Latest news with #LaurenBlackburn
Yahoo
03-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Princeton student found dead in lake fought ‘courageous battle' with bipolar disorder: obituary
The Princeton University junior found dead last week in a lake near the Ivy League campus suffered from bipolar disorder, according to his obituary. Lauren Blackburn's cause of death hasn't been determined yet, a spokesperson for the medical examiner's office told The Post. His obituary said that he died 'after a courageous battle with bipolar disorder.' Blackburn, 23, was found in Lake Carnegie on April 25, five days after he was reported missing. He was last seen near the college's Firestone Library at around 6 p.m. on April 19. Officials pinged his phone in the area of the man-made reservoir on April 22, prompting a search in the water. Lake Carnegie sits just south of campus — near the university's athletic complex — but about a mile from the library where Blackburn was last seen. A National Merit scholar and Gates Scholarship recipient, Blackburn was majoring in English and was set to graduate in 2026. The Corydon, Indiana native was described in his obituary as a 'compassionate, thoughtful, and playful' learner who loved 'Wuthering Heights' as well as the works of Virginia Woolf. Between 2020 and 2021, he served the California Santa Rosa mission of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 'He enjoyed K-pop and cheering for the Celtics, Chiefs, and [Tottenham] Hotspurs,' read his obituary. Blackburn spent last summer in South Korea, learning more about his Korean roots. A memorial service for Blackburn has been set for May 4 at 5 p.m. inside the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Corydon. Blackburn's parents have asked that any gifts in their son's name be made to the International Bipolar Foundation.
New York Post
03-05-2025
- New York Post
Princeton student found dead in lake was diagnosed with bipolar disorder
The Princeton University junior found dead last week in a lake near the Ivy League campus suffered from bipolar disorder, according to his obituary. Lauren Blackburn's cause of death hasn't been determined yet, a spokesperson for the medical examiner's office told The Post. His obituary said that he died 'after a courageous battle with bipolar disorder.' 3 Lauren Blackburn will be memorialized May 4. The Mather-Hodge Funeral Home Blackburn, 23, was found in Lake Carnegie on April 25, five days after he was reported missing. He was last seen near the college's Firestone Library at around 6 p.m. on April 19. Officials pinged his phone in the area of the man-made reservoir on April 22, prompting a search in the water. 3 Blackburn was set to graduate in the spring of 2026. NBC Philadelphia. Lake Carnegie sits just south of campus — near the university's athletic complex — but about a mile from the library where Blackburn was last seen. A National Merit scholar and Gates Scholarship recipient, Blackburn was majoring in English and was set to graduate in 2026. The Corydon, Indiana native was described in his obituary as a 'compassionate, thoughtful, and playful' learner who loved 'Wuthering Heights' as well as the works of Virginia Woolf. 3 Police found Blackburn's body during a search of the lake. NBC Philadelphia. Between 2020 and 2021, he served the California Santa Rosa mission of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 'He enjoyed K-pop and cheering for the Celtics, Chiefs, and [Tottenham] Hotspurs,' read his obituary. Blackburn spent last summer in South Korea, learning more about his Korean roots. A memorial service for Blackburn has been set for May 4 at 5 p.m. inside the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Corydon. Blackburn's parents have asked that any gifts in their son's name be made to the International Bipolar Foundation.
Yahoo
02-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Ivy League suicides, Princeton's 8th student death in 4 years expose crisis at elite schools
This story discusses suicide. If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, please contact the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-TALK (8255). The recent death of a Princeton University undergraduate student, just weeks away from completing his junior year, has prompted renewed conversation about how Ivy League schools handle mental health crises on campus. Lauren Blackburn, 23, was an English major and creative writing minor from Indiana. He was missing for several days before authorities found him deceased in a lake. Officials have not released his cause of death or said if there was any foul play involved. Blackburn was the third Princeton undergraduate student to die in two years and the eighth since 2021. Six of those deaths were determined to be suicides, as The Princetonian first reported. Princeton Professor Yiyun Li, who directs the university's creative writing program, lost both of her sons to suicide, one of whom, James Li, was a Princeton student when he died in 2024. Ivy League Schools Received $6.4B In Federal Funding In 2024 Read On The Fox News App "What can parents do but give their children the space to be, and allow them to do what they need so that they can become more fully themselves?" Yiyun Li wrote in a New Yorker essay titled "The Deaths — And Lives — of Two Sons" published on March 23. "And yet, despite the parents' efforts, and despite all the beings and doings that occur as the children grow, some among them die before their time. Children die, and they are not happy. And their parents can never know whether those children died because they were not happy, or whether they were not happy because they sensed, too early, that they must face their own deaths." While mental health crises and suicides are not unique to Princeton, or Ivy League schools generally, experts say Ivy League students face distinct challenges and pressures while attending the country's most prestigious schools. Experts also say Ivy League institutions should be dedicating more funds to mental health resources than they do currently. "I think it comes down to the demands, and I would say almost 100% of the time, the Ivy League schools have really high rigorous demands," Ivy Ellis, certified mental health therapist and Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) who regularly works with college students, told Fox News Digital. "Whereas at other universities, the demands can be lower in terms of just how much schoolwork is asked, like how many classes they have to take, how much homework they have, how many tests they have." Ellis added her belief that while Ivy League schools do "care" about their students, "There's limited funding and limited resources that go towards mental health." "So almost all the universities and Ivy League schools have counseling centers in place, and I know they're excellent, excellent counselors," she said. "They work really hard. There's just such a high number of students that need that support, and the number of counselors just doesn't really meet that level of support." New Report Sounds Alarm On 'Staggering' Amount Of Foreign Money Pouring Into Us Universities Dr. Victoria Grinman, a psychotherapist and owner of a private practice called Growing Kind Minds who also works with college students, told Fox News Digital that "colleges across the board are seeing mental health crises, unfortunate things happening and people struggling." "So I don't think that it's necessarily just about Ivy League institutions. But we also have to be aware that when … a teen is entering into an Ivy League institution, there are some expectations and standards that differ. And with those standards comes a lot of self-expectations," she said. None of the eight traditional Ivy League schools — Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Brown, Dartmouth, Cornell, the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia — responded to Fox News Digital's request for student death data between 2020 and the present, or what resources they offer students experiencing mental health crises. At Dartmouth University, two students were found dead in the Connecticut River last year; one of those student's deaths has been attributed to a hazing incident. The university also saw four student deaths in 2021. Following the two 2024 deaths of students, both of whom were Asian, now-graduates Daniel Lin and Deborah Jang penned an op-ed for The Dartmouth criticizing the school's response to the two tragedies as racist. "A symptom of this invisible racism is that we ourselves become invisible — to others and to ourselves," they wrote. "...There was no lasting public discussion on the racialization of the two deaths. It's not lost on us that two Asian students died in three months. The College could have named this; they could have made an effort to reach out to the Asian community. This reality leaves me feeling like these conversations can only happen behind closed doors, mostly among Asian students." Jewish College Students Say They're Scared To Go To Class, Blame Universities For Silence On Antisemitism The authors added that "Dartmouth does not have even the bare minimum support for Asian students." Last year, two Cornell University students were found on the same day in the Fall Creek Gorge, one of whom died while the other was hospitalized. The university saw a string of suicides around 2010, and one victim's father sued Cornell for negligence by not implementing appropriate suicide prevention measures related to the numerous bridges in the Ithaca, New York, area. He accepted a $100,000 settlement from the city in 2014, according to The Ithaca Journal. "These bridges and adjacent cliffs have developed an iconic status for suicide due to multiple jumping suicides among enrolled Cornell students and other individuals," a summary of a 2024 case study reads. "Cornell University and the City of Ithaca have a unique challenge where multiple bridges and gorges collectively had become a 'hotspot' for suicide." Jewish Harvard Students Speak Out After University Sues Trump Admin Over Funding Freeze Yale recently faced a lawsuit following the 2021 suicide of first-year student Rachael Shaw-Rosenbaum accusing the university of discriminating against students with disabilities because it required students on mental health leaves to withdraw from Yale and reapply, according to The New York Times. Yale has since changed its policies. Back in 2017, Columbia University saw a string of seven suicides between September and January of that year, as The New York Post reported at the time. Harvard President Says He Has 'No Choice' But To Fight Trump Administration Grinman noted that the college experience has changed drastically in recent years, "especially with social media and just what it's become." "It's a place where people are actually launching into the next phase of development," Grinman said. "Everybody, even if they don't know what they want to do in college, they want to go to college because they want to have the college experience. It's where kids are starting their lives, right? They're learning how to live on their own, how to be in social groups, how to do things on their own. So it's a very, very sensitive time," she said. Brown University Student Who Angered Non-faculty Employees For Doge-like Emails Faces Punishment From School Students who may have been "big fish in a small pond" in high school may find that's not the case at a prestigious institution, "and there is some angst around comparison," she explained. Ellis suggested more colleges and universities should offer "early intervention" resources, targeting mental health concerns before they develop into self-harm or suicidal ideation. "If the universities could help facilitate these dialogues and make it less of a taboo to have mental health struggles, and then even maybe some systems in place for screening so that they're able to help these students earlier on so it doesn't get so intense that the students are just failing out of school or even engaging in really harmful behaviors," she said. The eight Ivy League schools received a total of $6.4 billion in federal funding in 2024. Financial statements from Columbia University show that it received $1.3 billion in federal funding; the University of Pennsylvania received $1.8 billion and Yale University received $898.7 million during 2024. Not far behind were Cornell University, receiving $825.5 million in fiscal year 2024, and Harvard University, which received $686.5 million. Princeton University took in $455 million, Brown University reported "more than $254 million" and, according to USA Spending, Dartmouth received $141.9 million in 2024. The funds that universities receive from the federal government are often in the form of grants and used for research and development, facility and administrative costs and student aid. The Trump administration has frozen billions in federal funding to colleges and universities that do not comply with the president's executive orders to protect Jewish students from hate and dismantle DEI policies. The White House did not respond to a request for comment. Each of the eight total Ivy League schools have mental health resources ranging from counseling hotlines and centers to student-run support groups. Suicide continues to be a leading cause of death within the United States, with 49,000 people dying by suicide in 2023, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Suicide rates increased 37% between 2000-2018 and decreased 5% between 2018-2020 before returning to their peak in 2022, according to the agency. "I think one of the most important things is thinking about going back to the basics of, hey, if you know that Billy down the hall lives alone in an individual room and you haven't seen him in a day or two, he hasn't attended Psych 101 with you … knock on his door, ask, how are you? Can I get you something? Just going back to the basics of loving your neighbor," Grinman said. Fox News Digital's Rachel del Guidice and Jacqliene Mangini contributed to this article source: Ivy League suicides, Princeton's 8th student death in 4 years expose crisis at elite schools
Fox News
02-05-2025
- Health
- Fox News
Ivy League suicides, Princeton's 8th student death in 4 years expose crisis at elite schools
This story discusses suicide. If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, please contact the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-TALK (8255). The recent death of a Princeton University undergraduate student, just weeks away from completing his junior year, has prompted renewed conversation about how Ivy League schools handle mental health crises on campus. Lauren Blackburn, 23, was an English major and creative writing minor from Indiana. He was missing for several days before authorities found him deceased in a lake. Officials have not released his cause of death or said if there was any foul play involved. Blackburn was the third Princeton undergraduate student to die in two years and the eighth since 2021. Six of those deaths were determined to be suicides, as The Princetonian first reported. Princeton Professor Yiyun Li, who directs the university's creative writing program, lost both of her sons to suicide, one of whom, James Li, was a Princeton student when he died in 2024. "What can parents do but give their children the space to be, and allow them to do what they need so that they can become more fully themselves?" Yiyun Li wrote in a New Yorker essay titled "The Deaths — And Lives — of Two Sons" published on March 23. "And yet, despite the parents' efforts, and despite all the beings and doings that occur as the children grow, some among them die before their time. Children die, and they are not happy. And their parents can never know whether those children died because they were not happy, or whether they were not happy because they sensed, too early, that they must face their own deaths." While mental health crises and suicides are not unique to Princeton, or Ivy League schools generally, experts say Ivy League students face distinct challenges and pressures while attending the country's most prestigious schools. Experts also say Ivy League institutions should be dedicating more funds to mental health resources than they do currently. "I think it comes down to the demands, and I would say almost 100% of the time, the Ivy League schools have really high rigorous demands," Ivy Ellis, certified mental health therapist and Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) who regularly works with college students, told Fox News Digital. "Whereas at other universities, the demands can be lower in terms of just how much schoolwork is asked, like how many classes they have to take, how much homework they have, how many tests they have." Ellis added her belief that while Ivy League schools do "care" about their students, "There's limited funding and limited resources that go towards mental health." "There's limited funding and limited resources that go towards mental health." "So almost all the universities and Ivy League schools have counseling centers in place, and I know they're excellent, excellent counselors," she said. "They work really hard. There's just such a high number of students that need that support, and the number of counselors just doesn't really meet that level of support." Dr. Victoria Grinman, a psychotherapist and owner of a private practice called Growing Kind Minds who also works with college students, told Fox News Digital that "colleges across the board are seeing mental health crises, unfortunate things happening and people struggling." "So I don't think that it's necessarily just about Ivy League institutions. But we also have to be aware that when … a teen is entering into an Ivy League institution, there are some expectations and standards that differ. And with those standards comes a lot of self-expectations," she said. "[W]hen … a teen is entering into an Ivy League institution, there are some expectations and standards that differ." None of the eight traditional Ivy League schools — Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Brown, Dartmouth, Cornell, the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia — responded to Fox News Digital's request for student death data between 2020 and the present, or what resources they offer students experiencing mental health crises. At Dartmouth University, two students were found dead in the Connecticut River last year; one of those student's deaths has been attributed to a hazing incident. The university also saw four student deaths in 2021. Following the two 2024 deaths of students, both of whom were Asian, now-graduates Daniel Lin and Deborah Jang penned an op-ed for The Dartmouth criticizing the school's response to the two tragedies as racist. "A symptom of this invisible racism is that we ourselves become invisible — to others and to ourselves," they wrote. "...There was no lasting public discussion on the racialization of the two deaths. It's not lost on us that two Asian students died in three months. The College could have named this; they could have made an effort to reach out to the Asian community. This reality leaves me feeling like these conversations can only happen behind closed doors, mostly among Asian students." The authors added that "Dartmouth does not have even the bare minimum support for Asian students." Last year, two Cornell University students were found on the same day in the Fall Creek Gorge, one of whom died while the other was hospitalized. The university saw a string of suicides around 2010, and one victim's father sued Cornell for negligence by not implementing appropriate suicide prevention measures related to the numerous bridges in the Ithaca, New York, area. He accepted a $100,000 settlement from the city in 2014, according to The Ithaca Journal. "These bridges and adjacent cliffs have developed an iconic status for suicide due to multiple jumping suicides among enrolled Cornell students and other individuals," a summary of a 2024 case study reads. "Cornell University and the City of Ithaca have a unique challenge where multiple bridges and gorges collectively had become a 'hotspot' for suicide." Yale recently faced a lawsuit following the 2021 suicide of first-year student Rachael Shaw-Rosenbaum accusing the university of discriminating against students with disabilities because it required students on mental health leaves to withdraw from Yale and reapply, according to The New York Times. Yale has since changed its policies. Back in 2017, Columbia University saw a string of seven suicides between September and January of that year, as The New York Post reported at the time. Grinman noted that the college experience has changed drastically in recent years, "especially with social media and just what it's become." "It's a place where people are actually launching into the next phase of development," Grinman said. "Everybody, even if they don't know what they want to do in college, they want to go to college because they want to have the college experience. It's where kids are starting their lives, right? They're learning how to live on their own, how to be in social groups, how to do things on their own. So it's a very, very sensitive time," she said. Students who may have been "big fish in a small pond" in high school may find that's not the case at a prestigious institution, "and there is some angst around comparison," she explained. Ellis suggested more colleges and universities should offer "early intervention" resources, targeting mental health concerns before they develop into self-harm or suicidal ideation. "If the universities could help facilitate these dialogues and make it less of a taboo to have mental health struggles, and then even maybe some systems in place for screening so that they're able to help these students earlier on so it doesn't get so intense that the students are just failing out of school or even engaging in really harmful behaviors," she said. The eight Ivy League schools received a total of $6.4 billion in federal funding in 2024. Financial statements from Columbia University show that it received $1.3 billion in federal funding; the University of Pennsylvania received $1.8 billion and Yale University received $898.7 million during 2024. Not far behind were Cornell University, receiving $825.5 million in fiscal year 2024, and Harvard University, which received $686.5 million. Princeton University took in $455 million, Brown University reported "more than $254 million" and, according to USA Spending, Dartmouth received $141.9 million in 2024. The funds that universities receive from the federal government are often in the form of grants and used for research and development, facility and administrative costs and student aid. The Trump administration has frozen billions in federal funding to colleges and universities that do not comply with the president's executive orders to protect Jewish students from hate and dismantle DEI policies. The White House did not respond to a request for comment. Each of the eight total Ivy League schools have mental health resources ranging from counseling hotlines and centers to student-run support groups. Suicide continues to be a leading cause of death within the United States, with 49,000 people dying by suicide in 2023, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Suicide rates increased 37% between 2000-2018 and decreased 5% between 2018-2020 before returning to their peak in 2022, according to the agency. "I think one of the most important things is thinking about going back to the basics of, hey, if you know that Billy down the hall lives alone in an individual room and you haven't seen him in a day or two, he hasn't attended Psych 101 with you … knock on his door, ask, how are you? Can I get you something? Just going back to the basics of loving your neighbor," Grinman said.
Daily Mail
27-04-2025
- Daily Mail
Body of missing Princeton student found in lake just a few miles from campus
The body of a missing university student has been found in a lake just a few miles from where he was last seen. Lauren Blackburn, 23, vanished from the Princeton campus nearly a week ago, setting off an extensive six-day search effort. On Friday morning authorities announced his body had been found at Lake Carnegie. Lauren, a junior from Indiana, was last seen at Princeton's main library, Firestone Library, around 6pm last Saturday before he seemingly disappeared. 'I am deeply saddened to share with you that the body of Lauren Blackburn was found at Lake Carnegie this morning,' Regan Crotty, the university's dean of undergraduate students, said in a statement. 'It is during these difficult times that we must draw strength and support from one another and from those in our community who are available to us for counsel and care.' On April 19, Blackburn was last seen near Firestone library, wearing ripped blue jeans, a yellow T-shirt, a black zip-up hoodie and blue, flat bottom shoes, according to a university alert. Search efforts began late Monday night into Tuesday, with teams focusing on Lake Carnegie after Blackburn's phone last pinged near the body of water, 6 ABC News reported. Residents in the area were alarmed by the early morning search, as sonar units, drones and K-9 teams were deployed to scour the waters of the man-made lake. 'It's the scale of it,' resident Elizabeth Sheldon told 6 ABC about the massive search. 'Usually at 1.30 in the morning, this is a quiet parking lot and there's no activity,' she added. 'So it was highly unusual.' However, Princeton announced on Friday morning that the 23-year-old's body was found at the nearby lake. His cause of death remains unknown. Lake Carnegie, which is 9ft deep and 35ft from the shoreline, was constructed specifically for Princeton's rowing team in 1906, according to the university. Blackburn was described by those who knew him as being an extremely intelligent and kind young man. 'I have never, ever once heard him ever speak a bad word,' Karen York, Blackburn's high school science teacher, told WAVE News. Kate Robinson, an English teacher at his former high school in Corydon, Indiana, said: 'He can read a book and know everything in it. I'm pretty sure he has a photographic memory.' Before beginning his college career at Princeton, Blackburn was recognized as a National Merit Scholar in 2019, scoring a 1550 on his first SAT test and a 1580 out of 1600 on his second attempt. In the spring of 2019, he was one of 300 people in the country accepted for the Gates Scholarship, which covers tuition, room, board and books - all to attend one of the world's most elite schools, WAVE reported. 'He's just so deserving, he is,' York told the outlet at the time of Blackburn's acceptance. Blackburn toured several Ivy League universities before landing on Princeton. 'Princeton was my favorite because of the focus they put on their undergraduates,' Blackburn told the outlet at the time. 'I'm just very grateful that I don't have to worry about that and it's given me the opportunity to go to Princeton and receive a world-class education. I'm very grateful and feel very blessed,' he added. 'Princeton will allow me to study anything and get a world class education in anything.' Though unsure of what he wanted to do with the rest of his life, Blackburn's educators had never doubted his chance of success. Heartache: Princeton University held a gathering on Friday evening in the New College West Head of College House, where dozens of counselors were made available to students and staff 'I know that he says he's not sure what he wants to do, but whatever he does, it's going to be amazing,' Robinson told WAVE in 2019. 'He's a pretty great kid.' Princeton University held a gathering on Friday evening in the New College West Head of College House, where dozens of counselors were made available to heartbroken students and staff, The Daily Princetonian reported. Blackburn's death is the third Princeton undergraduate death in two years and the seventh since 2021, according to the outlet. All six previous deaths were ruled as suicides. As of Friday evening, no further information - including the cause of Blackburn's death and details about what led up to his disappearance - has been confirmed.
