Mental health challenges among young people are on the rise, whether it be increased challenges in the classroom or at home. But for many school districts, there might be just one mental health counselor for all their schools, forcing children to wait for crucial services.

"It's surreal. Honestly, I feel like my dream has always been to be a help to people," said Emily Friends, a masters student at Binghamton University.

It’s a job Friends doesn’t take lightly: As a social work intern at Windsor High School, the BU student is part of a program dedicated to giving school districts extra help when it comes to dealing with students’ mental health.

She’s just one of many BU students taking part in the “Community Schools” program which brings social work majors into more than 40 schools throughout Broome County.

"I think that especially in a rural district where transportation could be a big issue for actually a lot of students here and their families, I think it's super important that we are having people in the school to be that support for them and so they don't have to travel anywhere,” said Friends.

The Community Schools program has been around for decades, but it’s potentially never seen the support it’s receiving this year.

A federal grant is providing Binghamton with more than $9 million to grow the program even further, bringing more college students into schools, and helping the growing population of K-12 students seeking mental health support.

In some school districts, there might be just one trained social worker for all of the schools.

“There's increasing social challenges and certainly COVID really exacerbated for for young people, their social isolation and their anxiety and the uncertainties. None of us knew, you know, three years ago is this going to be, you know, a minute, a week, a month? And it turned out to be a lot longer than we had thought," said Laura Bronstein, founding director of Binghamton University Community Schools.

For students in the program, not only is it a great chance to get real world experience, it’s also often a reassurance of their life’s work.

"Even when we don't get to see our achievements from our students here, you can still see that like in their academic or in their relationships with other people, we might not be able to see them like cross the finish line or like hit this huge goal. But every day there's something that they accomplish that we can clap for,” said Friends.

The college interns are in more than a dozen districts across Broome and Tioga counties and will expand into even more schools soon.