Levi Daniels pairs Oregon State psychology studies and research with a passion for helping youths develop lasting skills
One of the core values of the Honors College is that success is not accidental — it requires flexible thinking, accurate assessments of what works and what doesn’t and a desire to relentlessly and continuously improve. Oregon State University Ecampus postbaccalaureate honors student Levi Daniels models this belief in his work and research, which empower success for the next generation by fostering self-efficacy and resilience in teens.
“I’m a teen life coach by trade,” Levi explains. “I equip youth with mental mastery tools so that they can be more resilient and ultimately flourish amidst the many life pressures they experience.”
Levi is preparing a related honors thesis exploring “the effects of self-development mobile application on youth’s self-efficacy, resilience and well-being” under the mentorship of the 2024 Margaret and Thomas Meehan Honors College Eminent Mentor, Dr. Regan Gurung, a professor of psychology and director of the general psychology program at Oregon State.
After growing up in Cape Town, South Africa, Levi studied in Chicago, Illinois, where he earned a B.S. in Biomedical Sciences with the goal of becoming a physician. But, “whilst in my final year of studying,” Levi writes on his website, “my mental health nose-dived. Right after graduating, I returned to Cape Town for 4 months of rehabilitation.”
Through this experience and the years that followed, Levi has come to realize that “living a healthy, fulfilling, meaningful life requires a deep commitment to learning about and living into the fullness of our identities, especially as they evolve, so that we can have integrity within ourselves: all the parts of ourselves. Only then can we participate in deep connection with others.”
“I was drawn to OSU by its strong psychology program and relative affordability. I also wanted to do research within my field of work, and through my thesis, the Honors College empowers me to do exactly that.”
The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic closely followed his return to South Africa, pushing Levi to explore different areas of his strengths and interests as he searched for a line of work he could enter without a full medical degree. “It was around then I realized that I’m quite good at teaching,” he reflects. “So, I began tutoring local high school students.
“As I worked with them, I began to realize that most were struggling with things beyond the subject content. I commonly saw students putting excessive pressure on themselves and struggling with poor self-esteem. So we started to work on those issues in our sessions,” he says. “And suddenly, I’d get phone calls from parents reporting positive changes in their teens’ behavior. Like, ‘They’re doing the dishes now,’ or, ‘They’re getting up early to run!’ At this point I realized I was no longer simply tutoring. Intuitively, I had begun life coaching.”
This realization gave way to Levi’s current educational and career path, which led him first to become certified as a life coach and start a small online educational business and then to OSU, where his honors thesis and postbaccalaureate online studies in psychology are underway. Levi thanks the Honors College and Oregon State Ecampus for supporting his vision to help teens flourish by enabling him to gain skills and research experience in psychology while he continues his business in South Africa.
Oregon State psychology honors student Levi Daniels leads a workshop for educational leaders in Johannesburg, South Africa, titled “Helping Teens Move from Surviving to Thriving.”
“I was drawn to OSU by its strong psychology program and relative affordability,” Levi says. “I also wanted to do research within my field of work, and through my thesis, the Honors College empowers me to do exactly that.”
In his business, Levi teaches struggling teens to “use the challenges of academics as opportunities for learning, growth and building resilience.” In his own work and in stories from family members teaching in under-resourced schools, Levi observes that many students “can do the work, they just don’t see the point.” They are bombarded with messaging about who they should be, while internally they experience insecurity and fear of failure.
“These are the teens who could really benefit from life coaching,” Levi emphasizes, but notes that life coaching is typically an expensive, exclusive service.
Levi’s research supports his vision to create accessible and affordable interventions by exploring the effectiveness of mobile life coaching applications for youth. “A digital service could be lower-cost, scalable and capable of leveraging artificial intelligence alongside live coaching,” he explains.
Integrating live coaching into a mobile app distinguishes his idea from AI coaches already on the market.
“I haven’t seen an app that’s non-generic, develops a long-lasting relationship or works in conjunction with an actual coach,” Levi says. “AI is great for some things, like reminders aiding in breaking or building habits. But it can’t empathize effectively or know you from the inside out.”
According to Levi, it’s what’s inside that harbors the impetus and the origin of self-change. “I tell my students, ‘By virtue of being a human, you are a miracle. You are enough. You are a gift. Now let’s develop you so that you can contribute to whatever change you want to see in the world.’ That’s how teens develop internally motivated and validated self-worth and self-esteem.”
In the long term, Levi envisions a scalable, digital, AI-human coaching hybrid capable of reaching teens globally. Looking at next steps, he says, “I’m hoping to get into a competitive graduate school program for industrial/organizational psychology, clinical psychology, or something like Stanford’s dual MA/MBA, where I can develop the skills necessary to scale a mobile intervention of this size and get it to market.”
Levi has helped Oregon State work toward its vision of reaching a wider online student population by advocating for improved access to Ecampus opportunities and funding.
“Another awesome benefit of the Honors College is that it connected me with the National and Global Scholarships Office,” he says, “where I’m receiving personalized support on my application for the Knight-Hennessey Scholars program at Stanford University.” Knight-Hennessey Scholars is a program that prepares Stanford graduate students “to be visionary, courageous and collaborative leaders who address complex challenges facing the world.”
As one of the first students in the Honors College Ecampus program, Levi has helped Oregon State work toward its vision of reaching a wider online student population by advocating for improved access to Ecampus opportunities and funding.
“I’m part of the Ecampus Student Advisory Board,” shares Levi. “In a meeting, I voiced the observation that Ecampus students, particularly international students, don’t have the same funding opportunities as on-campus or U.S. resident students. Within a month, Ecampus staff were following up and organizing meetings to address this issue.”
Levi says he was impressed by the Ecampus team’s attentiveness and expediency. He also notes that this move is especially important for Ecampus expansion, because “to do that,” he says, “the program will need to cater to a more diversified population — including more international students like me.”
As a pioneering member of the Honors College Ecampus population, a researcher, a life coach, an entrepreneur and a small business owner, Levi demonstrates the fundamental practice that he teaches: an ongoing commitment to learning about and living into the fullness of his identities and potential.
While he maintains that he didn’t “choose” his life coaching path — “it just followed me around,” he says — his present achievements and future ambitions both reflect what the Honors College holds true about success. The Honors College believes that successfully making a difference never happens by accident, even if it comes about through different means than once planned.
