ROCHESTER — Winona High School teacher Dwayne Voegeli has been wanting to have something like the Hope Squad for more than a decade.
As a teacher of 30 years, he’s seen students take their own lives when they thought there wasn’t anything left to hang on to. And as the years have gone by, the pressures on students have only been increasing.
The Hope Squad is meant to help address those sorts of issues. It’s an initiative that trains students to be a resource for their peers who are struggling.
“We’ve lost a number of students,” Voegeli said. “It’s always been tough to be a teenager. Now, it’s much more difficult. When you introduce smartphones and Wi-Fi, rates of anxiety, depression and suicide all skyrocket.”
Last week, Pine Island High School hosted the inaugural Hope Squad Summit, which brought the individual chapters from multiple schools together to learn from each other as they work to provide a support system for their fellow students back home.
Pine Island Public Schools mental health coordinator Tom Horner and the school social worker Cait Carr speak at the inaugural Hope Squad summit on Wednesday, April 22, 2026.
Jordan Shearer / Post Bulletin
Social media is certainly a contributing factor on student well-being. In 2023 report about the U.S. Surgeon General issued a report titled “Social Media and Youth Mental Health,” which cited a study, saying that “adolescents who spent more than 3 hours per day on social media faced double the risk of experiencing poor mental health outcomes including symptoms of depression and anxiety.”
The same Surgeon General report went on to say that “as of 2021, eighth and 10th graders now spend an average of 3.5 hours per day on social media.”
But regardless of what the causes may be, chapters of the Hope Squad are trying to become a resource for students struggling with their mental health.
In Pine Island, the chapter began last year from the Goodhue County Mental and Chemical Health Coalition since the county had designated suicide prevention as one of its priorities.
In addition to the students from Pine Island and Winona, the summit included students from Mayo and Century high schools in Rochester, as well as those from Houston and Stewartville. Overall, 80 to 90 students were expected to attend the summit.
“It’s really nice to get to meet with other kids who are doing the same thing as you and have the same goals,” said Ariel Nelson, a junior at Pine Island High School.
The summit was hosted by the nonprofit organization Aiden’s Light, which is “dedicated to raising mental health awareness, suicide prevention (especially in our youth), and supporting families who have lost a loved one to suicide.”
Jennifer Hegge, co-founder of Aidan’s Light, spoke during the summit about losing her own son to suicide, and how that compelled her to prevent the same thing from happening to other young people.
As part of its work, Aidan’s Light has worked to bring the Documentary film “My Ascension” to more than 30 schools in southern Minnesota. The film features the story of Emma Benoit, whose suicide attempt left her bound to a wheel chair.
During the summit, Benoit spoke with the students over video conferencing.
“I really believe that Hope Squad and peer-to-peer programs like Hope Squad, are the necessary thing for us to see the change we want to see in the world when it comes to mental health,” she said. “I think that Hope Squad … is essentially working toward that greater good.”
Aidan’s light has been working to help that along. During the summit, Hegge described how seeing the documentary “My Ascension,” was the origin story of bringing Hope Squad to more schools.
“For several of your groups, this is where your journey began,” Hegge said. “A few amazing people stood up to lead and guide your Hope Squads.”
That certainly was the case for Winona Public Schools. Even though Voegeli had been wanting to have a student support group for years, it finally came together after Aidan’s Light visited the school and featured the documentary.
After a year of planning and coordinating, they had more of a response than they were expecting. After hoping for 15 to 20 students, they ended up having around 60 students who signed up — a number they had to narrow down to 44 for their first year.
He described the students in the Hope Squad as “the bridge” between their fellow students who are struggling and the professionals who can help them. By providing training and structure through the Hope Squad, the school is now helping students know how to be that resource for their peers.
“A lot of our kids were already doing this,” Voegeli said. “We wanted to help the helpers.”
Jordan Shearer covers K-12 education for the Post Bulletin. A Rochester native, he graduated from Bemidji State University in 2013 before heading out to write for a small newsroom in the boonies of western Nebraska. Bringing things full circle, he returned to Rochester in 2020 just shy of a decade after leaving. Readers can reach Jordan at 507-285-7710 or jshearer@postbulletin.com.