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One positive development that emerged from the pandemic is that it focused attention on the mental health challenges many students face -- and how these are a major determinant of college success.

There is also greater awareness that low-income students and students of color have greater unmet mental health needs compared with many of their peers. Too often they attend campuses that are least equipped to offer them the support and services they need.

In this episode, host Lande Ajose talks with students who openly discuss their mental health challenges -- and how they became leaders in prodding their campuses to create a supportive environment in which they are most likely to succeed.

Louis Freedberg visits one of those colleges -- Palomar College, a public community college in Southern California, for a closer look at how it is responding to the mental health challenges their students face.

Looking at Black students in particular, Lande talks with Dr. Khadijah Booth Watkins, a psychiatrist and associate director of the Clay Center for Young Healthy Minds at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and Dr. Tony Walker, Senior Vice President of the Jed Foundation (JED), a leading organization helping colleges meet students' mental health needs.

Also weighing in are psychotherapists Dr. Hideko Sera, Director of Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging at Morehouse College, a historically Black university in Atlanta, and Dr. Michael Gerard Mason, Associate Dean of African American Affairs at the University of Virginia.

This episode of“Sparking Equity,” with host Lande Ajose, was produced before the podcast was rebranded “Education on the Line.”

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Featured Guests:

Dr. Khadijah Booth Watkins – Psychiatrist and Associate Director, Clay Center for Young Healthy Minds, Massachusetts General Hospital
Dr. Tony Walker – Senior Vice President, Jed Foundation (JED)
Dr. Hideko Sera – Director of Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging, Morehouse College
Dr. Michael Gerard Mason – Associate Dean of African American Affairs, University of Virginia