Like all college students, Parishi Gandhi knew she would be stepping out of her comfort zone. A native of India, she moved to the U.S. to further her education. “I went for psychology, not knowing that I would land into counseling at all,” Gandhi says.  

Now she is a doctoral student on track for her degree in counseling and counselor education from the UNC Greensboro School of Education (SOE)’s Department of Counseling and Educational Development. But through her whole educational journey, she’s always held a strong desire to give back to whatever community she’s a part of. “As an international student and a Brown person, I grew up in a culture where I was always told to acknowledge others before myself.”    

Healing Through Shared Experiences 

Before her move to the U.S., Gandhi began a peer-led initiative in high school called “Cheer for Your Peers” after a personal loss prompted her to create a safe space for her and her classmates to process different situations. The program started with fewer than 15 students, but quickly expanded to a new initiative, “Happy Minds,” at three other schools. “Having someone there to listen really makes a difference,” she says. 

Gandhi experienced all the unknowns typical for an international student while pursuing her undergraduate degree in psychology from Ohio State University and then her master’s at Florida State University. She interacted with various cultures outside of her own, adapting to changes within her environment. With that in mind, Gandhi was encouraged to use the counseling and wellness services available during her undergraduate program. Through that process, she fell in love with the idea of student wellness. 

And just like in high school, she wanted to give back.  

First, she interned at a suicide-prevention center. She then played a role in the REACH program on campus, talking with peers about student wellness and directing them to appropriate mental health resources. She also worked supporting kids on the autism spectrum. 

The Bigger Picture and A Positive Approach 

All the while, Gandhi delved deeper into her efforts to identify gaps in emotional and academic wellness for students. “I felt there was a difference between the services that were offered and the services students actually needed, me being one of the students,” she says. A particular issue for international students, she noticed, was what she calls “deficit-based approaches” to wellness. From her perspective, it was always about what international students were missing instead of what they brought to their community. 

“I really did not find a lot of resources that talked about our strengths,” Gandhi says, “The resilience that we bring from moving from a different country. I really want to focus on filling that gap. How can we incorporate more of that approach into the counseling setting?”  

She felt that emphasizing students’ strengths was something she could strive for in her Ph.D. studies. “It’s important to appreciate what makes a student themselves.” 

From Insight to Impact 

Gandhi has worked with faculty and her student cohort to address those concerns within UNCG’s doctoral programs. She and other counseling students partnered with their department’s assistant professor, Christian Chan, Ph.D., and created a student wellness resource guide for international students. The guide includes crisis resources, mental health and wellness resources, and community services.

At the end of the Spring 2025 semester, she received the UNCG School of Education Smiley Award, representing SOE as a Global Education Ambassador. “The Smiley Award stood out to me because it brought awareness of the impact individuals made on underrepresented and minority communities,” she says. Excited to expand her research, Gandhi plans to use the educational grant to engage nontraditional students and amplify their voices and concerns.  

Aspiring to Teach, Inspiring Change 

With dreams of teaching in higher ed one day, she’s used her findings to challenge her own strategies to wellness. “I used to struggle with a lot of negative self-talk. If something unexpected happened, my first thought was, ‘What’s wrong with me?’” she says. Learning to shift her mentality, she instead draws attention to what went well, where she thrived, and what she’d do differently next time. 

When asked what advice she would give to any UNCG student who wants to improve their wellness, she makes three suggestions: Find a supportive community, lean into your own curiosity, and communicate your needs.  

“I felt alone in my experiences when I came here. Then I found that, ‘Oh, this other international student is going through the same thing, and another.’ Building that community is the first step in nurturing our wellness.”  

She assures her peers that “what students feel the most alone in are actually the things that connect them the most to others.”  

Story by Lauren Segers, University Communications 
Photography by Sean Norona, University Communications