Age
17
Country of Residence
Nigeria
Founding Story: What was the spark that led you to start your project? What was the "Aha!" moment that led you to get started and see the potential for this to succeed?
The spark for Campus Headspace came from my own experience last session. Between a heavy reading load, back-to-back classes, my role as Academic Secretary for the Christian Medical and Dental Students Association,and an online skill I was learning at the same time, everything began to clash at once. The pressure built up fast, and with a major exam just a week away, I made a decision that, looking back, says a lot about the problem I'm now trying to solve: I withdrew from almost everyone around me for a week, just so I could focus and cope.The truth is, my faculty and school did have people I could technically talk to. But I've always found it difficult to trust people with what I'm going through, so instead of reaching out, I isolated myself completely. It worked, in the sense that I got through my exams but it also made me realize something important: the support system wasn't the problem. My ability to trust it was. That's my "aha" moment. If I, someone who knew support existed, still couldn't bring myself to use it, how many other students especially in demanding fields like medicine and dentistry, where burnout rates are high were quietly going through the same thing? I realized what was missing wasn't more counselors or more awareness campaigns. It was a way for students like me to reach out without having to trust a specific person first.
How do you encourage other people to join your project or learn about the problem you’re working on? If you have a new idea, tell us how you will do this in the future.
Since Campus Headspace is still new, my approach to spreading awareness and recruiting people starts small and personal, then grows outward. First, I plan to talk directly with coursemates and classmates, especially within my faculty, sharing not just the idea but why it matters to me personally. People respond more to honesty than to a pitch, so I'll be open about my own experience with burnout and isolation as the reason this project exists. Next, I'll work through existing student networks I'm already part of, like faculty associations and my role in the Christian Medical and Dental Students Association, to reach students where they already gather rather than starting from zero. To recruit volunteers specifically, I'll look for students who are naturally the ones friends already go to when they're struggling — they just need structure and training, not persuasion. Longer-term, I plan to use simple, low-cost awareness tools: short social media posts sharing real (anonymized) impact stories, campus flyers, and word-of-mouth from students who've used the service, since trust spreads best through people who've actually experienced it working.
How many people are on your team?
1
Impact: How has your project created impact / made a difference so far? Or, if at an early stage, what will impact look like?
Campus Headspace is at an early, pre-launch stage — right now it exists as a clear plan and vision rather than a running service, since I'm still building it from the ground up. Impact will show up in a few concrete ways once it launches. First, more students reaching out for support who otherwise would have stayed silent — measured by the number of anonymous conversations started through the WhatsApp line. Second, students actually being connected to real professional help through referrals, closing the gap between struggling silently and getting proper care. Third, a shift in campus culture — as more students engage with weekly check-ins and wellness content, talking about stress and mental health becomes normal rather than something to hide. Longer-term, success looks like training a growing team of peer volunteers who carry these skills beyond graduation, and proving a low-cost model that other Nigerian institutions can adopt on their own campuses. Since I experienced this problem myself, the clearest early measure of impact will be simple: students telling us they finally felt comfortable reaching out, the way I couldn't.
Project Category
My project is a brand new / emerging idea
Project Stage
Idea (We’re hoping to get started in the future)
Project Summary: Describe your project in one sentence
Campus Headspace is a peer-led mental wellness support system for Nigerian university students, built on WhatsApp. Students can anonymously reach out when they're stressed or overwhelmed and get support from trained peer volunteers, weekly wellness check-ins, and referrals to real counselors when needed. It's a low-cost, easy-to-scale way to make mental health support accessible and stigma-free starting with students supporting students.
Project title
Campus Headspace
The Problem: What problem are you helping to solve? Why does it matter to you and your community?
Mental health struggles — stress, anxiety, and burnout — are common among Nigerian university students, especially in demanding fields like medicine and dentistry, where academics, clinical work, and other responsibilities often collide at once. Many schools do offer counseling services, but a lot of students never use them — not because help doesn't exist, but because reaching out requires trusting an unfamiliar person, and many students, myself included, find that difficult. I experienced this myself: during an especially overwhelming period last session, I withdrew from everyone around me instead of asking for help, even though support systems were available. Trust, not access, was the real barrier. This matters to me and my community because I know I'm not alone in this. Health science students are being trained to care for others while quietly neglecting their own wellbeing, and that pattern often follows them into their careers. Left unaddressed, it normalizes burnout and silence as coping mechanisms for future healthcare workers. Campus Headspace exists to interrupt that cycle — giving students a way to reach out anonymously, without needing to trust a specific person first, so asking for help feels as easy as sending a WhatsApp message.
Website URL(s) or social media handles.
Scholastica2999
What’s Next: What are the next steps you plan to take to grow or strengthen your project over the next year? If your project is still in the idea stage, describe the steps you will take over the next three months to launch or begin developing it.
Since Campus Headspace is still at the idea stage, my focus over the next three months is on building the foundation: Month 1: Validate the idea further by surveying students across faculties to confirm the problem and gather honest feedback on the WhatsApp-based approach. I'll also finalize the volunteer training structure, drawing on basic mental health first-aid principles. Month 2: Recruit and train the first small group of peer volunteers, set up the WhatsApp line, and build simple check-in and referral processes. I'll also reach out to my school's counseling unit to establish a real referral partnership, so serious cases have a clear next step. Month 3: Launch a pilot within my own faculty, gather feedback directly from students who use it, and refine the process based on real usage before considering expansion. Over the following year, if the pilot proves the model works, my goal is to expand Campus Headspace to more faculties and eventually other institutions, while growing the volunteer team and formalizing training so the project can scale responsibly rather than quickly.
Your Innovation: What is different about your project compared to other programs or solutions already out there? How is your project new or innovative?
Most mental health support for Nigerian students exists in two forms: formal campus counseling offices, which many students avoid due to stigma or difficulty trusting an unfamiliar authority figure, and generic mental health apps, which require downloading something new, often cost money, and aren't built around the specific realities of Nigerian student life. Campus Headspace is different because it removes the two biggest barriers at once: trust and access. Instead of asking students to trust an institution or install another app, it meets them on WhatsApp — a platform they already use every day for everything else, so reaching out feels as natural as messaging a friend, not like seeking formal help. It's also peer-led rather than professional-led at the first point of contact. Students often trust other students more than authority figures, especially around something as personal as mental health, so volunteers become a bridge, not a replacement, connecting students to real professional care only when needed. Finally, it's built from lived experience, not assumption — I designed it around the exact barrier I faced myself: needing help but not being able to trust a specific person enough to ask for it.
Your Solution: How are you solving this problem? Share your specific solution.
Campus Headspace is a peer-led mental wellness support system built on WhatsApp — a platform students already trust and use daily, so there's no new app to download or learn. Here's how it works: a student can message the WhatsApp line anonymously whenever they're overwhelmed, without having to identify themselves or explain their situation to someone they don't trust. Trained peer volunteers — fellow students equipped with basic mental health first-aid training — respond with support and simple guidance. If a case seems serious, the volunteer refers the student to real campus counselors or professional resources, so we're not replacing therapy, just removing the barrier that stops students from taking the first step. Beyond one-on-one support, the platform sends opt-in weekly check-ins and short, practical content on managing stress, sleep, and burnout, keeping students engaged even when they're not in crisis. It's intentionally low-cost and simple to start: no app development needed, just training volunteers and setting up the WhatsApp system, which means it can be piloted quickly on one campus and then replicated at other Nigerian institutions facing the same problem.
Your team: What role(s) do your team members play? How do you share leadership with them?
Right now, I'm running Campus Headspace solo as founder, handling the vision and groundwork. I don't have team members yet, but shared leadership is central to my plan: as we grow, trained peer volunteers won't just respond to students — they'll help shape the content and decisions, based on what they hear directly. I want leadership to grow with the team, not stay centralized with me, since the people closest to students' daily reality should help lead this too.
