The Bridge Peer Counseling Center

The Bridge Peer Counseling Center (usually referred to as simply The Bridge) is a student-run 24-hour peer-counseling center at Stanford University, offering free confidential counselling as well as a comprehensive information and referral service. It primarily serves the undergraduate and graduate student communities of Stanford), but is also open to the general public. The drop-in service is available from 9am to midnight.

History
The Bridge was founded in 1971, under the supervision of Dr. Vincent D'Andrea, a staff psychiatrist at the Cowell Student Health Services, and was originally intended as a confidential drug-counseling center. Over the years, it became a general peer-counseling center.

The name was inspired by the Simon and Garfunkel song "Bridge Over Troubled Water," which had topped the Billboard charts the year before.

Operation
The Bridge is staffed entirely by undergraduate and graduate student volunteers. The service is anchored by four live-in counselors, who cover the night shifts and take on leading organizing roles as administrators and mentors.

All counselors take a ten-week course that covers basic counseling methods and surveys a wide variety of campus health issues. This class is taught by a full-time staff psychologist at Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS), with the assistance of Bridge counselors.

The Bridge, although formally registered as a student group, is almost entirely self-funded. Every year since 1971, its counsellors have organized the Stanford Spring Faire, a three-day-long fine arts and crafts fair that takes place over Mother's Day weekend in May.

Notable alumni

 * Cory Booker, Mayor of Newark, 2006-
 * Peter Salovey, Professor of Psychology, Yale University, 1986-