Notes

As a freshman at Amity, I came across several students facing depression, a major issue in India. A deeper inspection revealed the problem to be greater than I anticipated. To support the cause to fight depression, I joined an NGO called You're Wonderful Project (YWP) in Oct 2016. YWP is the intermediary between students suffering from depression and psychologists. Their team (PhDs in Psychology) primarily handles cases of students with depression. Severe cases are forwarded to a certified professional. As a non-medical student, I couldn't directly contribute, but in my two years of the term, I was able to make a significant difference being part of the Events team prior to joining the Marketing team. In Events team, I brainstormed workshops, competitions, awareness sprees, which they conducted; while in Marketing, I was responsible for proliferating the awareness about depression and how YWP helps (online and offline). However, my major contribution can be attributed to the design team wherein I was single-handedly responsible for designing almost all the graphic content being posted on social media. During my 2-year term, I met people from diverse fields and backgrounds who had gone through depression and had found unique ways of dealing with it. I had chances to share my own experiences and knowledge, which were well received. YWP turned me into a more compassionate individual. My experiences via YWP assisted me during my MIT hackathon which focused on Mental Health of Veterans, and earned me Samsung's award. I will bring this experience for my new batch-mates at UCLA, who will be preparing themselves for a professional and stressful life ahead. I can also be a part of similar community engagement programs at UCLA and would like to interact and guide people.