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Dartmouth is rolling out a new initiative known as , a first-of-its-kind chatbot powered by artificial intelligence that is designed to help students flourish by providing personalized guidance and support in real time.

The Oct. 10 announcement marks World Mental Health Day and builds on Dartmouth’s commitment to student health and wellness.

The interactive platform is being developed by a team of 130 Dartmouth students working directly with the university’s leading researchers in digital health interventions based in the Geisel School of Medicine’s and in the.

The student team is expected to spend more than 100,000 hours shaping Evergreen’s language and design, including training it to speak like a Dartmouth student and be familiar with undergraduate life on campus.

The first Evergreen chatbot with features providing individualized intervention tailored to the moment is scheduled to be complete by December. It will be optimized over the next two years through voluntary, randomized controlled trials beginning on campus early next year. The fully generative, more personalized chatbot debuts for testing at the end of 2026.

Evergreen will not replace existing campus resources related to mental health and well-being, and provides an additional, broadly accessible tool.

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From left, Dayton O’Donoghue ’27, Iris Cao ’26, and Azaire Andre ’27 are among the students helping to shape Evergreen’s language and design, including training its chatbot to speak like a Dartmouth student and be familiar with undergraduate life. (Photo by Katie Lenhart)

“What motivates me to work on the Evergreen project is the chance to create something that genuinely supports student well-being and reflects our shared experiences,” says Azaire Andre ’27, a member of the student team working on Evergreen.

“I wholeheartedly believe this project can offer guidance and support for those not only finding difficulties in maintaining their mental health, but also those who are seemingly doing well,” says Keion Grieve ’28, who also is part of the development team. “A better path and a more manageable college experience will be possible with Evergreen.”

Dartmouth says colleges and universities exist to prepare students to be resilient in a world that is becoming more complex by the day. “As a cognitive scientist, I know well that our well-being is closely tied to how well we navigate challenges in our day-to-day lives, including making sense of the global challenges awaiting students upon graduation,” she says.

“That is why Dartmouth is focused on empowering students with the tools and skills to face difficulty head-on, academically, professionally, and personally,” she says. “Evergreen was conceived by students, for students, who are harnessing the power of AI to create a personalized behavioral health tool to promote well-being among their peers.”

Context-aware technology

Behind Evergreen is powerful context-aware technology that continually learns from its interactions with students, taking in a user’s conversational style, routine, academic schedule, digital habits, and environment to engage with them one-on-one.

Students choose the data they share with Evergreen, all of which is securely stored on internal servers that are inaccessible outside of the development team and protected with multiple layers of encryption.

The Evergreen chatbot takes on the tone of a trusted peer. When a student first launches the app, they select wellness areas to focus on, such as social connection or personal growth. Students can ask Evergreen to provide help with specific challenges such as social anxiety, time management, or relationships.

As Evergreen becomes familiar with a user, it uses AI to provide personalized guidance to help them focus on these goals and move toward a general state of well-being. It can regularly check in using notifications, such as asking someone how they’re doing or if they want to talk about their mood.

At the same time, students can track their heart rate, breathing, and time spent on various activities through interactive widgets embedded in the chatbot conversation feature. These features help engage students in their well-being and visualize the data that Evergreen uses to make suggestions. 

For example, if a student has indicated to Evergreen that they want to control their anxiety, the widget may show them their heart rate increasing in real time during moments of stress, while the chatbot suggests that they take a break or do a breathing exercise. 

Evergreen also makes suggestions based on how well past actions worked. Someone focused on wellness, for instance, will be shown the effects that regular yoga and exercise have had on their mood, followed by workout suggestions that fit their schedule and interests.

Evergreen team member Oumie Fatty-Hydara ’27 sees the ubiquity of technology as an opportunity to break through the barriers people feel when it comes to talking about their well-being.

“I know a lot of people struggle with mental health, and it can feel hard to ask for help,” Fatty-Hydara says. “This generation is faced with problems like never before. As we continue to advance in technology, why not integrate it with helping us do and be better?”

Evergreen is Dartmouth’s latest and most advanced effort to promote well-being among students, young adults, and society by expanding the resources that are available, as well as elevating dialogue geared toward awareness and solutions.

Significant steps include the historic convening of eight U.S. surgeons general on campus in 2023, the appointment of as Dartmouth’s inaugural chief health and wellness officer in 2024, and, a strategic plan to support student mental health and well-being.

An upcoming symposium hosted by Dartmouth and the United Nations Development Programme from Oct. 26-28 will bring together leading experts and policymakers to discuss the collapse in mental health and well-being worldwide, especially among young people. 

Asli Tavasli ’27, another member of the Evergreen team, is motivated by one of her closest friend’s recent, quiet struggle with depression. “What breaks my heart is that I didn’t find out until months later that they were really struggling. They weren’t leaving their room, barely getting through the days—and I had no idea,” Tavasli recalls. “That’s why Evergreen means so much to me.”

“The reality is that most people who need mental health support can’t access it,” says, an associate professor of biomedical data science and psychiatry who directs the Treatment Development and Evaluation Core at the CTBH.

“Aiming for prevention”

Through CTBH, Jacobson is co-leading the development of Evergreen with the center’s founding director, the Andrew G. Wallace Professor of psychiatry and biomedical data science, and, the Albert Bradley 1915 Third Century Professor in computer science.

“With Evergreen, we’re aiming for prevention,” Jacobson says. “By gathering rich, passive-sensor data from students’ devices, we can provide personalized, just-in-time support before struggles become clinical problems. It’s about building resilience and fostering well-being, not just managing illness.”

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From left, professors Nicholas Jacobson, Andrew Campbell, and Lisa Marsch are co-leading the development of Evergreen through the Center for Technology and Behavioral Health, where Marsch is the founding director. 

The first yearlong trial will track 200 students to evaluate how a “structured” version of Evergreen that is overseen by a clinical team influences emotional health, cross-campus connection, and an overall feeling of well-being, Jacobson says. A second set of randomized trials including up to 600 students and slated for 2027 will put the automated, fully generative system to the same test.

Jacobson, whose Lab developed Therabot, the first fully generative AI therapy chatbot to undergo a clinical trial, says that, “like Therabot, what sets Evergreen apart is not just the technology, but the clinical rigor and oversight.”

“In the race to innovate, many vendors are deploying untested AI that risks repeating the damage caused by early social media. ‘Moving fast and breaking things’ doesn’t work with student wellness. We need scientifically developed, rigorously tested interventions,” Jacobson says.

Claire Dvorak ’28 sees her work on Evergreen as a moment to not only support her fellow students, but also demonstrate AI’s capability when it’s deployed responsibly. 

“I’ve always been really interested in AI and passionate about mental health, so Evergreen felt like the perfect intersection of both,” Dvorak says. “Tools like Evergreen can make it easier for people to explore different methods of support without feeling as self-conscious.”

Evergreen is backed by more than 15 years of research at Dartmouth that combines technological advancements with evidence-based treatments, says Marsch, CTBH’s director. The caliber of that work is the basis of Dartmouth’s leadership role in a new NSF-supported national AI Institute that aims to produce clinically effective AI therapeutics for addiction, behavior, and mental health disorders.

“Throughout my career, I’ve seen firsthand the power of technology to support meaningful behavior change,” says Marsch, whose in digital intervention include reSET, FDA-authorized prescription digital intervention for treating addiction. 

“What excites me about Evergreen is that students are involved at every level—from design and development to research and outreach,” says Marsch, who is the Andrew G. Wallace Professor of psychiatry and biomedical data science. “With Evergreen, we’re shaping a new era of digital, student-driven wellness solutions—rigorously tested, deeply collaborative, and always striving for measurable improvements in both individual and community health.”

Dartmouth also has worked with Thrive Global, the behavior-change technology company founded by Arianna Huffington, to establish a collaboration that will give students access to the company’s database of interactive stress-management tools and behavior-change expertise as a guide for developing Evergreen’s original content. Thrive Global also may provide support for establishing new versions of Evergreen at other campuses nationwide.

David Hsueh ’28 is motivated to work on Evergreen by the potential to provide clinically backed support to many people who may not have access to it otherwise. “There’s nothing more meaningful than helping others find peace and purpose. Being part of this team gives me a direct and powerful way to accomplish that mission,” Hsueh says.

Extensive roots at Dartmouth

The roots of Evergreen go back to 2007 when Campbell’s group embedded the first machine learning algorithm for remote sensing into an iPhone, he says. The software, called CenceMe, showed that the sensors built into smart devices and servers can, via remote sensing, provide continual and detailed insights into a person’s behavior, moods, and mental wellbeing.

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An Evergreen widget can show students if their heart rate is increasing during moments of stress, and can also suggest that they take a break or do a breathing exercise. (Photo by Katie Lenhart)

More importantly, his work shows that patterns in those data can be used to predict crises before they happen. His landmark four-year study known as—the longest of its kind ever conducted—showed how an app on students’ phones could be used to measure and understand their mental health.

“At the heart of my work is the simple belief that mobile technology and AI can identify the earliest signals of stress, depression, and anxiety before they escalate. That motivation has guided my research for decades and now shapes the vision of the Evergreen project,” says Campbell, who directs CTBH’s Emerging Technologies and Data Analytics Core.

“Evergreen moves beyond the old model of treating symptoms after the fact by using real-time behavioral sensing and generative AI to deliver timely, personalized wellness strategies that meet students where they are,” continues Campbell, who has openly discussed his brother’s suicide after years of struggling with bipolar disorder that began during college.

“My family’s experiences with mental illness drive my determination to use smartphones, wearables, and AI to help young people—especially during the vulnerable college years—recognize challenges early and get support before they become crises,” he says. “The goal is not just intervention, but proactive and continuous resilience-building.”

Expanding how and when students can access mental wellness resources means that more students are getting support before they reach a point of crisis, says Garcia, Dartmouth’s chief health and wellness officer. Evergreen exemplifies Dartmouth’s effort to widen that safety net, especially in innovative ways that adapt to students’ needs and lifestyles.

“We’ve managed to not only expand how we support students with significant mental health challenges, but critically, have implemented preventative measures to support and empower the majority of students to thrive,” Garcia says.

“Evergreen represents an important step toward ensuring that every student has access to the support they need at all times,” he says. “This is an incredibly powerful supplement to the on-campus clinical care we provide our students.”

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Mental health support is available through Dartmouth 24/7 for students, faculty, and staff. Any Dartmouth student experiencing a mental health crisis can call the Counseling Center at 603-646-9442.