During my four years at Hamilton College, one of the most interesting things I did was serve as a peer counselor in the award winning Peer Counselor Program. My goal in the position was to provide active listening and promote empathy, establish meaningful spaces for connection, and create moments of social connection within the campus community. Peer counselors are trained in the counseling center and supported by Health Promotion on campus. Rather than acting as a substitute for licensed therapists, peer counselors offer an alternative for peers seeking support.

In my sessions, I helped listen, support, and provide resources on topics relating to everyday aspects of the student experience at Hamilton. I got to learn directly from amazing people within the counseling center, formed deep relationships with the seven other peer counselors, and got a sneak peek into the amazing worlds of mental wellness, therapy, and clinical and behavioral health. All spaces that are in high-demand and fundamentally changing.

While I have been exploring and learning about technology post-grad, one application of AI that has been particularly interesting to me is voice. As a peer counselor, I was trained extensively on how important voice, tone, and empathy are in creating meaningful connection and building trust and comfort for people who are sharing vulnerable stories or difficult situations with you. 

In the project attached below, I created a voice agent named Dan, using ElevenLabs, one of my favorite tools, to mimic the service I provided as a peer counselor. While my agent is nowhere near replicating a human peer counselor, I was very impressed by both the technology itself and the agent I was able to create via ElevenLabs’ API and Claude Sonnet 4. 

I also created a write-up of a call I had with a prospective ElevenLabs customer. Feel free to read more about my findings and thoughts on my substack (button with direct link below).