RADical Hope Joins Brain Healthy Campus Collaborative

DALLAS — The Brain Healthy Campus Collaborative is a first-of-its-kind initiative to build brain-healthy campuses through student-led strategies and a holistic, proactive approach supporting the wellbeing of the entire campus community. Founding members include Center for BrainHealth, Hilarity for Charity (HFC), RADical Hope and Waves. UT Dallas piloted the Brain Healthy Campus concept and the Brain Health Prize in 2025; additional participating campuses will be announced in August 2026 as the initiative expands nationwide.

The Brain Health Prize is a student competition to bring innovative ideas to improve brain health on campus. In late February 2026, RADical Hope staff attended the Brain Healthy Campus Workshop where the winners were announced during a NextGen event kicking off BrainHealth Week 2026, which featured speakers Tessy Ojo, CBE, and Geoff Ling, MD, PhD, as well as a showcase of the top 20 student submissions. University of Texas System regent Christina Melton Crain, ESQ, awarded the inaugural prize.

AN AWARD WITH A MANDATE

The Brain Health Prize is a peer-to-peer competition that encourages novel ideas to improve brain health on college campuses, offering students the opportunity to demonstrate their leadership, innovation and impact. To ensure the winning idea turns into action, half of the $5,000 first prize is dedicated to implementation, with the other half awarded as a stipend to the winning student or group.

The theme for this year was “Stress for Action.” Neuroscience shows that the right amount of stress (called eustress) can actually sharpen focus, boost motivation and fuel productivity. We control our stress response by understanding our triggers and equipping ourselves with the right tools.

“Young adults on campuses across the country are experiencing record levels of stress and anxiety from life’s everyday challenges,” said Liz Feld, CEO of RADical Hope. “Peer-driven strategies to support their brain health are the most effective ways to help them thrive – now and in the future. The Collaborative is a catalyst to turn this approach into action, wherever students are.”

WINNING SUBMISSIONS

FIRST PLACE: Shreeyalaxhmee Rao and Riya Acharya Resilience Neighborhoods create a unified, campus-wide system to build stress resilience through both in-person advocates and a digital, gamified connection.

RUNNER UP: Elena Tran The Rewrite Project introduces interactive Rewrite Wall pop-ups, reflection-based activities, a Freshman Seminar module and a digital storybook to create a living archive of resilience and belonging.

RUNNER UP: Alekya Tanikella, Aiswarya Saravanan, Isha Rojanala and Jyotsna Tera Project Perihelion helps students harness eustress through daily practice, peer engagement the creation of a Eustress Coalition and interactive events that make learning about eustress hands-on, engaging and fun.

ABOUT THE COLLABORATIVE

The Brain Health Prize was launched by the Brain Healthy Campus Collaborative, a first-of-its-kind initiative to build brain-healthy campuses through student-led strategies and a holistic, proactive approach supporting the wellbeing of the entire campus community. Founding members include Center for BrainHealth, Hilarity for Charity (HFC), RADical Hope and Waves. UT Dallas piloted the Brain Healthy Campus concept and the Brain Health Prize in 2025; additional participating campuses will be announced in August 2026 as the initiative expands nationwide.The event organizers wish to especially thank Waves, which provided the funding for the student prize. Additional sponsors include Perkins&Will and Marie Park and Joe Hardt. Program funding was provided by RADical Hope.