Why Do Successful College Students Take Their Own Lives?
In a recent piece at the Philadelphia Inquirer, Susan Snyder examined a sad aspect of campus life.
Addressing suicide among seemingly successful college students
Christopher Aiello broke into tears – again – when he got a call last month about Madison Holleran, a promising scholar-athlete at the University of Pennsylvania who jumped to her death from a Center City parking garage, stunning her family, friends, and campus community.
The call came from a friend, who in an eerie coincidence, knew Holleran’s father. Aiello lost his own daughter, Paige, the same way nine months earlier.
Tennis team captain and an A student at the College of New Jersey, she was weeks shy of graduation and had been accepted to nine law schools when her body was recovered from the Hudson River.
“I just don’t understand what’s happening to these high-achieving kids,” said Aiello, a New Jersey lawyer. “How did we get to this spot? The whole thing, for me, will never make any sense.”
Two recent suicides at Penn and a smattering of others at college campuses over the last year – including a student who jumped off a parking garage at Pennsylvania State University in December – has brought renewed attention from administrators and talk on how to ramp up prevention and awareness.
Penn last week announced intentions to hire three new staffers for its counseling center and expand hours.
“This whole issue is a tragedy on our campus and on many campuses,” said Drexel University president John A. Fry, who formed a suicide-prevention task force last year after the suicides of two students. “I wanted to make sure we were doing everything that we could.”
Suicide is the second-leading cause of death for college students.
And when popular, high-achieving students, who seemingly have everything to live for, take their lives, it sends nothing short of a shock wave through their campuses and leaves families and friends grappling – even years later – for answers.
“You won’t really know what triggered this in anybody,” said Donna Ambrogi, whose son Kyle, a Penn football player, killed himself in 2005. “That’s the hardest part for families.”
Addressing suicide among seemingly successful college students (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
Comments
What is happening to high achieving kids? No one is anchoring them to reality. Many are perfectionists and highly driven. They were at the top of their game in high school and then enter college and discover that they are in with many people who are at the top of their game as well. That person is no longer “special” as defined by his/her achievements and that others are even better. High achievers may not have learned that they need to not be in “full speed ahead” mode at all times. Proud parents may not know that they should step in when the high achiever has placed too much on the to do list.