Students With Psychosis

Students With Psychosis (SWP) is an award-winning 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering students and advocates living with psychosis worldwide through community-building, service, and collaboration. It operates as a community-based peer organization rather than a medical provider, and its website explicitly states that SWP does not take the place of medical professionals. The organization offers student membership, family membership, an internship program, and a Researchers and Creatives Network for people who are neither students nor family members but wish to get involved. It also maintains an accommodations database and a resource direction page, and it publishes crisis and emergency guidance for U.S. users. The organization frames its mission around a set of documented disparities. According to figures cited on its homepage, 82% of college students with first-episode psychosis take a leave of absence because of it (sourced to Yale School of Medicine); 47% of adults living with schizophrenia drop out of college, nearly double the 27% national average (sourced to NAMI); and ages 18–24 are the range when psychosis most often first appears, the very years most students are in college (sourced to Early Psychosis Intervention). SWP also cites National Library of Medicine research showing that consistent peer support reduces self-stigma and builds hope, confidence, and social connection for people navigating psychosis — the outcome the nonprofit is built to provide. SWP traces its origins to 2017, when it began as an idea shared by Founder and Executive Director Cecilia McGough. Its published organizational timeline runs through phases from 2017 to 2025–2026, covering an ideation phase and subsequent development periods. The organization is based in the United States and describes its reach as worldwide. It is a nonprofit rather than a commercial enterprise, funded through donations and membership rather than product sales, and it is not publicly listed.

Students With Psychosis began in 2017 as an idea shared by Founder and Executive Director Cecilia McGough. The organization's published timeline identifies 2017 as its ideation phase, followed by development periods spanning 2018–2019, 2020–2021, 2022–2024, and 2025–2026. Over that arc it grew into an award-winning 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to empowering students and advocates living with psychosis worldwide through community-building, service, and collaboration. As it developed, SWP built out a set of membership and participation pathways: student membership, family membership, an internship program, and a Researchers and Creatives Network for people who are neither students nor family members but want to get involved. It also created practical resources including an accommodations database and a resource direction page, and it publishes crisis and emergency guidance for U.S. users, directing people in crisis to call or text 988 and those in emergency situations to call 911. The organization grounds its work in research and statistics about educational outcomes for people with psychosis. Its homepage cites Yale School of Medicine for the finding that 82% of college students with first-episode psychosis take a leave of absence because of it; NAMI for the finding that 47% of adults living with schizophrenia drop out of college, nearly double the 27% national average; and Early Psychosis Intervention for the finding that ages 18–24 are when psychosis most often first appears. It further cites the National Library of Medicine for evidence that consistent peer support reduces self-stigma and builds hope, confidence, and social connection. These figures and findings form the rationale for SWP's peer-community model. SWP describes itself as a community-based organization and states that it does not take the place of medical professionals. It is based in the United States and describes its mission as worldwide in scope. As a nonprofit, it is supported through donations and membership rather than commercial sales, and it is not publicly listed.

• 2025

  Organizational development period 2025–2026.

• 2022

  Organizational development period 2022–2024.

• 2020

  Organizational development period 2020–2021.

• 2018

  Organizational development period 2018–2019.

• 2017

  Students With Psychosis begins as an idea shared by Founder and Executive Director Cecilia McGough (ideation phase).

Award-winning 501(c)(3) nonprofit peer community and advocacy organization for students and advocates living with psychosis; community-based, not a substitute for medical professionals.

• Student Membership

  Membership pathway for students living with psychosis.

• Family Membership

  Membership pathway for family members.

• Internship Program

  Internship program offered by the organization.

• Researchers and Creatives Network

  Network for people who are not students or family members but want to get involved.

• Accommodations Database

  Database of accommodations resources.

• Resource Direction

  Page directing users to additional resources.

1. 1Students With Psychosis | Nonprofit Peer Community & Advocacysws.ngo
2. 2Students with Psychosiswikidata.org