Featured Friar: Kelsey Doyle ’19 and ’21G

by The Cowl Editor on September 12, 2019

Features

Doyle aims to bring awareness about suicide prevention.

by Kelly Martella ’21

News Staff

Most seniors say goodbye to Providence College after graduation, but for Kelsey Doyle ’19 and ‘21G the summer was only a quick hiatus from Friartown.

After graduating in May with a degree in social work and Spanish, Kelsey returned to campus this fall as a graduate assistant to continue her studies in the graduate program.

Doyle originally hails from Plymouth, MA, but says, “As cliché as it sounds, I found myself [at PC].”

She now lives a few minutes away in Providence, but most of the time on campus, she can be found in McPhail’s. This is her fourth year working there, and now as a GA, her friends jokingly call McPhail’s her second home.

Doyle says her goal is to be a life-long learner, and she is already well on her way. She is currently working on a Master of Education in School Counseling. She also received a grant from SAMHSA — the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

The issue of substance abuse is one Doyle is very passionate about, and one in which she hopes to bring more awareness. She also hopes to bring awareness to suicide prevention—particularly on PC’s campus.

She admits that this has sometimes been a challenge given the topic’s contentious history with the Catholic Church. “In a Catholic school, suicide is not really talked about,” she explains. “It took a long time just to get the word ‘suicide’ printed on posters.”

Still, these small steps are making progress in a positive direction. Doyle is glad the dialogue is opening up at PC, and she is working to continue the conversation. Last year, she helped bring a guest speaker to campus who survived a suicide attempt, an event she hopes to organize again in the future.

Doyle is passionate about mental health and helping others, offering these words to live by: “It’s okay not to be okay.” This is her own personal mantra, and she hopes to spread this message in all areas of her life, both to students at PC and to students in her future career as a school counselor.