At the 2025 STARR Annual Award Celebration, Students With Psychosis (SWP) was honored as this year’s STARR Advocate of the Year — recognizing a year of thoughtful, steady leadership on behalf of young people living with serious mental illness.

Throughout 2025, SWP continued to strengthen its role as a national voice for students and young adults with lived experience of psychosis. Through leadership development, peer community-building, education, and public speaking, the organization has created space for young people to be seen not only as patients, but as leaders and changemakers.

2025 marked meaningful growth in SWP’s reach and influence. The organization partnered with One Mind on the Launchpad initiative, helping expand employment opportunities for young adults living with serious mental illness. SWP also keynoted the NAMI Texas Conference, where student leaders were recognized on the main stage—an important moment reflecting broader acceptance of lived-experience leadership.

In addition, SWP presented at major gatherings including the SAMSHA CHR/FEP Conference, the International Early Psychosis Association’s International Early Intervention Conference, and events at Stanford University, contributing to conversations on early intervention, stigma reduction, and interdisciplinary collaboration.

Founder and executive director Cecilia McGough has consistently grounded this work in a simple but powerful truth. As she once wrote, “The good guys get SMI too, and the overwhelming vast majority of people living with serious mental illness are the good guys.” That conviction—clear-eyed, direct, and human—continues to shape SWP’s mission. It reframes psychosis not as a character flaw or cautionary tale, but as a health condition experienced by thoughtful, ambitious, and capable individuals.

The award was accepted by Cecilia and presented by Gordon Lavigne of Schizophrenia & Psychosis Action Alliance, last year’s Advocate of the Year.

Students With Psychosis continues to model what grounded, community-centered advocacy can look like, bringing lived experience, partnership, and practical action together to create lasting change. For more information on Students With Psychosis, visit their website and be sure to check out Cecilia’s blog posts, which are phenomenal.❤