Ohio State University has announced a $10.15 million commitment from the Jay & Jeanie Schottenstein Foundation to launch a mental health program in support of students.

The Jeffrey Schottenstein Program for Resilience will support students at OSU and Ohio State University College of Medicine by educating students and removing the stigma associated with mental health; offering services that cultivate resilience to help students better prepare for adversity and stress and better equip them to bounce back afterward; conducting research to illuminate and teach students how to tap into the healing potential of the brain and develop social, emotional, and cognitive resilience skills; and training a new generation of mental health advocates and providers on this new model of care. The gift also will fund an endowed chair of Psychiatry and Resilience in the medical school, to be held by K. Luan Phan, professor and chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health, who will lead the program.

Jeffrey Schottenstein, who serves as vice president of the foundation his parents established, experienced anxiety and depression as a freshman at Ohio State. At the time, he didn’t know that nearly a third of Americans and 73 percent of college students struggle with mental health — often silently, because most go untreated — and the issue has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. “Living with mental health challenges can be an incredibly lonely and isolating experience,” said Schottenstein, founder and CEO of the TACKMA sportswear brand and chief investment officer at SEI Inc. “Even with increased openness about mental health, there’s a quiet stigma that needs to be eliminated so we can improve access to treatment. That’s what we are doing here. This holistic, skills-based wellness and resilience-building program is what I desperately needed when I was on campus. It’s personal, to be sure, because I never want another young adult — or anyone — to feel alone.”

(Photo credit: Ohio State University)