“At that point, I just kind of looked at the world and said, ‘Bring it, life!’” Werner said.

Somehow, Werner got through it, and has done what she can to mentor peers struggling with depression ever since.

“It’s helped me have a lot more empathy with people,” she said. “Beyond anything else, people are people, and that’s something I can reach out to in everybody.”

While obtaining her previous undergraduate degree, Werner helped organize the MSU chapter of To Write Love On Her Arms, or TWLOHA, a national nonprofit organization meant to spread awareness of depression and suicide.

Now, she also currently is in training to become a telephone operator at IMAlive, an online crisis network designed by TWLOHA to help individuals contemplating suicide online.

Geographic information science senior Ryan Schaner, the web coordinator for TWLOHA , said Werner is the perfect fit for the network.

“She’s a very caring, compassionate person,” he said. “She’ll do anything she can to help someone. She’s dedicated to the cause of helping other people who can’t help themselves.”

Clinton Township, Mich., resident Adam Bruni, a good friend of Werner’s whom she helped through his own battle with depression, said it’s important for those struggling with such feelings to speak to peers about it.

“It’s very hard to talk to someone you don’t have a connection with,” he said. “When it’s coming from a student perspective, they know where you are and how hard life can be, and it’s comforting to have someone be there for you like a friend would.”

Through her various outreaches, Werner, who plans to attend graduate school in the near future and become an occupational therapist, said all she wants to do is provide students with the same understanding she has achieved.

“I learned that no matter what I’m facing now, it will pass and it will get better,” she said. “(Students with depression) need to know that people care about them and that they are not alone.”