Mantra Health Launches Beacon, the Persistence Intelligence Platform for Higher Education
- Heather Harman
- Jan 13
- 4 min read
New York, New York – January 13, 2025 – Mantra Health, the digital mental health provider built exclusively to support student well-being and success across higher education, today announced the launch of Beacon, the first early alert and intelligence platform designed to improve student mental health, well-being, persistence, and success, which ultimately contributes to institutional retention efforts. The Jed Foundation (JED)*, a leading nonprofit that protects emotional health and prevents suicide for our nation’s teens and young adults, will strategically advise on the implementation of Beacon.
Developed after 18 months of research and application, the persistence intelligence platform gives higher education institutions the clarity needed to proactively identify students at risk of dropout and make more strategic, data-informed investments in long-term retention initiatives across different populations. Named after the unwavering light guiding weary travelers to shore, Beacon offers a clear, steady path to support and care for students facing complex challenges and gives institutions the insights needed to make strategic investments.
The platform includes a semi-annual student well-being assessment administered to cohorts of students pre-determined by the participating institution, such as first-year students, graduate students, or the entire student body. Unlike traditional screening solutions that can take several months to return actionable insights, Beacon combines data from holistic student wellness assessments with institutional data to provide university leadership and staff with a dynamic, real-time view of student needs at the individual level and across populations.
“To make a significant impact on college student mental health, we encourage institutions to strategically transition from a reactive safety net to a more comprehensive and proactive system of preventative support,” said Dr. Tony Walker, Senior Vice President of School Programs and Consulting at JED. “Early detection and connection to resources like screening tools are critical to promote emotional and mental health and prevent suicide among young people.”
JED brings significant experience to its strategic advisory role on Beacon’s implementation, including 25 years of work with over 550 colleges, 150 high schools, and 28 school districts representing over 670 schools. Through JED’s proven technical-assistance programs and evidence-informed strategies, more than seven million students nationwide have been reached.
“Building an infrastructure for actionable risk identification is extremely challenging and very few institutions have the resources to build the real-time tools needed to make data-informed decisions. Beacon provides the opportunity to act proactively,” says Matt Kennedy, CEO and Co-founder of Mantra Health. “Once implemented, it will help institutions reach a far greater percentage of their student body, retain students at risk of stopping out, make more targeted institutional changes to improve student well-being, and create more efficient ways of connecting students to personalized care.”
While the launch of Beacon is a robust early alert and intelligence platform today, it signals the next phase of Mantra Health’s vision for advancing student well-being and persistence. Mantra Health will continue to expand Beacon’s predictive analytics and AI capabilities to help institutions move beyond identification to automated intervention modeling. By leveraging AI to synthesize students’ needs with institutional resources, the platform will help leaders forecast which interventions will yield the highest measurable impact on student well-being and retention.
Beacon has already shown significant potential to drive meaningful change. An October 2025 launch at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), for instance, which focused on first-time, full-year students, achieved a nearly 39% completion rate and surfaced a critical group of students at higher risk of dropout. This led NJIT to make strategic decisions, including launching a six-part workshop series for around their high-risk areas, as well as conducting personalized outreach to students at risk of stopping out.
“With Beacon, the institution demonstrates care by directly giving students the opportunity to express where they have concerns with persistence and success. Beacon also provides assurance that students who report concerns impacting their ability to persist are, at bare minimum, receiving personalized resources,” said Sean Dowd, MSW, Senior Associate Dean of Students at NJIT.
For institutions across the country, Beacon brings a new paradigm in supporting their student’s well-being proactively rather than reactively. This ultimately increases their student body’s persistence through to graduation and retains much-needed tuition revenue.
Learn more about Beacon and the success of the pilot program with New Jersey Institute of Technology in our latest case study here.
For more media inquiries about Beacon, contact Molly Duffy at m.duffy@mantrahealth.com.
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 a myriad of 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 have 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.
About The Jed Foundation (JED)
JED is a nonprofit that protects emotional health and prevents suicide for our nation’s teens and young adults. We’re partnering with high schools, colleges, school districts, and youth-serving community-based organizations to strengthen their mental health, substance misuse, and suicide prevention programs and systems. We’re equipping teens and young adults with the skills and knowledge to help themselves and each other. We’re encouraging community awareness, understanding, and action for young adult mental health. Visit jedfoundation.org.
*Important note: JED does not formally endorse any specific commercial products or services
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