Reclaiming Your Narrative with BRIDGE Forward

by Krystal Melendez, 2025-2026 CRC/William James Org Psych Intern

School, assignments, burnout, repeat. For a long time, that was the only rhythm I knew, and a majority of college students have experienced school-induced stress at some point in their educational career. Managing mental health on top of assignments is no easy task, and like so many others, I have directly experienced this. There was a time when I felt so overwhelmed by the course load that I had to quit my job and sacrifice my social life just to stay afloat. I debated taking a leave of absence to evaluate my future goals, but I felt that if I did, I would be deemed a failure. Once I graduated, I decided to take a three-year gap before applying to graduate school. During that time, I found healing and a sense of purpose for the future, but it wasn't always that way. 

Many students, like myself, believe that taking a leave of absence is the absolute last resort because of the possibility of never returning. I didn't have the support and resources that I now have today. Individuals who make the decision to take a leave of absence and stop education oftentimes feel consumed by fear, guilt, and shame. They might feel stuck between the past and the uncertainty of the future. Leaving is not a failure; it's a moment to rebuild. Some may fear that if they don't have a specific goal right now, there's nothing out there to help them. 

If this sounds like you, you are who CRC built BRIDGE Forward for. 

To build the program, we surveyed over 45 students who have considered or taken a leave of absence during their undergraduate or graduate education. This is what we heard: people need a space to feel safe enough to discuss their next steps without feeling overwhelmed or pressured as they make decisions. Our findings revealed how a gap in existing services underscored the need for a specific job goal in the first meeting. The solution? A program that believes that “figuring it out” is the goal - not what needs to happen before moving forward.

You told us that it can be difficult to see your own strengths when you’re in the middle of a health or interpersonal struggle, which makes mentorship that much more valuable. It's not about creating new strengths, but uncovering the ones you already have. Your responses helped implement the foundation and mission of what BRIDGE is all about: Building Readiness, Integrating Direction, Goals, and Empowerment within yourself. 

How is BRIDGE Forward structured? It does not pick a path for you, but rather helps you map out the pros and cons of different paths you could pursue, whether that's going back to school, starting an apprenticeship, or finding a career that fits your current needs. The program consists of a 6-week timeline that is organized yet flexible. This phase encourages participants to build trust with their mentors in a timeframe that feels short enough to feel achievable for most. During this time, self-assessments are assigned and questions are posed. These are tools to surface your current and recent motivations, developments, and changes.

Throughout the program, you will develop a partnership with a peer coach who has lived experience. It's not clinical; coaches focus on your goals and strengths, helping you develop them in ways you can use in your everyday life. What makes BRIDGE Forward stand out from other programs is the guidance that peer coaches provide to support long term success. And success looks different to everyone: it might mean stepping into a new job, finding confidence in a volunteer role, or creating a structured plan to return to your degree, and our program is just the beginning. 

Once you have collaborated with your peer mentor to create a goal, you might find that one of CRC’s other Workforce services can continue to provide you with the support you need. You might use CRC’s Job Search Coaching or Education Advising services for support turning your goals into reality. A lasting career isn't just about a paycheck, but about discovering how to use your core values to support your journey rather than working against it. 

If you are reading this as a parent, family member, or friend, who wishes to provide support, your role is to help stabilize your loved one’s support structures. You can remind them that they don’t need all the answers to start the program, which is a great way to encourage them to reach out to us. 

A final note for those facing hardship about their future: your value isn't tied to your grades. Whether you want to return to school or not, BRIDGE Forward is here to help you choose your path as you venture on your journey ahead. If you are interested in joining BRIDGE Forward today or in the future, the easiest way to start is the BRIDGE Forward Inquiry Form. 

Life after Leave: A Lived Perspective

Author: Tabor Hoatson, he/him

“Do you want to just go to the hospital right now?”

The words hung heavy in the air as I looked at my phone. It was 2016 and I was a sophomore in college; I had just called a mental health hotline for the first time in my life. I had yet to select a major and I was already falling behind my peers. In what would be one of the most consequential decisions of my academic career, I took a deep breath and said, 

“…Yes.”

Today, I’m a PhD student in psychiatric epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. I am also a person living with treatment-refractory bipolar disorder. I’ve been hospitalized 9 times and most recently found success with electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). I’ve been a student in higher education for over a decade, and during that time, I’ve taken 3 leaves of absence. Each of these leaves has been just as critical to my academic success as my coursework, and I’m here to tell you that if you need to take some time, you have at least one unwavering supporter in me. 

During my time off in undergrad, I completed several outpatient programs, clarified my academic interests, switched medications in a lower stress environment, and got sober. Each of these things has been vital to my pursuant success, and I could not have done them while completing coursework. 

Most recently, I knew that if I didn’t pause progress in my doctoral program, my performance would suffer, I would damage my relationships with my mentors, and—in full transparency—I may not have survived. Nothing is more important than my well-being, and in my case, taking care of my well-being was highly compatible with academic success on an extended timeline.

I know that I retained substantial privilege in my leave process. I had access to a safe, rent-free place to live outside of school, supportive advisors and family members, and a recovery community available to me 24 hours a day. These facts simplified things that would have made a difficult process far more challenging, and it is important to recognize that these differences in my may limit the usefulness of my experience as a general example. However, each time I took leave, I had to wrestle with another set of problems that will be familiar to anyone in this position—unknown logistics, non-affirming professional environments, loss of income and health insurance, and worst, the fear of never returning to my passion. 

Taking care of my health and investing in my recovery saved my life, without which I would be incapable of pursuing even the smallest of my goals. This is why I volunteered to support CRC in creating a service to support people like me, who might not know how to take a next step toward achieving the goals that we put on hold while weathering the storm. If you or a loved one is considering pausing your education or leaving entirely, please reach out to the dedicated team at the Cole Resource Center and ask about BRIDGE Forward. We know what it’s like, and we’re here to help. Life after leave is possible.

A Research-Based Assessment of the Support Needs of Academic Leave-Takers

Author: Stella Anukam, MD, MBA

Many people whose education is interrupted by mental health challenges struggle to return, or to find satisfying, meaningful employment if they choose not to return. They need direction, stability, and support, but may be unable to find these from friends or family. What begins as a necessary health decision can quietly turn into a long period of uncertainty, not because someone lacks ability, but because the “after leave” phase is rarely designed with real support in mind.

This is not a rare experience. Up to 26% of college students report having taken a mental health leave of absence, and mental health ranks among the top causes of college dropout overall. According to a  College Students and Mental Health Survey Data, tens of millions of Americans around the nation have some college credits but no degree, and each year, fewer than 2-3% of them re-enroll. That gap between leaving and returning is where too many people get stuck. And without structured support, temporary leave can stretch into years with serious consequences.

For the individual: Unfinished education and stalled career development lead to a loss of purpose and self-esteem as individuals may experience isolation and prolonged depression. Economically, college stop-outs earn 35% less and are twice as likely to be unemployed compared to graduates. They may also carry student debt without the benefit of a degree, and their talent and ambitions are sidelined.

For families and society: Families often struggle to support a child who returns home for extended periods after leaving college, trying their best to help without creating pressure or conflict. Research on the economic and social costs of mental illness shows that a large share of those costs is carried directly by individuals and their families.

For society: We all benefit when our fellow citizens are well, but there are few structures aimed at returning people to wellness. The patterns described include increased use of health and social services and contribute to substantial long-term economic costs at the population level. In this sense, society loses much more than “productivity” and tax revenues.

So why do so many students never return to their education after leave, even when they want to? 

Most students on leave continue to navigate recovery and readiness to return without structured help. Until recently, many colleges handled mental health withdrawals primarily as a risk management issue, leaving significant gaps in continuity and reintegration. As of 2024, only 43% of colleges report having a defined “program” for students returning from leave, ranging from a checklist or one-time meeting, to support groups or re-entry seminars on campus. 

The current system often misses what people actually need. Therapy and medication management address clinical symptoms, but clinicians seldom offer support for reacquiring study skills, returning to school, or determining an alternate pathway. General psychiatric rehabilitation programs build skills and offer support to re-engage in valued social roles, but are typically not administered by peers in the mental health recovery community. Rehab programs specifically for students on leave are costly, and those who pursue them have already achieved a level of information, clarity, and self-determination. 

Research shows that students with mental health conditions demonstrably attain educational goals at rates much closer to their peers if provided supported education services. Such services are individualized and help individuals in choosing, getting, and keeping their educational objectives. Moreover, studies have consistently shown that peer-to-peer support in the mental health recovery community provides a key component of wellbeing, and in many cases is more effective in goal attainment than other methods. The solution is a freely available peer-support option designed to support the discernment of next steps of someone who has left or considered leaving education to care for their mental health.

This bridge service is what CRC’s Workforce Program proposes to offer, and will pilot in Spring 2026. We already support peers in clarifying goals, exploring skills and interests, finding the right vocational discernment, sustaining motivation, and staying accountable through peer coaching and community support as they navigate employment. The goal of our new service is not to direct someone back to school or into a job, but to support them in moving toward long-term stability, self-directed goals, and a future that fits both who they are and who they are working to become.

If you would like more information about our new service, please email workforce@coleresourcecenter.org.

Life after Leave: An Introduction

Welcome to Life after Leave: The Intersection of Mental Health, Education, and Successful Futures - a blog by the Cole Resource Center Workforce team, clients, and volunteers.

A Gentle Note if You Are on Leave

If you are currently on leave from school for mental health, or considering stepping away, please know this: you are not behind, and you are not broken. Taking a pause can be an act of strength and survival. The hard part is what comes next, especially if you are facing expectations to bounce back quickly or disappear quietly. You deserve something different: you deserve informed choice, agency, and self-actualization.

If you are not sure where to start, here are three steps that can make the next chapter feel less overwhelming.

First, define what stability looks like for you right now, not what it used to look like. That might be a consistent sleep schedule, taking medication regularly, getting outside twice a week, or showing up to one supportive conversation.

Second, choose one anchor activity that is small and repeatable. A a routine walk, a weekly support group, a creative practice, very-part-time volunteer role, reading 10 pages or working on a puzzle for 20 minutes a day - anything you feel you can realistically sustain. Momentum often returns through structure, not pressure.

Third, seek support that matches the real challenge. Therapy and medication can be essential. You may also need help rebuilding confidence, routines, and a practical path forward, step by step, with people who understand and will offer you both support and accountability. Make a list of things that you’d like accountability/presence/assistance with (eating breakfast, doing laundry, taking a walk, etc.) and when well-meaning friends and family ask what they can do for you, you’ll be prepared to let them know one small way that they can help you.

At CRC, we are here for our peers who are navigating this moment.
If you feel like you are on a life raft and looking for the shore, we are here to talk through next steps, explore options, or simply provide community.

About Our New Service and This Blog

Stepping away from school for mental health reasons is an act of self-care, often instrumental to survival. It is a meaningful health decision and - for many - the first time they have chosen for themselves in a long time. But once the paperwork is done and classmates continue on the path you had also intended to walk, the question of “What next?” is inevitable. You might feel relief, grief - or both. You’ve gained the time and space to recover, but lost structure, interaction with friends, stimulation - and possibly also your housing, insurance, and other ways to meet basic needs. 

To someone who has never lived those emotions, the experience is impossible to explain. Cole Resource Center is committed to supporting the needs of our peers who find themselves in this situation. We will launch this new service in Spring 2026. In preparation for the launch, we have created this blog to start the conversation.

This blog series will open next week with an overview of the research that illuminates the consequences of what is lost when individuals have recovered their health but are not supported to find a personally meaningful pathway forward - the intersection at which the peer-to-peer approach makes all the difference.

Future posts focus on the systems of medical leave, mental health, and education and include personal stories of navigating these systems, CRC survey results about what individuals are looking for from their families, friends, schools, and support networks, practical advice for those who may currently be on or considering taking leave, and more .