Anjani Sharma: West Shore teen named 'Emerging Visionary' for mental health organization

Anjani Sharma has a big heart and dreams of making the world a better place for young people.

The 17-year-old senior at West Shore Jr./Sr. High School runs a youth-led nonprofit — Minds Without B0rders — with a focus on destigmatizing mental health. She advocates for LGBTQ rights and gun law reformation. Here in Brevard, she's served as the chairwoman for the High School Democrats Asian American Caucus. Earlier this month, she helped organize a rally to protest book bans at Brevard Public Schools as more and more books are being pulled from district libraries.

And her efforts haven't gone unnoticed. Earlier this month, Anjani was named a 2024 Prudential Emerging Visionary for her work as founder and executive director of Minds Without B0rders.

As one of 25 winners nationwide, she will receive a $5,000 award to go toward the nonprofit from Prudential Financial, as well as an all-expenses-paid trip for a three-day coaching summit in April with Prudential employees.

What drives her? The communities she's impacted, she said.

"I've always just cared about these issues," she said. "Some of these issues don't even directly impact me as a person, but I've still seen that caring about these issues impacts other people around me."

Minds Without B0rders: From blog to international organization

Anjani's organization, Minds without B0rders — spelled with a zero in its name, to symbolize no students left behind without mental health resources — started as a blog. Now it has more than 2,500 members spread throughout the United States and 18 other countries.

"I never imagined that this would be something that's more than just me," Anjani said.

The idea for Minds Without B0rders first began to germinate in 2019, when Anjani traveled to India, where her family is from. There, her cousin told her about a friend who died by suicide. It was a topic that was heavily stigmatized, she said.

That idea only grew in 2020, as she watched her peers take to social media to discuss their mental health through the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and remote classwork.

"When people talk about their struggles, it's looked (at) a little different than when people talk about their physical health struggles, which shouldn't be the case," Anjani said. "I think that there hasn't been enough focus on that, with so many of the struggles that we face today with (the) ever-changing political landscapes, with school, with all of these kind of weights we have to take on."

Anjani's goal has been to create a shift — to encourage students to speak freely about their mental health like they might with their physical health.

It's an effort she undertook first with students around Florida, then around the country.

Since the formation of the organization, group members have spoken at school board meetings, city council meetings, raised funds for awareness events and mental health research, hosted panels with mental health professionals and provided mentorship to students.

This year, they traveled to the capitals in Florida and Alabama to speak to legislators about mental health, and to provide perspectives on certain bills.

Anjani spoke in Tallahassee about HB 1 — filed by Rep. Tyler Sirois, R-Merritt Island — which would prohibit the use of social media for those under 16. While Sirois said he was concerned that social media was contributing to bullying and mental health issues, Anjani discussed how her organization uses social media to spread awareness and connect with youth.

"We as an organization, we recognize that link," she said, referring to Sirois' concerns. "But also, we wanted to make sure that our voices ... are heard when it comes to mental health and how (the bill) wouldn't be the best thing because we were able to create a community of mental health advocates and (give) resources, and it was only through social media."

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Other activism

Outside of Minds Without B0rders, Anjani has most recently been involved with Brevard Students for Change, a chapter of Youth Action Fund, a Sunshine-state-based youth activism organization. Earlier this month, Anjani — who is a campaign advisor for the group — helped organize a rally against book bans at Brevard Public Schools ahead of the Feb. 6 board meeting.

The group works to mobilize students to hold school board members accountable and make their voices heard about education rights, she said.

"Our goal is to kind of provide support for students to have actions against far right influence in schools," she said.

More broadly, she's also working with Youth Action Fund to speak up on legislation that impacts LGBTQ youth and other marginalized groups. And they're currently planning a statewide rally against more lax gun laws in part with March for Our Lives, an anti-gun violence student-led organization that formed in response to the Parkland shooting.

She's also involved with the Brevard Democratic Party and was previously the chairwoman for the High School Democrats Asian American Caucus, where she helped campaign for Asian American candidates and policies that benefited Asian Americans.

Pam Castellana, chair of Brevard Democrats, met Anjani through the League of Women Voters. Castellana sees her as a "powerful example of what this next generation is capable of."

"Her brilliance is only matched by her compassion and her drive to elevate others," Castellana said. "I'm excited to see the impact she will continue to make on the world."

Though Anjani's involvement with multiple causes has been meaningful to her, it has cost her support in some areas, she said.

"Recently, with all the academic censorship stuff that I've been doing, I've noticed that some people aren't being that supportive of the mental health activism," Anjani said. "It's sad that we live in a world where students have to do so much activism just for our elected officials to understand us."

Future plans

Anjani will graduate from West Shore this spring. She's not sure where she'll attend university yet, but she knows she wants to do something in public policy. It's likely she'll get a double major in public policy and psychology or political science, she said.

Though she won't be in Brevard, she'll continue the work of Minds Without B0rders and even work to expand it as she and many of the members of her executive board navigate college.

"The acclimation to college is a big mental health stressor," she said. "This is going to continue, because this is something that should continue, so I really want to continue this as long as I can."

Finch Walker is the education reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Walker at 321-290-4744 or fwalker@floridatoday.com. X: @_finchwalker

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Brevard teen honored for focus on mental health resources for students