CU Boulder alum Maddie Freeman lost 10 friends to suicide in high school. She knew she had to do something to address her generation’s mental health crisis. As a CU freshman, she started NoSo (No Social Media) November, a digital wellness nonprofit that provides teens with support and tools to achieve a technology-life balance. By the time the Coloradan magazine published a profile on Maddie, more than 28,000 youth had been reached by her nonprofit. We wanted our general alumni and donor audience of 200,000 to know about the significant impact of one young alum. The mental health crisis touches so many young lives, and Maddie’s determination to do something about it can inspire even more change.
From the Judges
A well-written story that is compelling and well executed. The story had natural emotional weight and a strong public-interest angle, and did a good job showing how an alum used personal experience, research, and business training to build a nonprofit with measurable reach.
