December 2025

Our newsletter and website serve as a space to celebrate and learn from the great work of our institutions as we share and implement effective strategies to enhance well-being in our communities.

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Shine the Spotlight by Sharing a Quick Highlight!

We are eager to share your stories and achievements across the collaborative and inspire others! Send a few brief sentences about the great work you or a colleague is doing or about an exciting program at your institution, along with contact information to ELC@sterlingcollege.edu. We’ll feature the story or achievement in an upcoming newsletter.

Holiday Harmony: Mindfully Reset Your Mental Well-being

Tuesday, December 16, 2025 | 1:00-2:00 PM ET

As we transition from the end of term into the holiday season, we’re excited to call your attention to a free Mental Health America webinar that offers a well-timed opportunity to recharge.

Below are updates in each of the working group meetings. You can follow this work for all groups through the “real time” meeting notes housed in the Knowledge Base. (File Name: Team Notes & Documentation)

The Curriculum working group continues to focus its work on the connection between well-being and liberal curricula, student success, and academic engagement. This team has made significant progress over the term in a formal articulation of the intersection of mental health well-being, belonging, purpose, and the liberal arts. This document has been shared with colleagues on the Community Care and Community Resilience (CC&CR) working group and will be shared with Purposeful Life and Work in its next iteration. During our last meeting, this group also met with Isabel Roche, Co-director of Programs at the Endeavor Foundation, for feedback on the developing document. This document will serve as a framing document for cross institutional curricular and co-curricular discussion on enhancing mental well-being and students' success in the Spring term. Over the coming months they will engage academic affairs and other faculty on their campuses in these discussions. The Curriculum working group meets on alternating Wednesdays, 10-11 AM ET.

The Community Care and Community Resilience (CC&CR) working group has progressed from defining shared concepts to building a framework for action across Endeavor campuses. Current priorities include strengthening campus task forces, documenting innovative models, and developing a collaborative CC&CR toolkit and roadmap to sustain this work. As part of this work, the group has developed Campus Snapshots to assist with further developing specific actions in the Spring term, and is exploring a partnership with the JED Foundation to support a systems assessment and enhanced policy support across the ELC campuses. The group continues to meet biweekly on Tuesdays from 1–2 PM ET.

The Purposeful Life and Work group has made meaningful progress aligning efforts across the Career and Life Readiness and Tools and Resources Committees. Both committees are preparing for the integration of their work in the coming meeting and Spring term. The Career and Life Readiness Committee has developed cross-campus assessment and a roadmap to integrate career and life readiness into curricular and co-curricular experiences. Meanwhile, the Tools and Resources Committee has identified key tools, models, and supports to strengthen institutional capacity, particularly for smaller or resource-limited campuses. Across the Spring term, their focus will shift to connecting curricular insights with resource development to shape shared recommendations for the broader Endeavor initiative. The Purposeful Life and Work group meets alternating Thursdays, 11-12 AM ET.

This month, Mapping Belonging has issued funding to support nine institutional mini-grants for Mapping Belonging. We have an exciting mix of modalities and styles that reflect the unique social, cultural, and ecological contexts of the ELC campuses. The groups continue to learn from each other and seek to identify shared resources, artists, print companies, and tools to assist with continued project development over the Spring term. Additionally, the group continues to explore opportunities to weave Mapping Belonging more intentionally into other areas of well-being work across each campuses’ Endeavor initiatives. The Mapping Belonging Work group meets alternating Mondays, 1-2 PM ET.

The Nature Rx working group has issued mini-grant funding to support the development of nature-based programming across the 10 ELC institutions. By looking at best practices and expanding our idea of what it means to immerse students in nature and to make nature accessible to all of our students, this group seeks to provide more opportunities for our students. In its most recent meeting, the Nature Rx team explored these questions with Dr. Don Rakow, the co-director of the Campus Nature Rx Network and co-author with Gregory T. Eells, of Nature Rx: Improving College Student Mental Health. You can find our conversation with Don Rakow here. The working group is in active discussions with Dr. Rakow and the Campus Nature Rx Network to explore additional collaboration and partnership opportunities. The Nature Rx work group meets alternating Tuesdays, 2-3 PM ET.

Our group of Student Fellows has met four times across the term and formed a strong collaborative team. Thus far, the conversations have focused on discussion of campus spaces, community building, sustainability initiatives and food insecurity, burnout among students on small campuses, and strategies to improve student mental health and well-being. They are excited to identify shared projects and opportunities for engagement with peers across the ELC.

New Funding Opportunities 

Curriculum Mini-grant Applications are open on the rolling basis through January 2026.

Please note: There should only be one application for each initiative per institution, to be completed by the CAO or their designee. 

Rated the # 1 Meditation App by Wirecutter

With one of the largest libraries of free resources, Insight Timer is an easy to navigate meditation app with guided and unguided meditations, podcasts in support of contemplative practice, yoga, and music tracks. Alongside their Learn How to Meditate in Seven Days course, this app helps make it easy for anyone to explore, develop or enhance their meditation practice. 

The app, available in both the Google Play and iOS app stores, makes it very easy to begin practicing mindfulness with a diverse range of practices and instructors, available in over 50 languages. In addition they provide curated playlists that support your needs across different aspects of your life and wellness, for example sleep, mental, emotional and spiritual health.

Looking for resources to support kids and family members? Insight Time also has courses on learning meditation and mindfulness resources for kids.

Share your favorite wellness app or resource by emailing ELC@Sterlingcollege.edu. We will share it in future newsletters.

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