LUMEN

LUMEN is an AI-powered journal that educates FGLI students about their mental health by analyzing daily reflections, giving personalized insights, resources and guidance to thrive in school and life.

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Inspiration

After hearing personal stories about the mental health struggles of first-generation and low-income students, we realized that these challenges are often overlooked. Many students face stress, burnout, and difficulty managing schoolwork, yet mental health education is not readily accessible to them. We wanted to create a solution that educates and empowers students to understand and manage their mental well-being.

What it does

LUMEN is an AI-powered journaling app designed to help students track their mental health, recognize trends in their moods, and receive personalized guidance. Students enter their daily reflections, and the app analyzes patterns, suggests actionable insights, and provides curated mental health resources. A streak system will keep users engaged and encourages consistent journaling.

How we built it

LUMEN was built with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. It integrates GPT-5 via API to analyze journal entries and generate personalized insights for users. The AI functionality is securely implemented to protect sensitive student data.

Challenges we ran into

We encountered platform limitations while testing the AI integration. Running the app on lightweight environments like Replit wasn’t sufficient for the real-time analysis, and we needed strategies to keep API keys secure when the project is public on GitHub.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud of creating a solution that tackles an underserved problem: educating students about their own mental health in communities where these topics may be stigmatized. We successfully designed a working prototype that collects entries, analyzes data, and provides actionable guidance while keeping the process user-friendly and accessible.

What we learned

We became proficient in frontend development, API integration, and AI-powered analysis. More importantly, we learned how to design technology that is empathetic, personalized, and accessible to communities with limited resources.

What's next for LUMEN

Next, we plan to launch LUMEN as a mobile app for iOS and Android, expand AI functionality for deeper insights, and integrate more curated resources. We will also use social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok to reach FGLI students and encourage daily engagement with the app with streaks and word count scores.

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