We Connect People to Purpose
We help people create great things connected to their purpose. That's Voice Up.
We have a proven, repeated model that takes about 8 weeks — and it works with everyone willing to invest in their purpose.
Yes, we're accepting students — and yes, we are hiring.
The first step is simple: learn about who we are and the deep connection between our mission and helping people excel in the AI economy. You do that by following the steps listed below — the first five are required, and each one builds on the last to reveal your purpose journey. Completing the five required steps in order is how our team identifies genuine interest and readiness.
Prefer to listen? You can listen to this whole page using the narrator just above. Then read carefully and follow the steps.
Jumps to Step 1
New cohorts begin on the first day of every month. If you attend a college or university, the start of your semester is a key time to begin. You do not need to attend a college or university to start. Every new student begins on the first of the month.
New to Voice Up? Start at our front door: Connect to Purpose
Start Today: The Big Picture
This short film is the big picture of Voice Up, and it introduces the steps below: who we are, why purpose matters, and how your journey begins.
The Five Principles of Voice Up
This is how Voice Up has achieved what it has to date.
Collaboration
all are welcome.
Humility
we all have much to learn.
Precision
all the details matter.
Patience
we all need forgiveness; we all make mistakes and learn from each.
Empathy
we must understand your why.
Every activity on this page is done under these five.
Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/MI4akT-eaBg
The Five Principles of Voice Up video: Collaboration, Humility, Precision, Patience, and Empathy, carried from campus to community.
The Mental Health and Loneliness Epidemic
Around the world and in the United States, loneliness and mental illness are reaching record levels. The U.S. Surgeon General says loneliness is as deadly as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. Nearly 1 in 2 U.S. adults report feeling lonely. This page shares the latest evidence — and what we can do together.
1 in 2
U.S. adults feel lonely
26%
Higher risk of early death
1 in 8
People live with a mental disorder
The AI Gap — Why a Screen Is Not Enough
The RAND Corporation published a nationally representative survey in JAMA Pediatrics finding that 19.2% of U.S. adolescents and young adults (ages 12–21) reported using AI chatbots for mental health advice in 2025. Among those users, 42.8% turned to chatbots at least monthly, and 91.7% rated the advice as somewhat or very helpful.
Yet most young people kept it secret: 63.3% did not disclose chatbot use to anyone. Use was more common among females, older youth (18–21), and those who had already spoken with a clinician. RAND underscored the need for parents and clinicians to proactively discuss chatbot use — promoting safety, appropriate expectations, and links to evidence-based care.
What this means: Young people are reaching out for mental health support — but too many are reaching out to a screen instead of a person. AI can share information. It cannot form a real relationship. It cannot look you in the eye, sit with you in silence, or truly care. That gap is dangerous.
The Human Layer Voice Up Adds
Voice Up is committed to adding the human layer to this epidemic. The human layer is what can truly make the difference — a real conversation with a real person, forming a real relationship in a safe community. No chatbot can replace the feeling of being heard, understood, and valued by another human being.
Our programs pair every participant with mentors, peers, and purpose-driven cohorts. We create the safe spaces where real conversations happen — the kind that research shows actually heals. Technology can open a door. A person walks through it with you.
A New Kind of Media Network — Built by People Like You
Most media talks at you. This one is built by real people sharing real stories — their history, their community, the things they care about. Open to any background. Some roles are paid.
40 public-health students joined at Georgia State
Our first DoD SkillBridge partnership is live
Coleridge-Taylor internship launched — 151 years after his birth
Paid remote fellowships are open now — $20–$30/hr, academic credit available.
Share your story. Connect with others. Elevate your impact.
Three simple invitations hold this whole community together. They belong to everyone here, and they are how the work grows: one person, one story, one connection at a time.
Share your story
Your lived experience matters. Telling it honestly is often the first step toward purpose, for you and for everyone who hears it.
Connect with others
Nobody builds a purpose alone. We learn from each other, encourage each other, and grow together across campuses and communities.
Elevate your impact
When stories are shared and people connect, the impact reaches further than one person. That is how communities change.
That is the campaign. Its tagline is the name over the door: Voice Up.
Every part of this approach is grounded in science and doctoral-level research on purpose and human connection. Explore the research
Two Ways to Begin
Both paths connect you to purpose. The Sprint is your quick start inside the Media Network community; the Guide is the deep eight-week journey. Start with either — many people do both.
The 8-Week Guide
The full Voice Up journey that thousands of participants have used to connect to purpose. A proven, in-depth pathway — seven steps that build on each other across about eight weeks, the first five of them required, designed around your story, your talents, and your fire.
Jumps to Step 1
The 7-Day Sprint
A fast, energizing on-ramp inside the Purpose and Public Health Media Network. Seven days of creating, writing, reflecting, and sharing lived experience alongside a community connecting people to purpose. The sprint pairs with the video interview sprint modules on the Explore Video Modules page.
Opens the Video Modules
Jumps straight to Step 1
Start your purpose journey today
You're brand new. Create your free account, then follow the steps below — the first five are required, and each one builds on the last to reveal your purpose. Your progress saves automatically and your status updates right here every time you come back.
Are you a DrPH student?
Go directly to the DrPH Research Cohort page
Two Guest Sessions at Georgia State — One Partnership
In the fall of 2026, Dr. Jacque-Corey Cormier invited our founder into two Georgia State classes — a careers lecture that launched the Voice Up Media Network, and a research methods session that tied the work to the skills students are building right now.
Public Health Careers Lecture
The lecture that launched the Voice Up Media Network
Our founder gave Voice Up's first guest lecture at Georgia State University — on the same day as Charlie Douglass's 86th birthday. The session introduced the mission, the dissertation, and the five core principles to a careers class.
Research Methods Guest Session
The first guest in a research methods class
One day after the Mercer DrPH introduction, our founder was the first guest in a Georgia State research methods class — tying Voice Up's work to research, evaluation, and the skills the course teaches. Two sessions, one week, two audiences.
Zuckerberg on Meta's Muse AI Agent
Mark Zuckerberg sits down to explain why Meta is building a personal AI agent called Muse — and why he believes the safest path forward is to distribute AI as widely as possible, not restrict it to a few labs. It is a different voice from the slowdown calls on this site, and Voice Up includes it because humility means hearing the other side.
Open Source as Safety
Let the community scrutinize and harden systems.
The Personal Agent
Muse understands your goals and works on your behalf.
Checks & Balances
Safety through balance of power, not restriction.
Your Voice Has Value — and Your Voice Works.
A free platform built on the Voice Up principles. Take a Voice Interview, upload a document for feedback across seven writing lenses, hear your work read aloud, and run an APA review with an authenticity check — all designed to refine your voice, never replace it.
What You Can Do Here
Voice Interview
Answer six short questions and get an authentic writing-voice profile — your tone, your strengths, your blind spots.
Document Analysis
Upload any essay, reflection, or personal statement. It is scored across seven writing lenses — academic, journalistic, narrative, and more.
AI Narration
Hear your work read aloud in five professional AI voices. Catch clunky sentences and feel where your writing lands.
Discover Your Voice
A free-writing exercise that reflects your true voice back to you — no prompts, no pressure, just you.
Your Seven Steps to Purpose
The people who invest their time on the front end are the most successful fit on our team.
Each step builds on the last. Take them in order — the journey is the point. The first five steps are the required steps. Completing all five in order is how our team identifies genuine interest and readiness.
Steps 6 (Create Your Lifeline) and 7 (the First 100 Hours reflection) are not required — they are there to explore when you are ready to go further.
Official Sign-Up & Registration
This is where your journey begins. Please complete this step first — it only takes a few minutes.
Why this step matters
People who take the time to truly read, reflect, and act create measurably greater impact in their communities. This step only takes a few minutes — and it sets the foundation for everything that follows.
Learn what you'll do here and why
Find Your Purpose. Elevate Your Impact.
We appreciate your completion of Step 1. This next step continues the process of learning more about who you are, what motivates you, and how you believe you can make a positive impact on our world.
Start here! Watch a quick intro to Voice Up. Everyone does this first.
Browse Every Voice Up Video — Open to Everyone
Explore every interview, episode, and 7-day sprint by theme — science & health, sports & mental health, AI safety (including Zuckerberg on Meta's Muse AI), music & heritage, public service, and current events. Choose your path below.
Understand the News. Connect It to Your Purpose.
Big stories are breaking — and each one connects to your purpose. Explore featured stories with 7-day sprints that walk you through what happened, why it matters, and what it means for you.
The $1.8B Virtual Cell Bet
Biohub, Meta, Google & the US government build AI models of the cell.
AI in Orbit
Google's first test of an AI data center in space.
