How do we keep our students, healthy, happy and engaged at Universities especially now during the Covid 19 pandemic?
Nothing more important than ever before, is to put emphasis and focus on our young generations well-being. We all and the educating institutions need to be collectively thinking on how we treat, educate, lead and nurture our young students. Our common focus needs to be on providing a nurturing and human environment should it be at home and outside of family where bright, creative and unique minds and souls can flourish instead of being ‘treated like a bonsai’ as one student we have just recently interviewed described his feelings.
It is very exciting to see that there is some movement in the right direction across the universities. Students at Yale and Stanford University have access to information and classes on how to meditate, practice yoga and to breathing techniques which ideally provide them with tools on how to deal with stress, pressure, emotions and life. The time at university is not just meant for acquiring knowledge and the necessary studies. It should be a place of education, formation, nurture and preparation for life with the focus on IQ as well as EQ. The idea of incorporating classes and focus groups on campus to enhance everyone’s well-being is equally and hugely important in order to empower and foster well-rounded human beings and generations.
Please find here quotes and links to Yale University, the Harvard Business Review, Forbes, Sky Campus Happiness Program, YouTube and more.
The Yale University has a very interesting article on their students wellbeing on campus.
To improve students’ mental health, Yale study finds, teach them to breathe. “In addition to academic skills, we need to teach students how to live a balanced life,” said Emma Seppälä, lead author and faculty director of the Women’s Leadership Program at Yale School of Management. “Student mental health has been on the decline over the last 10 years, and with the pandemic and racial tensions, things have only gotten worse.”
Following is a link to the Harvard Business review by Emma Seppälä
Research: Why Breathing Is So Effective at Reducing Stress
Emma Seppälä, Ph.D., is a Lecturer at the Yale School of Management and Faculty Director of the Yale School of Management’s Women’s Leadership Program. She is also Science Director of Stanford University’s Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education and the author of The Happiness Track. Follower her work at www.emmaseppala.com.
Forbes has also a well written article by Jessica Gold ‘How To Decrease Back To College Anxiety: Just Breathe’
College students returning to campus is a stress for many. Containing Covid-19 as students return from all over the country and assuring proper social distancing measures and mask wearing is one component, but helping support their mental health needs is another entirely. This is, in part, because some college students come to campus already in treatment needing to continue care and others develop mental health symptoms for the first time. Additionally, mental health has significantly worsened for young adults over the pandemic. University counseling centers could not meet the demand long before Covid-19, and can’t be expected to today.
Jessica Gold is going into depth of shining light on the ‘status quo’ of students mental health on campuses and it is certainly worthwhile the time to read her article should you be a student, parent, educator or just interested in general. Well-being is not just relevant for students, but most of us alike. How do we all deal with pressure and stressful situations should it be at home, at work, in groups, in corporate environments and life.
It is good to learn that Stanford university has already adopted the well-being program with Julia Tang, Lecturer at Stanford University in the Division of Health and Human Performance in the Department of Medicine in charge. As Jessica Gold wrote in her article Julia Tang has been teaching the Sky Campus Happiness Program for the past 20 years and since 2009.
About the Instructor
Julia Tang has been teaching SKY meditation practices through the International Association of Human Values (IAHV) for over 20 years. Julia has taught SKY to students at the University of Virginia, Boston College, Boston, University, MIT, Harvard University, UMass Amherst, as well as at Stanford University where she is a Lecturer in Wellness Education. She currently teaches SKY meditation through the Department of Veterans Affairs in Palo Alto as part of a federally-funded study examining the effects of SKY meditation on veterans with PTSD. Julia received her Masters of Education from Harvard University.