Inside Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's Surprise Brooklyn Outing for World Mental Health Day

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex visited The Marcy Lab School — an innovative alternative to college

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry are kicking off World Mental Health Day with a special outing in Brooklyn.

On Tuesday, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex visited The Marcy Lab School — an innovative alternative to college based in the New York City borough. Founded in 2019, the rigorous one-year, tuition-free program prepares young adults from underestimated backgrounds for financially rewarding careers in the tech field. The school was founded by two teachers, Maya Bhattacharjee-Marcantonio and Reuben Ogbanna, trying to change the way young black and brown students get top jobs in the tech sector.

Walking into the facility, Meghan, who wore a special letterman jacket that was gifted to her by a group of students during her final solo engagement as a working royal in 2020, told the group, "We're happy to be back in New York City!"

In January 2023, Meghan and Harry's Archewell Foundation provided a grant to The Marcy Lab School, and they have run insight sessions with Fellows and their parents during the year.

Students learn not just how to code, but how to hone their critical thinking skills and use a purpose-driven mindset to solve the world’s biggest problems. After one year in the program, graduates typically go on to earn over $100,000 per year, writing software for some of the fastest-growing companies and non-profit organizations. The program integrates a full holistic approach to learning, which includes starting each day with things like mindfulness meditation and gratitude journaling.

The visit coincides with Meghan and Harry’s work via their Archewell Foundation to build a better online world. 

Upon their arrival on Tuesday morning, the couple were given a tour of the facility by the co-founders of the school. They were then invited to take part in a roundtable with alumni.

Speaking to a small group of students, Harry talked about the importance of relying on one another.

“Everyone’s got their own story, a reason for being here, your life is still going to be filled with complications and challenges. And if one of you starts to go quiet, doesn’t show up, you need to find out why," he said. “And remember to have fun! It has to be fun."

"What excites you the most and scares you the most about the online world?” Harry then asked the students as both he and Meghan listened.

Meghan then said: “I think my husband was asking about online spaces because it’s a place where so much community can be built, but there’s also so much vulnerability. There's a lot of saturation, and as parents, we can be hopeful knowing that your bright minds [are at work], knowing that they will be seen, valued and growing in the right direction. And that’s why it’s so important what you’re doing at The Marcy Lab.”

During a roundtable discussion, Meghan asked about the friendships created at Marcy. “All of you become the best advocates of Marcy,” she said. “Your stories and experiences give people an appetite to be here.”

Harry asked the alumni what they were going to tell their kids about Marcy one day. Then Meghan said one day we’ll all be working for the graduates of the school.

At the end of the outing, a group of students gravitated to chat with Harry, while Megan posed for photos with some young women.

“It takes a village and you’re raising an incredible village here,” Meghan told a staff member on her way out.

Related: Meghan Markle Smiles for a Selfie in Los Angeles Ahead of N.Y.C. Trip for World Mental Health Day

Bhattacharjee-Marcantonio told PEOPLE of the couple's visit: "Reuben and I just feel so touched and so grateful. The Marcy Lab has been a dream of ours and it's something we work so hard for every day and to have their support — not just financially — and the investment that they made in Marcy, but for them also to take the time to come to the campus, is such a generous act of just belief in us, belief in our students and the work that we do."

Ogbanna adds: "We were just teachers who really saw a need to better serve our students who were graduating from high school and going into all of this debt or going to colleges that like weren't serving them."

"They were so cool and down to earth," he adds. "I just hope they know how much it meant to us. Harry came in with questions and targeted feedback, and we had to pull him out of the classes because he just wanted to spend as much time pouring into the Fellows and saying motivational words! Meghan too. And for us two middle school teachers to have these people who have seen literally the entire world say that we believe in what you're doing, believe in it enough to show up and be here. It is a good dream come true."

Related: Meghan Markle and Prince Harry Heading to N.Y.C. to Host Summit on World Mental Health Day (Exclusive)

Zohaib Manzoor, 23, an alumni from the fall 2021 class who is now an associate instructor at The Marcy Lab School, tells PEOPLE: "They were really listening to everything we had to say, the questions they were posing afterward, it really seemed like they were internalizing the things that we were saying, our stories. They did a really great job with that. They were really positive, you could see from their facial expressions they were really excited to be there as well, and they had a lot of joy in them. They made me feel super welcome."

Ashley Tucker, 22, a current student in the program adds: "I asked Meghan why she decided to invest in us and she was saying she really believed in our mission and the environment that we created. Both Harry and Meghan came into our classroom and were really engaging with us and interested in what we had to say about the program. I hope people take away that our stories are important and valuable. I want people to get that."

Later in the afternoon, Meghan and Harry will host their first in-person Archewell event. 'The Archewell Foundation Parents’ Summit: Mental Wellness in a Digital Age' will give voice to families who are passionate about building a safer online world for children and teens, PEOPLE exclusively revealed last week.

The conversation will explore how we as a community, both globally and locally, are creating positive change and supporting one another in developing solutions to empower families and uplift our collective mental well-being.

The summit will feature parents who have experienced tragic loss connected to their child’s social media use. Meghan and Harry have been working with the parents involved in Tuesday’s event behind the scenes, PEOPLE has learned.

"The families have been engaged with The Archewell Foundation for the past year, bolstering community and driving towards solutions," a spokesperson for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex tells PEOPLE. "Together, they are united in their mission to share personal experiences, data, and research to ensure the same does not happen to other families."

Prince Harry, 39, and Meghan, 42, will participate in the summit alongside Surgeon General Vivek Murthy to discuss the importance of this work and explore potential solutions, in a conversation moderated by Carson Daly, Board Member of Project Healthy Minds.

Uplifting communities, building a better online world and restoring trust in information are the key pillars of the Archewell Foundation, which Prince Harry and Meghan launched in 2020. The Archewell Foundation operates with the core belief that mental health and collective wellbeing is paramount and approaches all philanthropic work through this lens.

The Archewell Foundation Parents’ Summit will Meghan and Harry's first trip to New York City following the Ms. Foundation Women of Vision Awards in May, where the Duchess of Sussex was honored. The following day, a spokesperson for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex said the couple and Meghan’s mother Doria Ragland were involved in a "near catastrophic car chase at the hands of a ring of highly aggressive paparazzi.”

Harry and Meghan have long made mental health a key tenant of their public work, and have supported World Mental Health Day in recent years. In 2020, the couple joined the Teenager Therapy podcast and spoke to five senior students at an Anaheim, California, high school about prioritizing mental health. The appearance came after the couple relocated to Meghan’s home state. following their step back from their royal roles in the U.K.

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