A Student-Led Partnership: How MHISA at UT-Austin Helped Shape Rohan

The email arrived from a student.

Not from a procurement office. Not from a campus administrator. From Siva Epuri, a UT Austin student writing on behalf of MHISA (Mental Health Initiative for South Asians).

MHISA isn't a typical student org. They've built the first comprehensive South Asian mental health provider directory in the U.S. They have a research manuscript under peer review on culturally adapting suicide prevention training. Their work is backed by a $35,000 grant from the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation. And they came to us with a clear point of view: the digital mental health space has a gap when it comes to South Asian college students, and they wanted to help us close part of it.

What started as an inbound email became one of the most meaningful collaborations we've had this year.

What MHISA noticed

Before reaching out, Siva had tried Wayhaven herself. She noticed something specific in her sessions — the Family Navigator strategy addressed the kinds of family dynamics South Asian students actually navigate. The Identity Stress Navigator engaged the experience of balancing family expectations with personal autonomy in ways that resonated.

She wrote to us not to ask if we could build something for South Asian students, but because she saw a starting point worth building on — and because MHISA had research, cultural expertise, and clinical guidance to bring to the table.

What we built together

Over several iterations, MHISA students worked with us to refine Rohan's coach persona — the way he engages with South Asian students specifically. The students brought guidance they'd been developing in close collaboration with South Asian mentors and clinicians in their community. Together, we worked through how Rohan shows up when a student is navigating intergenerational family expectations, when shame or stigma is keeping them from reaching out, when identity-related stress overlaps with academic pressure, or when help-seeking itself feels culturally complicated.

The result is a more grounded, culturally responsive version of Rohan — one that South Asian students helped design themselves.

In their words

"When I first tried Wayhaven, I saw something I rarely see in AI — cultural context that landed. I felt a lot more seen in my experience than ChatGPT. I also appreciated that Wayhaven didn't just affirm everything I was saying and pushed back when I was ruminating."— Nethra, MHISA Texas

"Through my work with MHISA culturally adapting a suicide prevention training for South Asian communities, I had qualitative data from South Asian mental health providers that I knew could be valuable. When I discovered Wayhaven had a South Asian avatar named Adil, I wanted to ensure he truly resonated with the South Asian experience, not just in appearance. So, I reached out to see if we could use that data to make Adil (now Rohan) a genuinely meaningful resource that can meet South Asian students where they are.” - Siva, MHISA Texas

Why this matters to us

Wayhaven's coaching is designed in collaboration with licensed clinical psychologists, and it's built to complement the support students already have on campus. But cultural responsiveness can't be designed from the outside in. It has to be shaped by the people whose experiences it's trying to honor.

MHISA showed us what's possible when student researchers are treated as the experts they are. They brought rigor, lived experience, and a clear-eyed view of what cultural competence actually looks like in practice. We brought the platform and a willingness to iterate.

This is the kind of work we want to keep doing. Building with students, not just for them. We're grateful to Siva and the MHISA Texas team for trusting us as collaborators, and for showing what's possible when students are at the center of designing their own support.