Ebenbach, David

McWilliams, Mindy

Valtin, Laura D.

English

epublications@Marquette

Conversations on Jesuit Higher EducationVolume 54 Article 89-1-2018Well-being in the Curriculum: What Faculty CanDo to Address the Mental Health of Our StudentsLaura D. ValtinMindy McWilliamsDavid EbenbachFollow this and additional works at: https://epublications.marquette.edu/conversationsRecommended CitationValtin, Laura D.; McWilliams, Mindy; and Ebenbach, David (2018) "Well-being in the Curriculum: What Faculty Can Do to Addressthe Mental Health of Our Students," Conversations on Jesuit Higher Education: Vol. 54 , Article 8.Available at: https://epublications.marquette.edu/conversations/vol54/iss1/8                                                                                                                                                                                                               15Today’s college students arefacing mental health chal-lenges at an alarming rate. Ac-cording to the AmericanCollege Health Association’s2017 National College HealthAssessment, over half of allcollege students reported feel-ing overwhelming anxiety inthe past 12 months. Nearly 40percent of college students re-ported feeling “so depressedit was difficult to function,”over 60 percent reported feel-ing “very lonely,” and 87 per-cent felt “overwhelmed.” It’sclear that our college studentsare struggling. What can edu-cators do to help?        This question has particu-lar relevance for instructors atJesuit colleges and universi-ties, where we strive for curapersonalis in our interactionswith students. However, theidea of translating this to theclassroom – giving meaning-ful attention to the wide rangeof academic, social, physical,and mental health needs ofour students – can be daunt-ing. One way to do it is tobring college mental healthand well-being topics into theclassroom and make thempart of the open and seriousacademic conversations wehave with students. Anotherway is to design our coursesso that they integrate the various strands of students’disparate lives – weaving to-gether their social and emo-tional lives with theirWell-being in the Curriculum What Faculty Can Do to Address the Mental Health of Our StudentsBy Laura D. Valtin, Mindy McWilliams, andDavid EbenbachIn her Synaptic Transmission course, KathyMaguire-Zeiss (neuro-science) examines theeﬀect of sleep deprivationon the brain, body, and resulting functioning. © Can Stock Photo / Andreus1Valtin et al.: Well-being in the Curriculum: What Faculty Can Do to Address thePublished by e-Publications@Marquette, 201816 CONVERSATIONS ON JESUIT HIGHER EDUCATION                                                                                                                                          academic and cognitive lives. And most important,we can help students to develop a sense of belong-ing on our campuses, foster meaningful relation-ships, and create connections to people within ourcampus community who can help them not only ontheir academic path but also on their life journey.The Engelhard Project: An Experiment in Curriculum InfusionIn 2005, a group of Georgetown faculty, teaching andlearning center staff, and counseling and studentservices professionals began to experiment with thesekinds of conversations in the classroom, with the aimof destigmatizing mental health and other stressors,engaging students more deeply in their learning, andnurturing feelings of belonging and meaningful con-nections. Initially supported by the Bringing Theoryto Practice Project, this effort is known today as theEngelhard Project for Connecting Life and Learning.The project uses a “curriculum infusion” approach,in which faculty integrate topics of mental health andwell-being into their courses.       As part of the project, faculty select a specificmental health topic as the focal point of their com-mitment to creating space in the classroom for the“real world.” A sampling of such topics from pastcourses includes anxiety, depression, eating disor-ders, flourishing, adjusting to college, and copingwith stress. The opportunities to make connectionsbetween these topics and course content are endlessand can be found in unexpected places. For example,over his years of involvement with the project, JimSandefur (mathematics) has used math models to il-lustrate the effects on the human body of drug, al-cohol, and substance use in his Introduction to MathModeling course. In her Synaptic Transmissioncourse, Kathy Maguire-Zeiss (neuroscience) exam-ines the effect of sleep deprivation on the brain,body, and resulting functioning. These illustrationsteach students about the scientific effect of humanbehaviors and also stimulate conversations abouthealthy choices and how to live a flourishing life.        After faculty determine a mental health or well-being topic for their course, they incorporate threeengagement components into their teaching: rele-vant readings, discussion with a campus resourceprofessional, and student written reflections.        Faculty select class readings that illustrate andsupport the connection between the chosen topic,the course’s academic content, and students’ ownlives. Alan Mitchell (theology) teaches Introductionto Biblical Literature with a focus on friendship andhealth relationships and assigns relevant biblicaltexts from the New Testament (specifically fromLuke and Acts of the Apostles) that demonstrate therichness of friendship traditions.        To enhance the discussion of the readings and totruly bring campus life, national data, and relevantcollege student issues into the classroom, the facultypartner with a campus resource professional for aclassroom visit and discussion – for example, a staffmember from Counseling & Psychiatric Services,Health Education Services, or Campus Ministry.This visit enables a conversation with a campus ex-pert who shares anecdotes, data, and ideas on “whatto do” for oneself and others. This takes some of theburden off of the faculty member and also exposesstudents to the available campus resources. Puttinga face and a name to the people who make up cam-pus resources – and the campus safety net for stu-dents – can make the challenging step of reachingThe Engelhard Project: Curriculum Infusion ModelFaculty link academic course content to a selected well-being topic through the follow-ing elements:• Readings & Discussions• Campus Resource Professional Visit• Student Written Reflections2Conversations on Jesuit Higher Education, Vol. 54, Iss. 1 [2018], Art. 8https://epublications.marquette.edu/conversations/vol54/iss1/8                                                                                                                                                                                                               17out for help a little bit easier. And sometimes that lit-tle bit is all that’s needed for students to seek helpfor themselves or for friends.       The final component of the Engelhard curricu-lum infusion model is a written student reflection.An essential part of Ignatian pedagogy, reflection onone’s observations, emotions, and experiences, helpsto process learning by noting connections, givingvoice to revelations, and imagining future selves. Se-mester after semester, students comment that theirEngelhard course – and especially the required re-flection – “made me stop to think” or “gave meneeded space to reflect on my own well-being that Iotherwise would not have had.” Impact on StudentsA common sentiment among students where facultyhave employed this curriculum infusion model isthat “it was refreshing to take a class where I felt likethe professor cared about my well-being.” The stu-dents’ descriptions of the Engelhard classroom envi-ronments are inspiring. Says one student, “walkinginto class, I felt like I was entering a tight-knit com-munity with a professor who cared about me andeveryone else in the class, as an individual person.”Heidi Elmendorf (biology) offers her 250-personFoundations in Biology course as an Engelhardcourse and assigns students a project in which theyinvestigate mental illness. Alongside this work, andonly after a sense of community has been built in theclass, Elmendorf shares her own personal experi-ences with depression. In her words, it is “endlesslysurprising how much it matters to students and howmuch they want to take us up on the opportunity toconnect on a personal level” – connections betweenthe ideas and students’ lives and between studentsand professor.       These emotional connections also developamong the students themselves. Discussing his En-gelhard course, a student reflected, “I am a senior,and this is the first time that a professor has encour-aged so much community that I have known thename of everyone in class.”        Another vivid student reflection:I felt the ice melting between each person inthe room, and I realized that this was actuallythe first and only class where I really enjoyedseeing each face that was in the classroom. Ifelt happy when somebody had somethingfun or good to share, and I felt sad and sympa-thetic when somebody was going through ahard time. Until I experienced it this semester,I [never] realized how difficult it actually is tohave these kinds of experiences in class-rooms… I feel like the Engelhard Project reallyallowed me to see Georgetown in a new light.People who I thought I would never share mystory with, let alone simply talk to, becamepeople who cared for me.”       Our students bring their whole selves – withtheir problems and their struggles – to our campuses,and they carry their full humanity into our class-rooms. Our students’ feelings of overwhelming anx-iety, loneliness, and depression cannot be ignored.Here at Georgetown, we have seen the benefits of anintentional shift in many classrooms to acknowledgeand engage the student’s whole self – includingareas of mental health and well-being – and tobroaden the academic conversation to include thewhole person. This shift creates a tremendous oppor-tunity for students to connect their lives with theiracademic learning and to establish truly meaningfulrelationships that can support them throughout theircollege experience and hopefully beyond. Relation-ships with fellow students, campus resource profes-sionals, and faculty members all matter tostrengthening one’s sense of belonging, to support-ing one’s learning, and to nurturing one’s mentalhealth. Students – and faculty – are hungry for theopportunity to belong, to create community, to re-late. With a little focused intention, we can satisfythis hunger.Laura D. Valtin is a graduate of Georgetown Universityand a former project coordinator at Georgetown’s Centerfor New Designs in Learning and Scholarship(CNDLS). Mindy McWilliams is the associate directorfor assessment at CNDLS. David Ebenbach is a full pro-fessor of the practice at Georgetown’s Center for JewishCivilization and a project manager at CNDLS.3Valtin et al.: Well-being in the Curriculum: What Faculty Can Do to Address thePublished by e-Publications@Marquette, 2018

Well-being in the Curriculum: What Faculty Can Do to Address the Mental Health of Our Students

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Well-being in the Curriculum: What Faculty Can Do to Address the Mental Health of Our Students

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