The Alan Hu Foundation was created in honor of Alan Hu by his parents after the gifted youngster lost his battle with depression and died by suicide. Only 15 when he died, Hu had planned to become a psychiatrist. Now the foundation named after him works to promote mental health, raise awareness of mental illnesses, and remove the stigma surrounding psychiatric disorders. It also supports fundamental research for cures.

The nonprofit’s efforts include a scholarship program, a public online lecture series, and an annual fundraising concert, Bridge Over Troubled Water, which supports the scholarships. In May, board members will attend senior awards ceremonies to present Alan Hu Foundation Scholarships to outstanding scholars from Amador Valley and Foothill High Schools, Dublin High School, Granada High School, Livermore High School, and Valley Alternative High School/Las Positas Middle College program. The nonprofit awards scholarships to qualified applicants who plan to study psychology, psychiatry, neuroscience, pharmacology, nursing, medicine, teaching, and school counseling or who plan to pursue careers as first responders, such as emergency medical technician, police officer, or firefighter.

“Receiving the Alan Hu scholarship not only provided crucial financial support but also instilled a profound belief in my capabilities and potential,” according to one 2022 recipient of an Alan Hu Foundation Scholarship. “This gesture of confidence from the foundation was a pivotal moment, fueling my ambition and fortifying my resolve to excel academically and personally at UC Berkeley.” The former foster youth is graduating from Las Positas College this year and has been accepted by UC Berkeley to study psychology and neuroscience.

“We remain dedicated to our mission and continually strive to raise awareness and remove stigma surrounding mental disorders,” according to Hu’s mother, Xiaofang Chen, MS, MAT, who is Co-founder and President of the foundation. “The work of the Alan Hu Foundation is done by volunteer board members. Our goal is to make mental health knowledge common knowledge. We depend upon the generosity of individual and corporate donors to fulfill our mission to provide the Alan Hu Foundation Mental Health Lecture Series of webinars free to the community, and to fund the Alan Hu Foundation Scholarship program. We want to partner with businesses to provide mental health education and programs to support employees, their families, and the community at large.”

The nonprofit received grants from Three Valleys Community Foundation and Tri-Valley Nonprofit Alliance to expand the Alan Hu Foundation Mental Health Lecture Series by offering eight webinars in 2024-2025. The webinars are essentially online lectures given by subject experts in a variety of areas related to mental health. Dr. Manpreet Singh, a psychiatrist now at UC Davis, inaugurated the series in October 2019 with “Pediatric Mood Disorders: Building on the Science of Resilience” at Las Positas College in Livermore. More recently, Dr. Anna Lembke, Professor of Psychiatry at Stanford University School of Medicine and Chief of the Stanford Addiction Medicine Dual Diagnosis Clinic, presented “Dopamine Fasting: A Neuroscience Informed Approach to Compulsive Overconsumption in a Digital Age.” Other lectures have addressed depression, suicide prevention, and much more. Critically, the public can view recordings of the lectures long after they have taken place. This year, the nonprofit gave Alan Hu Foundation Scholarships to promising high school seniors from Dublin and Livermore school districts as well as Pleasanton. Scholarships ranging from $1,000 to $100 were awarded to 23 students. The foundation’s next goal is to further grow its Mental Health Lecture Series and scholarship program.

“We plan to reach more people through our Mental Health Lecture Series, and support more high school seniors who plan to study in the mental health field,” says Chen. “We also dream of having our annual concert at a theater. The talented artists who perform are so amazing that they need a bigger space and audience. We welcome and appreciate corporate and individual donations to reach our goals.”

For more information about the Alan Hu Foundation, please visit www.alanhufoundation.org, www.youtube.com/channel/UCp97f-ws0N7bjluKY-XeUwg, or www.facebook.com/Alan-Hu-Foundation-107420560674183.