Sarah Fuller went from Vanderbilt student athlete to mental health advocate

After dealing with depression this year, the soccer goalkeeper, who moonlighted as a kicker for Vanderbilt in 2020, has become an advocate for better mental health resources at colleges.

Sarah Fuller had no concrete plan to die. But that didn’t stop her from thinking about the possibility often.

This spring, amid a spate of Division I college athlete suicides, the former Vanderbilt soccer goalkeeper and football kicker says she very easily could’ve been among them. In particular, the March death of Katie Meyer, a fellow goalkeeper who starred for Stanford, scared her into getting help. O.K., she thought, I need to change something about my mental health.