Austin student honored with mental health award
AUSTIN (KXAN) — The Jed Foundation (JED) named 17-year-old Rohan Satija as the 2025 Student Voice of Mental Health Award recipient.
JED said the award recognizes one high school student who demonstrates an “exceptional commitment to raising mental health awareness, fostering connection and belonging, and encouraging help-seeking behaviors among their peers in their school or campus communities.”
Satija graduated from Westwood High School in 2025 and will be attending the University of Texas at Austin as a freshman in the fall.
KXAN had the opportunity to sit down with Satija to speak about the honor and how he came to be the co-founder of the Let’s Learn Foundation, a nonprofit that provides access to educational and mental health resources.
Read an edited transcript of the conversation below, or use the video player above to listen.
WILL DUPREE: I want to start by saying, congrats. How did that feel to get that award?
ROHAN SATIJA: I was so honored to be one to win the JED Student Voice of Mental Health Award. To me, it means that the struggles I faced and the work I’ve poured into mental health advocacy since fifth grade have been seen and valued. So it means a lot.
DUPREE: We want to talk about that work that you’re doing. You created a nonprofit called the Let’s Learn Foundation—talk to us about how that began. I believe that it was after you moved to Williamson County with your family.
SATIJA: I was born and raised in Auckland, New Zealand, and I moved to Austin, Texas, when I was 10 years old. When I moved, I was bullied due to my accent and other cultural differences by my peers, and I struggled with my mental health as a result.
As I faced anxiety and panic attacks, I found comfort in books and storytelling, but when I learned that so many students in Texas lack access to these important resources, I knew I had to make a change. But being in fifth grade, I didn’t really know what to do, so I talked with my younger sister, and we decided to set up a few lemonade stands and go door to door selling cookies.
Since then, we built community partnerships with schools and businesses and established the nonprofit, Let’s Learn Foundation, which, over the past seven years, has donated over 60,000 books, 105,000 school supplies, and 5,000 mental health kits to over 13,000 underserved students.
JALA WASHINGTON: I want to just say, first of all, it is so brave of you to speak so openly about your experiences and what you’ve been through, so thank you for being so vulnerable.
You created this foundation, and then it helps you connect with other students who you know might be going through similar experiences in our area. In what ways are you working to connect with those students?
SATIJA: We donate books, school supplies and mental health resources to underserved students. Through our survey research, we found that the average child we impact only has two age-appropriate books in their home. So, through these donated materials, we really want to help them engage better in school and literacy and improve their academic outcomes.
DUPREE: You’ve already done this much, but what comes next? Where would you like the work to go from here?
SATIJA: I’m an incoming freshman at UT Austin. I’m studying psychology on the pre-med track, and I hope to continue Let’s Learn Foundation and integrate it at the UT campus—maybe create it into an org and partner with other UT organizations and expand from there.
WASHINGTON: What do you want to be when you grow up? We can already tell your future is so bright, but where do you see yourself really ending up? Maybe in 5/10 years?
SATIJA: I hope to work in the mental health field, supporting youth mental health with storytelling and Narrative Therapy as a psychiatrist.
WASHINGTON: Amazing. You’re already doing such amazing work, and we’re so honored to talk to you today.
DUPREE: We wish you luck with all this next chapter that’s to come.
