HIGH-TECH HELP
Technology developed at CSU supports student wellness here and nationwide
By Allison Sylte | Photography by Matthew Staver | Jan. 27, 2025
THE FIRST thing many of us do when we have a question?
Google it.
That comes with its own set of challenges, though. The internet is a huge place, and a search for “How to pick a college major” yields more than 519 million results. Meanwhile, the query “How to deal with anxiety” brings up an anxiety-inducing 732 million total websites, YouTube videos, and Reddit threads.
Enter the YOU@CSU platform. It also has a search bar. But instead of pulling up hundreds of millions of results from all corners of the internet, it matches users with resources tailored to Colorado State University. And that’s alongside content specifically for young adults navigating big life transitions, unknowns, and mental health pitfalls that often accompany the college experience.
YOU@CSU was developed by a CSU alumnus in collaboration with leaders in health and student success at the university. The tool is part of a new trend in student well-being using digital solutions to support a student’s journey. It is called digital mental health intervention.
Codeveloped with CSU students, the YOU@CSU platform takes a comprehensive approach to student success. Its job is to help students navigate life and campus, not only to survive in college but also to thrive. When students set up a profile on YOU@CSU, they can personalize the experience to get the right information, advice, and campus resources to help them succeed in their academics and careers; to thrive through physical and mental health; and to matter with purpose and connections.
Since it was developed at CSU, the platform has gone nationwide and has been adapted for university employees.
“Think of the YOU platform like Google for campus, with the added advantage whereby students search any topic, any challenge, or any opportunity that’s on their mind, and they can get useful, reliable, and actionable information immediately,” said Joe Conrad, who graduated from CSU in 1987 with a journalism degree and led development of the YOU@CSU platform.
Searching “How to choose a major” on YOU@CSU links students with the university’s Career Center and campus advisers. Students wondering how to deal with anxiety are matched with the CSU Health Network’s SilverCloud platform, which offers numerous cognitive behavioral therapy programs aimed at providing concrete strategies to boost a user’s well-being.
It also has resources to help students combat issues that can contribute to anxiety and other mental health concerns, such as feelings of loneliness, negative body image, and procrastination. The platform even provides ways for students to hold themselves accountable and to set goals.
“I jump into YOU@CSU whenever I need support at that very moment,” said Ellery McQueen, a fourth-year psychology student who works as a program assistant for the CSU Health Network. “I’ve been able to set goals, like if I want to develop a new workout routine or improve my sleep, and probably most importantly, it actually has tips and tricks to make those things happen.”
Ellery McQueen has used YOU@CSU as more than a tool to support well-being; she used the platform to help get a job on campus.
Conrad said he has long believed that technology can be part of the effort to bolster mental health.
Back in 2012, his Denver-based ad agency, Cactus, partnered with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to launch a platform called Man Therapy, which uses humor to help men find the care they need. That’s significant because, generally speaking, men form a population that has long resisted mental health treatment. Since the launch, there have been more than 1 million visitors who completed more than 375,000 mental health evaluations, according to a case study.
And in 2014, as CSU’s student population faced its own rising mental health challenges, campus leadership asked for Conrad’s help determining if a platform like Man Therapy could make a difference.
“At the time, we were losing students to suicide – especially young men – and we needed another tool in our arsenal,” said Janelle Patrias, manager of mental health initiatives for the CSU Health Network. “We decided to test out Man Therapy, but what we learned from really in-depth focus grouping with our students was that the younger population said, ‘This program wasn’t made for us.’”
The response? Let’s build something specifically for college students. And this led to a unique public-private partnership between CSU and Conrad’s company Grit Digital Health that ultimately created YOU@CSU, a platform pioneered in Fort Collins that has since grown into YOU@College, which has been implemented at dozens of institutions across the country.
Conrad and Grit Digital Health have spent the past 10 years working with CSU at no charge to continue to hone the platform and better customize it for its users. It has even expanded to be a resource for faculty and staff as they work to improve their own mental health.
“I’ve been involved in this from the very start, and it’s truly been my baby,” Patrias said. “I’ve helped to give my input on messaging and campaigns to attract students and feel like I’ve really been involved, but what I really think is cool about this program is that it’s always been tested for CSU students and by CSU students.”
“Think of the YOU platform like Google for campus, with the added advantage whereby students search any topic, any challenge, or any opportunity that’s on their mind, and they can get useful, reliable, and actionable information immediately.”
YOU@CSU first went live in 2016 – four years before the COVID-19 pandemic made digital mental health intervention a hot topic at campuses across the country. During the pandemic, colleges and universities needed to act quickly to provide resources for students at a time when in-person therapy was much more difficult to obtain.
A 2024 report by The Hope Center at Temple University found that while these tools can support mental health, there’s little direct evidence for how they impact student populations. This same report found that the technologies were most effective for students who would not seek support through more traditional channels.
Patrias said she’s made similar observations during the eight years that YOU@CSU has been live. Its effectiveness ultimately depends on how much effort a user is willing to put into it.
“There has to be a level of motivation to really do some of that self-work,” Patrias said. “And some of the highest users of the YOU@CSU platform really do sometimes have lower well-being scores, but by taking that active step, they’re already doing something that will be healthy in the long run.”
First-year students are required to launch a YOU@CSU account as part of their orientation. When they open the website, they’re prompted to select their key priorities, which fall under three categories: succeed, thrive, and matter. These encompass everything from finding jobs and internships to building a healthy sleep schedule and starting to make friends.
Patrias said they had more than 30,000 student logins last year, with the highest traffic periods happening at the beginning of the school year.
And while the YOU@CSU platform was born from a desire to make mental health care more accessible, Conrad and Patrias said student feedback has turned it into a more comprehensive online tool aimed at fostering the real-world connections that make college such a formative experience.
“We discovered that, yes, mental health was a challenge that needed to be addressed, but a number of other things could derail the college experience too,” Conrad said. “A student could be struggling with financial aid and paying for school or trying to figure out which degree program to complete and where academics fit into their life. It could be someone trying to make friends or struggling with grief.”
He added: “There are a number of different things that make or break a student’s college experience, and we want to support them in all of those ways.”
Patrias said one of the top modules on YOU@CSU connects students with different clubs and organizations on campus. Conrad said this data aligns with what he’s seen nationally, in that many students are using the platform’s tools to find a sense of belonging in their communities – something that’s known to be one of the greatest boons to mental health and to college success.
YOU@CSU is part of a new trend using digital solutions to support student well-being and academic success.
McQueen has seen the real-world benefits of YOU@CSU firsthand. She once used the platform to figure out how to get an on-campus job; that connected her with Handshake, the university’s employment board, then to her current role at the CSU Health Network.
Patrias said she can still picture the first iteration of YOU@CSU in her mind’s eye, and she’s delighted by how much it’s improved.
“In the beginning, it was contingent on user scrolling and finding what they needed,” she said. “Now, students take very intentional onboardings, and the platform customizes its content to them and what they need.”
Conrad said this algorithm will continue to get better, especially with the advent of artificial intelligence.
“AI is only going to help us better learn what students want from this platform and how we can be more helpful, meaningful and impactful,” he said. “What we’re really looking forward to is being able to understand what a person’s priorities are based on what they tell us and how they use the site.”
He compared the next iteration of the YOU@College algorithm to being like TikTok, only instead of being aimed at holding a user’s attention for as long as possible, it customizes content to be in their best interests.
Conrad said this data will also be valuable for campuses as they continuously work to determine how they can best meet the mental health needs of their students.
But at the end of the day, Conrad and Patrias agreed the true advantage of YOU@CSU comes in how students choose to use it – and the opportunities that arise from there.
“I think it’s all what you make of it,” Conrad said. “The unique thing about the YOU platform is that there aren’t many places in the world where you can go to reflect, look inside, and work on yourself. It’s like a fitness center for your life.”
Photo at top: Ellery McQueen, a fourth-year psychology student at CSU, uses YOU@CSU to set goals and track progress on well-being. She appreciates the immediacy of resources provided.
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