The Aha Student Fellowship · Cohort One · India
A paid 12-week fellowship for students who want mental wellbeing to be something their campus talks about, and something people can actually reach.
01The promise
In September 2015, every United Nations member state, India among them, adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Buried in the third of its seventeen goals is a clause that took decades of advocacy to get written down at all.
For the first time, mental health stopped being a private difficulty and became a public commitment with a date attached.
promote mental health and well-being
The generation now sitting in Indian classrooms is the one that will be in the workforce when the clock runs out, and it is also the generation carrying most of the weight in the meantime.
02The gap we can no longer ignore
Global targets fail quietly, in the space between a service existing and a person reaching it. In India that space has been measured. The National Mental Health Survey, run by NIMHANS across twelve states, remains the country's only completed nationwide study of its kind.
Source — NIMHANS National Mental Health Survey
Sometimes because they are unaware. Sometimes because they are unsure. Sometimes because stigma still holds. Sometimes because they simply need another human being who understands what they are going through.
Target 3.4 will not be missed because India lacks services. It will be missed because most people never reach the ones it has.
03Where global goals meet local communities
They begin inside friendships. Inside classrooms. Inside hostels. Inside workplaces. Inside communities.
If you wanted to find the single largest concentration of young Indians in one type of place, at the exact age when most mental health conditions first appear, you would end up on a campus.
That is the delivery network India already owns. What most of it does not have is anyone whose job is to close the distance between a struggling student and the support that exists.
The people closest to the problem are often the people most capable of closing the distance.
04Where the Aha Fellowship begins
Global health has a name for the underlying idea. Task sharing means training non-specialists to do the parts of the work that do not require a specialist, so a thin professional workforce can reach further.
The Aha Fellowship applies the same logic one step earlier in the chain, to promotion, awareness and signposting rather than to care itself. Not by replacing mental health professionals, but by strengthening the bridge between people and the support already available.
It does not exist to create volunteers, or event organisers, or people who complete activities and move on. It exists to build a generation of mental wellbeing leaders who carry this work wherever life takes them.
Not through policy. But through people.
05Communities create movements
Lasting change rarely begins with institutions. It belongs to communities that learn together, support one another, and choose to care. People who question what everyone else accepts. People who choose empathy over indifference. People who listen before they speak.
Real change happens when a community takes ownership of its own wellbeing. When people know where support exists. When they know how to guide someone towards it. When asking for help feels natural instead of intimidating.
We do not just invest in programmes. We invest in people, because people carry change much further than programmes ever can.
06Not events. Environments.
The real work of an Aha Fellow runs deeper than a calendar of activities.
Create spaces where mental wellbeing is discussed openly, with less stigma.
Help people find support that already exists and currently never reaches them.
Bring together students, educators and staff around a shared purpose, and lead a volunteer team that keeps it running.
Success is not measured by what happens while you are a fellow. It is measured by what continues because you were one.
07Beyond campuses
Every fellow joins at one stage of their life and leaves carrying something more durable than a title. A way of thinking. A way of leading. A way of building community wherever they land next: their workplace, their neighbourhood, their friendships, their future organisation.
The campus is where the journey begins. It is not where the impact ends.
Every room deserves someone who knows how to make another person feel seen.
08A world we want to build
A world where mental wellbeing is not confined to awareness campaigns or annual observances, but becomes part of everyday life. Where asking for help feels natural. Where communities know how to care for one another. Where global commitments become lived experiences.
We know this future will not be built overnight.
Movements are built one conversation at a time. One community at a time. One person at a time.
The fellowship will end. The community will not. Neither does the impact.
The world made a promise. We believe young people can help fulfil it.
A global commitment. Local action. Community-led change.
What you are signing up for
Before you apply
Any student in India who wants to make mental wellbeing more accessible in their own community. Applications are open nationally, across every academic discipline, because creating change is not limited to one field of study.
No. Fellows come from any discipline and the training assumes no prior background. What the programme needs is judgement, consistency, and a willingness to keep learning.
No. You apply as an individual, from any university in India. Once selected, part of your work is building the relationship with the right staff counterpart on your own campus, with support from the programme team.
Applications are reviewed holistically. We are less interested in a perfect résumé and more interested in curiosity, initiative, accountability, and a genuine desire to create change.
No. This is explicitly not a peer counselling or crisis support programme. Fellows advocate, organise, and connect people to professional support. They do not provide it.
You are trained specifically for this. Fellows are equipped to recognise when someone needs professional support and to connect them to it immediately, including campus counselling services and the national Tele-MANAS helpline (14416). You are never expected to manage a crisis yourself.
The volunteer group you build and lead on your campus. Fellows work towards bringing in around ten volunteers who run activities alongside them. It is the structure that lets the work continue after your term ends.
Ten is the working model, not a bar you clear before you can begin. Your mentor helps you build at a pace that fits your campus, and learning how to recruit and lead a team is part of the training itself.
That is the intention behind the design. The community is meant to be handed over rather than shut down, so it keeps running under new student leadership after your term ends. Cohort One is the first real test of whether that handover works.
The fellowship begins on campuses because that is where many young leaders begin. The vision extends well past graduation, into workplaces, neighbourhoods, and every community a fellow later becomes part of.
Twelve hours a week across twelve weeks. That covers training sessions, mentorship check-ins, and the time you spend building and running your campus community. It is designed to sit alongside a full-time course, not replace it.
The work itself happens on your own campus — building trust and a physical community is the point. Training, mentorship, and cohort-wide sessions run centrally and online, so fellows across different campuses take part without travelling.
Yes. Every fellow goes through structured onboarding and receives training, mentorship, and practical guidance from experienced professionals.
Yes. Fellows receive a monthly stipend, based on the fellowship guidelines and successful participation.
Fellows who complete the term receive a Certificate of Completion. A Letter of Recommendation is not automatic — it is awarded on the basis of documented contribution.
Write to fellowship@ahatherapy.com and the Aha team will get back to you.
Cohort One — applications close 20 August 2026
Any discipline · any university in India · no psychology background · no partnership needed · fellowship@ahatherapy.com