A 21-year-old University of Pennsylvania student committed suicide earlier this week, marking the tenth self-inflicted death at the Ivy League school in three years.

Ao 'Olivia' Kong, a junior studying finance in the Wharton School, was killed on Monday at about 7am after she was struck by a train on SEPTA's Market-Frankford Line.

Kong grew up in Philadelphia and was a member of the Phi Gamma Nu business fraternity and Alpha Phi Omega co-ed service fraternity.

Ao 'Olivia' Kong was killed on Monday at about 7am after she was struck by a train on SEPTA's Market-Frankford Line. The 21-year-old was a junior studying finance at the Wharton School

She was also a Mayor's Scholar and studied abroad last semester at the University of Melbourne in Australia, according to CBS Philadelphia.

University President Amy Gutmann and Provost Vincent Price released a statement following Kong's death.

'We are deeply saddened to report that a Penn undergraduate student was struck and killed this morning by a SEPTA train at the 40th Street Station,' the statement said. 'She was a bright, well-liked and successful member of our junior class.

'We have been in contact with her family and have conveyed our deepest sympathies to them at this very sad and tragic time.'

Students mourned Kong at a vigil on Monday night, and friends organized a gathering in her honor on Wednesday, during which they raised awareness for mental health and discussed resources at the school.

'We want to break the silence and we want to lift the stigma of mental health,' student Sophie Phillips said at end of the event, according to Philly.com. 'Outside of this gathering, we want to continue sharing these stories.

'Not just because we talk about hard things like depression and anxiety and suicide and mental health, but because they're also stories about hope, bravery, resiliency, and courage,'

Phillips published a change.org petition on Tuesday asking the university to take six steps that would address mental illness on campus.

Steps include easing the process of withdrawing from classes, requiring mental health training for residential advisers and increasing counseling services and resources.

Since Monday, students have criticized the way in which the university handled the announcement of Kong's death, according to The Daily Pennsylvanian.

Kong grew up in Philadelphia and was Mayor's Scholar, a member of a business fraternity and a member of a co-ed service fraternity. Last semester, she studied abroad at the University of Melbourne in Australia

Kong's death was first announced in an email from the President's Office sent at 2.22pm.

The email reported the incident and shared several resources for students, but did not release Kong's name.

Twenty minutes later, Wharton sent out an email to its own undergraduate community, sharing Kong's name and details about her life.

The email, which was sent out before it had been ruled a suicide, described Kong's death as an 'accident'.

Wharton provided information in the email that was 'from what was reported in the media or sent in emails to the Penn community', Wharton spokesperson Peter Winicov told the Daily Pennsylvanian in an emailed statement.

Vice President for University Communications Steve MacCarthy supported the decision to only release Kong's name to Wharton students, but not the entire university, which has a student body of 21,000.

'Given all the media attention that had been focused on the death, we felt it was important to acknowledge that a student was involved,' MacCarthy wrote in an email to The Daily Pennsylvanian. 'At the time it was being drafted we were respecting the wishes of the family regarding the release of her name.'

He said that at the time the announcement was made by the President's Office, Kong's name 'was not being publicly revealed'.

'The school email goes to a much smaller group of people who were likely to have known the deceased. It occurs as efforts are being made to personally contact roommates, friends, those who knew her in clubs, etc.,' he wrote.

Students mourned Kong at a vigil on Monday night and have since pushed the school's administration to give students more mental health resources

'At that point the name is well-known within that campus community, so those messages always include the name,' he added.

Students criticized Wharton for calling Kong's death an accident.

'Mental health is the elephant in the room no one wants to talk about,' College and Wharton freshman Freddy Chang told The Daily Pennsylvanian. 'The University has euphemized the situation by claiming it was an "accident" and only sending an email to Wharton students rather than bringing the conversation to the forefront.'

After Phillips' petition gained thousands of signatures, several students involved in drafting the petition met administrators on Wednesday.

'We were open and listened and found the students really well-meaning. They were smart and they care deeply,' said Bill Alexander, the director of Penn's counseling services.

Gutmann and Price sent out an email on Wednesday announcing steps the university will take immediately before meeting again with the students who drafted the petition.

'We are extending the hours of counseling and psychological services (CAPS) in the evenings and on weekends. We are also reaching out to other mental health experts here on campus to solicit their ideas for action,' they wrote.

The announcement said the university is willing to provide more mental-health resources on campus.

The statement said: 'We have also instructed our central support services, including CAPS, to inform us if they require any additional resources to meet student needs during these challenging days.

'We have not and will not let resources stand in the way of protecting the mental health needs of our community.'

Studies show that a suicide at Penn occurs on average twice every three years. But in recent years, the number has increased tremendously.

After two undergraduate students died within two weeks of one another in 2014, the university created a mental-health task force made up of administrators and professionals.

Gutmann and Price asked the task force's chairs - Director of Education for the Department of Psychiatry Anthony Rostain and former School of Arts and Sciences Dean Rebecca Bushnell - to reconvene the group immediately on Wednesday.

Friends organized a gathering in Kong's (pictured bottom left) honor on Wednesday, during which they raised awareness of mental health issues

They said they hope the meeting will 'determine as expeditiously as possible what additional steps can be taken to help ensure the health and well-being of our students'.

The group will evaluate how the previous actions recommended by the task force affected students and will look into further changes to improve the effectiveness of mental-health programs at the university.

The most recent suicide before Kong's was that of engineering graduate student Stephen Kyle Wilshusen.

The 25-year-old first-year computer science Ph.D. student died on December 31 in Philadelphia.

Including Kong and Wilshusen, ten Penn students have committed suicide since February 2013.

Arya Singh, 20, committed suicide in her dorm room on February 8, 2013. She had ingested soluble cyanide crystals.

In August 2013, Wendy Shung, a second-year graduate student in the School of Education committed suicide.

Just months later, Alice Wiley, a graduate student in social policy committed suicide in December 2013 over winter break.

Penn track star Madison Holleran, 19, jumped to her death from atop a Philadelphia parking garage in January 2014, leaving behind a note and gifts for members of her family.

Just three weeks later in February 2014, 18-year-old Elvis Hatcher, a fraternity treasurer and IT expert, hanged himself.

Theodric Reed, a 22-year-old senior who studied English, committed suicide in August 2014, just weeks before he would have returned campus for his final year

Weeks later, 20-year-old Amanda Hu's death was ruled a suicide after she was found dead in her room in September 2014.

At the time of her death, she was on a voluntary leave of absence from the university and working in a biochemistry lab.

The body of Timothy Hamlett was found in May 2015, after he had gone missing in December 2014 and was last seen near New York City's George Washington Bridge.

Hamlett, a philosophy major and member of the track and field team, was on voluntarily leave from the university at the time.

His body was found in the Hudson River below the bridge and his death was ruled a suicide.

For confidential support in the United States, call the National Suicide Prevention Line on 1-800-273-8255.

For confidential support in the UK, call the Samaritans on 08457 90 90 90, visit a local Samaritans branch or see www.samaritans.org.