Youth - Well

The Youth - Well is a technology designed to proactively support mental health among high schoolers. Motivated by my personal observations as a teammate and friend – seeing peers who appeared withdrawn or upset yet never sought help – the mission is to identify early signs of depression and gently prompt students to get support. This initiative is rooted in compassion and innovation: using facial recognition and sentiment analysis, the software will monitor for subtle emotional cues (like micro-expressions of sadness) while respecting privacy and consent. By senior year, my aim is to implement this as a school counseling program in collaboration with the school wellness office, demonstrating how our school can leverage technology to care for students who might otherwise “suffer in silence.”