October 2025

Alongside World Mental Health Day (October 10th), numerous affinity group recognition and wellness days are celebrated this month and in the coming months. Each of these provides a critical reminder that student well-being matters just as much as academic success at colleges nationwide. 

College life, especially on small liberal arts campuses, brings excitement, growth, and new possibilities. It also brings with it stress, pressure, and self-doubt. Classes are challenging, expectations are high, and while our close-knit communities offer support, they can sometimes make it harder to admit when you’re struggling. But caring for your mental health means not facing it alone.

Well-being is vital for learning, creativity, and community. On small liberal arts campuses, close relationships and a tight-knit community shape the college experience. Students, faculty, and staff often know each other by name. This closeness fosters belonging but can also increase pressure related to visibility, leadership, and academic rigor. This is especially true for students from historically marginalized communities, including LGBTQAI+ students, students of color, indigenous, low-income, or first-generation college students. These students often face disproportionately high rates of mental health concerns and barriers to services and supports. For all students, inclusive, culturally responsive, and accessible community support and services are essential.

That is why it is important to expand and normalize our conversations about mental health and well-being. Talk to a friend. Connect with a trusted colleague, professor or staff member. Create a space for a brief check-in or intentional grounding at the start of classes, meetings, or gatherings. Share conversations on the courage it often takes to ask for help as much as we share information about where to seek counseling services. These opportunities for more personal connections, which are part of what makes our small colleges special, can be crucial sources of support and understanding. These efforts also remind us all that asking for help is a sign of strength and that mental health is part of every student’s success story.

Let’s celebrate the courage it takes to speak up, lift each other up, and build campus cultures where every student feels seen, valued, and never alone.

Understanding Loneliness and Building Social Connections

October 21, 2025 | 1:00-2:00 PM EST

People can be alone and not feel lonely, or be surrounded by others and still experience feelings of isolation. Explore the causes of loneliness, how it spreads through social networks, and the impact of loneliness on our physical and mental health in this one-hour seminar. Learn practical tips to strengthen current relationships and make new connections in this one-hour seminar.

In honor of LGBTQIA+ History Month, we have added a new resource to our Professional Development folder in the Knowledge Base. The Mindspring Mental Health Alliance Webinar* Discrimination, Fear, and Mental Health in LGBTQIA+ Communities examines the factor that impact disproportionate rates of mental health concerns in LGBTQIA+ individuals, how to find support professionals, ways of coping, and how to be a true ally in a one hour seminar with a licensed mental health counselor.

* The ELC has partnered with Mindspring Mental Health Alliance to offer free resources to our community. While we will periodically host some synchronous and asynchronous webinars in collaboration with Mindspring, you can access a complete list of their upcoming webinars.

Below are updates from each of the working group meetings. All working groups have kicked off and completed their second meetings with the close of last week. Our work is well underway. You can follow this work through the “real time” meeting notes for all groups housed in the Knowledge Base. (File Name: Team Notes & Documentation)

Curriculum is focused on exploring the connection between our liberal curricula, student academic engagement and success, and well-being. They will spend the bulk of this semester developing a formal articulation of the intersection of well-being and the liberal arts. They will also develop curriculum mapping tools to allow our institutions to identify the connections and opportunities for increased integration throughout our liberal arts curricula. The Curriculum group meets alternating Wednesdays, 10-11 AM ET. 

Community Care and Resilient Communities is focused on exploring evidence-based models of building “community care” and “resilient communities”. They are beginning their work by discussing and defining what we mean by “community care” and “resilience” across our campuses, strategies that reflect “care” and "resilience" in action on our campuses, barriers to enacting caring communities, and what success looks like as we build toward our vision to create visibly caring and resilient communities across the ELC. The Community Care and Resilient Communities group meets alternating Tuesdays, 1-2 PM ET.

Both the Curriculum and Community Care and Resilient Communities working groups will take a deep dive into their work when the Presidential Endeavor Faculty and Staff Fellows gather at Antioch College, October 27-29, 2025. 

The Purposeful Life and Work group’s focus is on the development of a virtual center or curated set of resources to support career and life readiness for our students. The working group has divided itself into two committees to explore and compile evidence-based tools for students to develop career and life readiness, and to design program materials and resources to help students navigate life beyond college. The Purposeful Life and Work group meets alternating Thursdays, 11-12 AM ET.

Mapping Belonging is focused on orienting new members to the group and the mapping belonging projects. Members from last year's group have shared their pilot projects and the steps they took to identify their projects, the campus members to engage in the work, and the format (print or digital) of their maps. The Mapping Belonging group meets alternating Mondays, 1-2 PM ET. NOTE: Pilot projects from last year can be reviewed in the Knowledge Base. 

Mini-grant funding is now available to support ELC member institutions’ Mapping Belonging project development for the 2025-2026 academic year. It is expected that all institutions will participate at some level, and each institution is eligible to apply for up to $10,000. To apply, please complete this Mapping Belonging Application.

Nature Rx is also focused on orienting new members and supporting the development of Nature Rx, Art Rx, and other nature-based programming on ELC campuses. In support of this work they have launched mini-grant funding, available to all ELC institutions, to support nature-based programming in the 2025-2026 academic year. To apply, please complete the Nature Rx Funding Application. The Nature Rx group meets alternating Tuesdays, 2-3 PM ET.

The Nature Rx Lead will be hosting a workshopping session on Tuesday, October 21, 2025, 2-3 PM for your campus representatives to answer questions, brainstorm programming ideas, and support the development of campus proposals.

New Funding Opportunities Recap

Mapping Belonging Application

Nature Rx Funding Application

There should only be one application for each initiative per institution. Applications for mini-grant funding should only be submitted by an individual authorized to apply for and manage that funding for the institution. We will accept applications on a rolling basis through November 15, and checks to support your work will be issued 30 days after acceptance of your application.

The accomplishments of the Endeavor Lab Colleges (ELC) were highlighted recently by rural higher education journalist Nick Fouriezos in national news outlets Open Campus and The Daily Yonder. Fouriezos captured the challenge being solved by the ELC across our consortium of 10 small liberal arts colleges.

The collaboration addresses a persistent problem in rural higher education: Most mental health and wellness programs are designed for large universities and don't scale down effectively to small, resource-constrained institutions ... In a landscape where small colleges face mounting financial and enrollment pressures, the Endeavor Lab Colleges could offer a blueprint for how small institutions can leverage their collective strength to serve students better than any of them could manage alone. - Nick Fouriezos

LearningWell magazine writer Mollie Ames also reported on the launch of Phase II in her article, Collective Wellbeing, following up on the magazine’s article, A Collective Endeavor, from last year.

The ELC is demonstrating the power of collaboration and gaining attention for our model for liberal arts education, placing belonging, well-being, community care, and purpose at the center of students' academic and campus life.

To see more news on our work, explore ELC in the News. Want help sharing or telling the story of your institution’s work in support of belonging, well-being, and purpose? Contact our communications consultant, John White.

Check Out Jason’s Blog: Incorporating the 8 Dimensions of Wellness at Prescott College

Jason has been an active member of the Endeavor Lab Colleges’ Working Groups since accepting his current role as Director of Student Wellness at Prescott College in August of 2024. Prior to his appointment as Director, he was a Success Coach at Prescott. During Phase I, he served as a member of the Place-based Experiential Education and Community Care and Community Resilience (formerly Expanded Services) Working Groups. Jason earned his BS in Exercise Science and Health promotion at Arizona State University and his MS in Sports Psychology at Illinois State University. Prior to joining Prescott, he served as a branch director for the Boys and Girls Club of Central Arizona, and worked in the departments of Campus Recreation at Northern Arizona University, Illinois State University, and Arizona State University.

Jason's programming includes creative ways to engage students, faculty, and staff in building a culture of wellness at Prescott. He supports community wellness through initiatives such as Blood Drives, managing the food pantry, and Student Engagement Fairs. Since joining the ELC, Jason has developed the 8 Dimensions of Wellness Wheel used by Prescott College as their framework for wellness programming and numerous resources to support and guide that program development and implementation. Highlighting one of the 8 dimensions of wellness each month, this October he has arranged for Prescott College to host a well-known professional illustrator to speak about the profession and share tips and tricks students can use to help get their artistic juices flowing. 

Last spring Jason also shared a blog on Sleep and the Five Senses exploring how to enhance sleep through awareness of how our five senses contribute to or detract from the quality of our sleep.  

If your institution does not have a wellness wheel of its own and you would like an easy place to start, check out the 9-Dimensions of Well-Being developed by the Endeavor Lab Colleges’ Curriculum group in partnership with the Community Care and Community Resilience group. We have also posted a toolkit to aid the adoption and implementation of this framework in the ELC Knowledge Base under “Frameworks for Well-Being.” Feel free to add your logo, adopt, or adapt the resources to your community.

If you have a wellness wheel, model, or framework you would like to share with your colleagues in the ELC, you can share it by submitting the information in our Resource Collection Tool.

Join the ELC Wellness Movement!

Invite Colleagues to Subscribe to the Newsletter.

Highlight your campus in a Blog or News story shared with ELC@sterlingcollege.edu

Join the Knowledge Base and Share Resources with others in the Collaborative.

Connect with your campus liaisons or the Project Director.

Support the work on your campus!