Students at the University of Waterloo know Chase Graham took his own life.

They may never have met him. They may not know he was a brilliant student or that he had a sharp sense of humour under a shy, quiet exterior.

But they know he died by suicide at school on March 20.

“We hear about the ones like Chase, who die on campus,” Graham’s mother, Andrea Graham, said.

“But he very well could have waited a month and done it when he was in his apartment in Toronto while on his co-op placement and then people wouldn’t have associated it with a student death.”

The attention Chase Graham’s death received is rare, though his story is not. Countless successful, promising young students struggle to adapt to the major change of starting post-secondary school.

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