Meet the Team

I'm James, and SupportPrep is a two person operation. Founder and CEO are the titles on paper; in practice it means I wrote the code and built every scenario and persona in it. Maica Monti, our UI Designer, does everything visual: the colors, the logo, the animations.

I'm a student at Loyola High School, class of 2027, and a listener at Teen Line. Learning to sit with someone in crisis and respond well takes practice, and almost nobody gets that practice unless they join a crisis line. I didn't think it should stay that limited.

The idea came out of the training itself. At Teen Line our roleplays happen in person, back to back with another trainee, texting or talking it out while sitting right next to them. That works, though it's hard to sink into the role when the person across from you is a friend you're completely comfortable with; it turns into joking around more than practice. I wanted something you can't shortcut just because you know the person playing it.

SupportPrep uses Claude, an AI model built by Anthropic, to play someone reaching out for support. It responds like a real person would and adapts to what you say, then grades you against the same kind of rubric crisis lines use with their own volunteers. You don't have to volunteer at one to practice this.

I watched people close to me struggle with their mental health, and I remember how hard it was to know what to say; that's what this is for.