About, Project:IGYB

📍 River Hill High School · Clarksville, MD Our Story

Where Project:IGYB began

Project:IGYB was founded at River Hill High School in Clarksville, Maryland Howard County by a group of students who believed peer-led conversation could meet a real, urgent need in their community. From day one the model was simple: confidential, informal, student-to-student.

From that first cohort, the organization has grown across seven counties in Maryland and Virginia, and was registered with the United Nations ECOSOC as a Youth Civil Society Organization, but the heart of the work stays in school hallways, classrooms, and the conversations that quietly change lives.

River Hill High School · Clarksville, MD, where it began

Our Founder

Shrihaan Chaudhary

Founder & President

"One of my deepest convictions is that human interaction makes all the difference."

Shrihaan founded Project:IGYB at his high school after seeing how stigma could keep his classmates from reaching out for support. He helped shape the peer-led model confidential, informal, student-to-student that the organization is built on today.

The program now spans seven counties across Maryland and Virginia and is a registered UN ECOSOC Youth Civil Society Organization. Shrihaan has represented Project:IGYB at the IMF and World Bank Annual Meetings, but his focus stays where it started: on the next student who needs someone to listen.

What we do

💬

Anonymous Peer Sessions

One-on-one conversations with a trained student counselor. You can stay completely anonymous, no real name required.

🎓

Counselor Training Pipeline

A multi-week training program in active listening, crisis identification, ethics, and warm hand-offs to professional resources when needed.

🏫

School & Community Outreach

Workshops, awareness drives, and chapter-launches that bring the IGYB model to new schools and neighborhoods.

🌐

Youth Advocacy

Representing the voices of students on national and international stages, from county boards to the United Nations.

📱

Digital Health Solutions

We are building a mobile platform that pairs a trained mental-health chatbot with live peer counselor support, designed to meet students where they already are. See the product preview →

🌍

International Expansion

Phase one chapters in India (Haryana, Delhi, Punjab) and Canada (Ontario), built alongside local schools, clinicians, and student leaders. Explore the global plan →

Reach

Our reach

80+

Trained Peer Counselors

600+

Students Supported

3,000+

Students Reached via Campaigns

500+

Forum Participants

Counties Served

States Active

Howard, MD Montgomery, MD Prince George's, MD Anne Arundel, MD Queen Anne's, MD Fairfax, VA Loudoun, VA

Where we serve

Maryland & Virginia

From Howard County in Maryland where Project:IGYB began to neighboring communities across the DMV region. The counties below mark where our peer counselors are actively listening, training, and showing up for students.

Want to bring IGYB to your county? Start a chapter →

Map showing Maryland within the United States — 5 counties served

Map showing Virginia within the United States — 2 counties served

Beyond Counseling

Programs that build a stigma-free generation

📣

Break the Stigma Campaign

Our flagship awareness initiative has reached 3,000+ students through workshops, social media outreach, and interactive educational drives. We give students the language and the permission to ask for help.

🎤

Public Forums & Panels

500+ students, mental-health professionals, educators, and community members have gathered at our forums on stress, anxiety, social media's impact, and coping with adolescent pressure.

🤝

Partnerships

We partner with NAMI, Active Minds, school counselors, psychologists, and community health organizations, co-hosting events and sharing resources that amplify our shared mission.

Partner: National Alliance on Mental Illness

💻

Online Access

This site is our digital hub: articles, video resources, peer-counselor contact, and monthly Zoom discussions that let students from any region connect, share, and feel less alone.

🌿

Counselor Wellness Circle

Sitting with other people's pain is heavy. Every Project:IGYB counselor has access to peer debriefs, supervision, and rest protocols so we protect the helpers as carefully as we protect the people they help.

📚

Open Training Curriculum

Our active-listening, ethics, and crisis-recognition curriculum is being prepared as a public resource so that any school or youth group can adapt it freely, without paywalls or licensing friction.

Recognition

Recognized and represented

UN ECOSOC Youth CSO

Registered Civil Society Organization

IMF Annual Meetings

Youth Delegation

World Bank Group

Annual Meetings Delegation

L2S Mary Louther Prize

Finalist, Letters to Strangers Changemaker Scholarship

State of Maryland

5 Counties: Howard, Montgomery, Prince George's, Anne Arundel, Queen Anne's

Commonwealth of Virginia

Active Across Fairfax & Loudoun

About Project:IGYB