and wellness programs. HL is always able to meet their goal deadlines in 24 hours or less which has brought in more community stakeholders and more organizations wanting to partner with them. Everyday on his journey, Jared is reminded that desserts can bring people together, and philanthropy can change lives.

Mental Health Horizon

Shreya Gautam, a senior at Indus International School located in Pune, is a youth mental health representative, finance and economics enthusiast, and advocates for quality education. She is the Founder and CEO at Mental Health Horizon.

Founded in early 2022, Mental Health Horizon (MHH) aims to provide valuable resources and information to help young adults understand and manage their mental health, navigate life’s challenges, and thrive in all areas of their lives.

Shreya created MHH due to personal challenges with depression, and wants to create a world where mental health is not an afterthought-but a fundamental part of overall wellness ; where no one has to suffer in silence, feeling isolated and misunderstood.

Within MHH there exists MindMatters and Mindscape. MindMatters host experts for live streamed sessions for young adults, reaching 1000+ views. MindScape is a virtual all-in-1 interactive toolkit and journal, which has received 250+ downloads.

Krishnni, Matthew, Jared, and Shreya are making huge impacts in their communities, and it is very clear that they are passionate about their cause and want to make a positive change in the world. Their achievements are perfect examples of the power of youth activism and the significance of giving back to the community.

Here are our top three takeaways from this event:

Passion fuels action - When one is passionate about their cause, it often fuels and motivates one to stay dedicated and to make a difference
Learn from challenges and mistakes - Facing challenges is normal when working on a project, it is using those bumps in the road to help shape your initiative and grow
Personal experiences help - Many of our students from this webinar had personal experiences that related to the impact they made in the community ; this helps with pushing one to make sure that they are personally able to help others