Saving the Day
Lewis one of five UIC students named Schweitzer Fellow
Hannah Lewis story begins
Mental illness robbed Hannah Lewis’ brother of a long, promising life. She doesn’t want that to happen to others.
A second-year student in the Jane Addams College of Social Work’s master’s program, Lewis was one of five University of Illinois Chicago students named a Chicago Schweitzer Fellow for 2025-2026. Each year, the Chicago Area Schweitzer Fellows Program provides funding to 26 exceptional students with opportunities to design and implement projects to improve the health and well-being of underserved Chicago communities. The projects often address the social determinants of health, and their activities frequently include tutoring, violence prevention, health education, healthy lifestyle promotion, and outreach to vulnerable and marginalized groups.
Lewis’ project, “Rays of Hope,” seeks to combat youth suicide by fostering community, connection, and mental health awareness through structured educational sessions, which include skill-building activities and informal social events. The materials ensure that middle and high school students are provided the tools and support needed to recognize warning signs and promote emotional well-being. The project is named for Lewis’ older brother, Ray, who died from suicide.
Suicide is the 11th leading cause of death in the United States, according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP). In 2023, 49,316 Americans died by suicide, and 1.5 million suicide attempts were made that year.
Watching Ray struggle, Lewis, at the age of 16, was determined to devote her life to a career in the mental health field. For the past 10 years, she has volunteered with the AFSP, an organization founded in 1987 that advocates for research and education around suicide. As a student at Indiana University, where she received a bachelor’s degree in human development and family studies, Lewis volunteered at the AFSP, eventually being named chair of the group’s charity walk in Bloomington, Ind., from 2019 to 2024.
Following her graduation from Indiana in 2021, Lewis began working as an entry-level social worker in a rural Indiana middle school. She enjoyed teaching coping skills to students and the supportive conversations that came from her counsel, but she felt the selection process for the students she was required to mentor was too selective. She wanted to bring the skills to the general school population.
Lewis sought students’ input in developing the program. One theme arose from many of the kids: They didn’t want it to feel like a school course. The goal, Lewis said, is to provide a safe space for the students to socialize with one another by employing a combination of therapeutic games and lessons she adapted from Teen Thrive, a company that creates books that make learning life skills fun and accessible for teens, tweens, and their caregivers, and Seize the Awkward through AFSP.
After three years with the middle school students, Lewis knew it was time to move on to pursue an advanced degree. She knew she wanted to call Chicago her new home, but she was uncertain which school she wanted to enroll in. After conducting extensive research on social work programs, she opted to complete her studies at the JACSW.
“Jane Addams has a highly rated school social work program, and my goal is to work as a school social worker following my graduation in spring 2026,” said Lewis, who has initiated the Rays of Hope program during students’ lunch hour at Chicago’s Crane Medical Prep High School.
“Stefani Scott (JACSW adjunct instructor) has been a great mentor, and what kick started my idea was an assignment I had in my generalist year policy class. We were instructed to write a letter to an elected official with an idea we developed to improve a policy that was important to us. Through this assignment my idea for a school-based suicide prevention and teaching mental health skills group was born. I’m excited about the program, and that I will eventually be able to help kids as a licensed social worker.”