Mental Health: Destigmatizing the Causes of Mental Illness in Mexico 

Katherine Stiff completed her Global Capstone Scholar project in 2021 during her senior year of high school. Her interest in the topic was inspired by a previous global project she had worked on where she studied enforced disappearances. Her research about enforced disappearances led her to discovering a huge mental health stigma in Mexico, worsened by the increasing disappearance and homicide rate. Working with therapists and medical professionals from Mexico, Katie filmed and distributed a video with the intent of spreading awareness about the true causes of mental health, being traumatic events and chemical imbalances, and eroding the stigma that having a mental illness is a result of weakness.