NEW YORK, NY — August 5, 2026 — Mantra Health, the leading mental health and well-being platform for higher education, has shown a meaningful association between Beacon participation and student persistence. After implementing the whole-student intelligence platform across two semesters, New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) is committing to a three-year Beacon-specific contract, in addition to its existing agreement for Whole Campus Care. 

As part of this extended partnership, NJIT will launch Beacon across its entire undergraduate population by 2028, extending support to the same full-time, first-year cohort through their full four-year journey. This will help ensure students at risk are seen and supported, as well as provide the institution with a broader, population-level view of student well-being and persistence across all class years.

Combining a semi-annual screening with institutional data, Beacon has given NJIT a real-time view of students’ needs, while also providing students customized lists of resources upon screening completion, equipping staff with the information needed to conduct proactive outreach, and providing leadership with the data-driven insights to allocate resources more effectively.

“Aligning with our strategic plan, launching Beacon was a cornerstone of our holistic approach at NJIT, giving students direct access to care when they need it most. It has been a game changer for how we support students, moving us from reactive crisis response toward a true culture of well-being. That is the future Beacon is helping to lead at NJIT,” said Marybeth Boger, PhD, Senior Vice President of Student Affairs and Dean of Students at NJIT. 

NJIT’s experience with Beacon points to significant outcomes and strong potential for the platform’s future at other institutions.

• Beacon achieved a 51% screener completion rate, a response substantially exceeding those of comparable collegiate screening instruments.
• Beacon drove engagement, with 1,042 students signing up for Mantra’s Care Hub across the 2025-2026 academic year, giving them access to 77 relevant NJIT campus-based resources and Mantra Health’s full range of mental health and wellness services provided by NJIT.
• Student needs eased over time, with psychological distress measures and self-reported barriers to degree completion showing the steepest declines between fall and spring screenings.
• Engagement shows strong association with outcomes: students who clicked through to a Beacon-recommended resource saw significantly greater reductions in risk flags from fall to spring than those who didn’t.
• Screening is associated with persistence, with participating students persisting at rates matching or exceeding their peers, while students reporting three or more barriers to degree completion persisted at notably lower rates.
• Course withdrawal was linked to screening participation, with participating students showing a significantly lower course withdrawal rate than non-participating students.
• Academic support engagement surged, with first-year student tutoring appointments at NJIT’s Learning Center jumping from 12.4% to 54.2% in the first semester following Beacon’s launch.

As an early champion of Beacon, Sean Dowd, MSW, who most recently served as Senior Associate Dean of Students at NJIT, led the platform’s implementation on campus and will now join Mantra Health full time in the newly created role of Senior Director of Beacon Success.

Having seen firsthand what the platform could do for student well-being and persistence, Dowd will be a hands-on partner with institutions adopting Beacon across the country. He’ll also lead a community of practice amongst staff who are leveraging Beacon across their campuses in many novel, creative ways to improve student persistence and well-being.

At NJIT, Dowd led the campus-wide rollout and follow-up efforts, securing buy-in across departments, overseeing personalized outreach for at-risk students, and developing a six-part workshop series on tailored topics. He also partnered with faculty to embed Beacon into coursework and helped establish a deeper strategic investment in the program.

Dowd brings more than 20 years of experience strengthening student well-being, persistence, and institutional effectiveness. Having worked in student affairs and residential life, with stints at Rutgers University, Hofstra University, and Loyola University Maryland, he has a strong understanding of what it takes to implement an innovative technology into lasting institutional change. This new appointment marks a turning point for Beacon’s growth and furthers Mantra Health’s commitment to its higher education partners.

“Institutions shouldn’t need to be reactive to a student whose needs have compounded into crisis or whose personal challenges are leading to considering stop-out. Sean spent the past year proving that Beacon catalyzes an institution’s support model from reactive to proactive. A social worker by training and student mental health advocate with decades of on-the-ground leadership in student affairs, Sean immediately grasped our vision for Beacon when first introduced to him in December 2024,” said Matt Kennedy, CEO and Co-Founder of Mantra Health. “We’re grateful NJIT was supportive of his ambition to join Mantra Health’s mission in a full-time role where he’ll get to scale the change he pioneered with Beacon at NJIT last academic year to campuses across the country for years to come.”

About Mantra Health:

Mantra Health is the digital mental health provider built exclusively to support student well-being and success across higher education. Its Whole Campus Care solution, a comprehensive model supporting mental health, well-being, and persistence, includes clinical and non-clinical services, including coaching, self-guided wellness courses, peer support, therapy, psychiatry, 24/7 crisis intervention, as well as persistence intelligence technologies. This suite of service offerings has been designed to empower institutions to deliver a seamless continuum of care, ensuring that students are supported from acceptance to graduation. Currently deployed across 150+ colleges and universities, Mantra Health serves over 1.3 million students and is actively reimagining how institutions manage mental health and student success. Visit mantrahealth.com.