Yang Sun feels like something is missing.  

She loves her students and she loves her school, and everyday for the past 15 years she’s relished the challenge of making a positive difference in young people’s lives. 

When it comes to students’ mental health and wellbeing though, she knows more can be done. More has to be done. One in seven Australian children and adolescents experienced a mental illness in the last 12 months alone. 

Ms Sun is on a mission to change the way mental health is addressed in the classroom. And now she gets the chance to really make that happen.

The Marist College Eastwood teacher was recently named as one of 17 recipients of this year’s NSW Premier’s Teacher Scholarships in a ceremony at the State Library. 

Ms Sun was awarded the 2025 Premier’s Anika Foundation Youth Depression Awareness Scholarship, which helps to support research into the application of best practices relevant in addressing depression in children and adolescents in educational settings. 

She will now depart on a five-week journey throughout the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Scandinavia and Australia, where she hopes to conduct research that will bring to light the need to revamp schools’ approach to mental health and wellbeing. 

Ms Sun, who is also studying cognitive psychology with a specialisation in mental health and positive wellbeing, said she was emboldened to apply for the scholarship after seeing how students struggle with mental health both in and outside of the classroom. 

“After 15 years of teaching, I feel as though we place so much emphasis on curriculum and not enough on mental health. 

“I’m starting to see this pattern, this correlation, between learning growth and …