When Engineering senior 
Aria Thakore and LSA senior 
Aastha 
Dharia 
roomed 
together as freshmen at the 
University of Michigan, they 
noticed a lot of their peers 
struggled with the transition 
to college, turning to their 
friends or to other students 
for advice.
“We always wanted to be 
that ear for them,” Dharia 
said. “But it was really hard 
to 
sometimes 
have 
those 
conversations without having 
had those experiences.”
As 
the 
year 
went 
on 
and more of their friends 
reached out to them, Thakore 
and Dharia said it became 
increasingly 
difficult 
to 
support their friends while 
also maintaining their own 
well-being. But it wasn’t until 
Thakore 
went 
home 
that 
April that she realized it had 
become too much to manage 
on her own.
“I checked my phone and I 
had nine text messages from 
nine different people, asking 
for peer support,” Thakore 
said. “It was that moment 
where I was like ‘I’m at home, 
I’m walking my dog, I want a 
moment to myself and I can’t 
manage this anymore.’”
From there, Thakore and 
Dharia, 
along 
with 
their 
friends 
from 
high 
school 
LSA senior Sheily Shah and 
Public Health senior Swathi 
Sampath, began working on 
a 
nonprofit 
organization, 
hEARt Listens, to address this 
need. 

“It was really weird to have 
so many people talking about 
the same problem,” Shah said. 
“But it was like a never-ending 
conversation. 
There 
wasn’t 
any solution to it.”
The hEARt Line, which 
officially launched Feb. 10, 
was their solution. The text 
line is open noon to midnight 
every 
day 
of 
the 
week, 
and students can send an 
anonymous text at any time 
and get connected with a 
trained peer supporter within 
48 hours. The process is free 
and open to all University of 
Michigan Ann Arbor campus 
students. 
“We were able to figure 
out that students really like 
turning 
to 
other 
students 
first,” Dharia said. “Students 
also want to be able to help 
other students, but it was 
really hard for them to know 
how to do that while also 
prioritizing their own well-
being.”
Before becoming a peer 
supporter, 
students 
have 
to go through a semester 
of training, which consists 
of weekly sessions focused 
on different skills such as 
motivational 
interviewing, 
navigating 
resistance 
and 
how to tackle difficult issues 
such as sexual assault. The 
founders worked with Social 
Work 
professor 
Lindsay 
Bornheimer to develop this 
training program.
According 
to 
peer 
supporter LSA senior Divya 
Gumudavelly, once students 
text the helpline, they are 
connected 
with 
a 
trained 
peer 
supporter 
who 
feels 
comfortable 
navigating 

the 
particular 
topic 
of 
conversation.
“(Having peer supporters) 
eliminates 
the 
power 
structure that can sometimes 
exist between someone who 
is seeking help and someone 
who is trying to offer help,” 
Gumudavelly 
said. 
“You’re 
talking to somebody who is 
coming from a place that is, 
hopefully, somewhat similar 
to yours because at the end of 
the day, we’re all the same age 
and we’re all students.”
To get a better idea of the 
mental 
health 
climate 
on 
campus, the four founders 
spent nearly a year talking 
to students across campus to 
assess their needs. They found 
many students felt current 
resources were difficult to 
access, and they were not 
aware of all of the possible 
resources available to them. 
“There 
have 
been 
times when it’s been very 
disheartening,” Sampath said. 
“It’s kind of hard to keep going 
through the process hearing 
about how present a lot of the 
issues and challenges that we 
faced or our peers faced really 
(are) on campus.”
The 
founders 
worked 
with 
Christine 
Asidao, 
associate 
director 
of 
community engagement and 
outreach for Counseling and 
Psychological 
Services, 
as 
well as other resources such 
as 
the 
Spectrum 
Center, 
Sexual 
Assault 
Prevention 
and Awareness Center and 
Wolverine Wellness to ensure 
hEARt Listens is a known 
and available resource for all 
students. The founders said 
the nonprofit also serves as a 

gateway to other resources on 
campus. 
“We spend workshops just 
talking about other resources 
on campus we can direct 
(students) to,” Gumudavelly 
said. “This is another reason 
I really like hEARt, because 
it’s not trying to reinvent the 
wheel.” 
Public Policy senior Hannah 
Connors 
is 
the 
executive 
director 
of 
Wolverine 
Support Network, a student 
organization 
on 
campus 
focused on creating an inclusive 
community for students. Like 
hEARt Listens, WSN is a peer-
based resource. 
According to Connors, there 
is a lot of research that speaks 
to the effectiveness of peer 
support, especially for young 
people, who tend to go to their 
peers first. WSN offers weekly 
support groups but does not 
currently 
have 
the 
online 
component that the hEARt 
Line provides.
“I think it’s an amazing idea 
because texting is probably 
the least intimidating form 
of communication,” Connors 
said. “I think it’s really going 
to 
benefit 
students 
who 
might 
feel 
too 
intimidated 
to make a counseling center 
appointment.”
Though the idea for hEARt 
Listens started their freshman 
year, now that the four founders 
are seniors, they are working 
on passing the leadership role 
on to younger students.
LSA freshman Nidhi Tigadi 
is one of the students stepping 
up to leadership in hEARt 
Listens. 

2 — Thursday, February 20, 2020
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News

TUESDAY:
By Design 
FRIDAY:
Behind the Story
WEDNESDAY:
This Week in History 

MONDAY:
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THURSDAY:
Twitter Talk

Lauren @laurboh
Now feels like a good time to remind everyone who told me to stop 
complaining about and booing Mike Bloomberg’s commencement speech at 
my Umich graduation: I told you so

Bridgette Carr 
 
 
@Bridgette_Carr
@Umich is in the news right now 
for cases of sexual misconduct. 
My hope is that we can be in 
the news for dismantling the 
systems that allowed this abuse 
to take place. One key step is to 
include survivors in the process. 
Can we rise to be the Leaders 
and Best? I hope so.

Elayna @elaynaswift
my biggest pet peeve is when 
people call umich “michigan 
university”, especially if you go 
here??

Neil Lewis Jr. 
@NeilLewisJr
45 years later, Black student 
enrollment at Michigan is 
*checks notes* 5%

Jenny Siegel @jennysiegel2
the only reason I want 
Airpods is so I’m not 
embarrassed in Ross 
anymore. seriously, I feel like 
I’m being shamed #umich

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‘hEARt Listens’ launches new 
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