Effective School Solutions (ESS), which provides mental health services to Verona’s public schools, has joined forces with the Madison Holleran Foundation to launch the Madison Holleran Mental Health Action Scholarship.
Holleran was a 2013 graduate of Northern Highlands High School who went to the University of Pennsylvania to run track. She died by suicide during the spring semester of her freshman year. Verona students learned about her life and death during an assembly about the book What Made Maddy Run earlier this year.
ESS and the Holleran family created this scholarship to not only drive awareness about suicide prevention but also to hear from high school students about innovative approaches they believe their schools can take to help young adults navigate through the mental health challenges they are facing today.
Scholarships, each worth $2,000, will be awarded to four high school seniors in New Jersey who offer innovative ideas on how mental health supports can be enhanced in the K-12 school system. To be considered for the scholarship, students must submit a 1,000-word essay about an innovative mental health support program that could be implemented at their high school. Essays (in PDF format) can be submitted to [email protected].
Scholarship awards will be made based on the innovation of ideas presented and the opportunity for ideas to make an impact in New Jersey and beyond. Click here for scholarship eligibility and contest rules. The contest will run through December 9, 2019, and the award winner will be announced no later than February 7, 2020.
“We’re proud to announce this scholarship, which reflects the importance of providing mental health supports to our youth” said Duncan Young, CEO of Effective School Solutions. “We’re hoping that the competition for this scholarship will be an opportunity to amplify the voices of ideas of young people when it comes to mental health support.”
Carli Bushoven, executive director of the Madison Holleran Foundation stated “The Madison Holleran Foundation is honored to partner with Effective School Solutions to sponsor these scholarships. Since the Foundation’s inception, our focus has been on suicide prevention. Our hope with these scholarships is to bring attention to mental health and wellness to the forefront of high school and college campuses, end the stigma, and ultimately encourage today’s students to make strides in their community with regards to mental health.”
