Letters to the Editor: Colleges should tap alumni to help students with mental health issues

To the editor: I also struggled with mental health issues in college, and I’m wondering why there is not more outreach by my alumni association to ask me to mentor a college student or volunteer to provide mental health services, considering that I am a licensed clinical social worker. (“What first-generation college students actually need,” Opinion, Sept. 18)

Be that as it may, when I was in college I really benefited from UCLA’s psychiatry department, which offered me a student counselor who was training to become a therapist. It was perhaps my most successful experience with receiving counseling services, and I hope the young man who provided the services also benefited.

Win-win?

Randy Farhi, Los Angeles

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To the editor: I want to thank Jean Guerrero for her brilliant and compelling column about the challenges of first-generation college students.

As an executive coach and part-time college professor, I see firsthand how first-generation students struggle at college, later on the job and, in some cases, ultimately as CEOs and leaders in organizations.

Their strength and perseverance is beyond admirable. And the challenges they face are very real — and often severely under-appreciated by those who come from privilege.

Scott Wimer, Santa Monica