October 2026

In September we:

• Updated the Endeavor Lab Colleges’ website

• Launched our totally redesigned ELC Knowledge Base

CHECK OUT THE NEW KNOWLEDGE BASE AT
www.endeavorlabcolleges.org/knowledge-base/library

Don’t recreate the wheel!
Build off the ideas and examples of your ELC colleagues.

Understanding Motivation and Procrastination
Wednesday, October 28, 2026 | 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM ET

We all procrastinate some time. This free webinar hosted by Mindspring Mental Health Alliance explores why people procrastinate, why they feel bad about themselves when they do, and how it impacts physical and mental health. Explore reasons behind procrastination and ways to stay motivated.

Advocating for Mental Health Policy:
How Everyday Voices Help Shape Mental Health Decisions at the Local, State, and National Level
Thursday, October 29, 2026 | 11:00 AM -12:00 PM ET

Mental health policies are shaped at multiple levels of government—from state legislatures and governors to Congress and the President. These decisions influence funding, access to care, insurance coverage, crisis response systems, and nationwide workforce capacity.

This free webinar hosted by the Mindspring Mental Health Alliance equips participants with practical tools to advocate for mental health across state and federal systems, including how to communicate effectively with legislators, governors’ offices, members of Congress, and executive agencies. It emphasizes respectful, nonpartisan engagement grounded in lived experience, data, and shared values. Participants will leave with clear, realistic strategies for influencing policy without needing political expertise.

Check out Accelerating Campus Culture Change: Why the Design Charrette is the Perfect Tool for Cross-Institutional Co-Creation in Higher Education for more details and photos of our Endeavor Fellows Gathering and Leadership Retreat.

At our Endeavor Presidential Fellows Gathering and Leadership Retreat, 18 Faculty and Staff Fellows, alongside six Student Fellows, accelerated months of working group progress in one supercharged event to co-create shared toolkits and resources to facilitate student success in a well-being framework. Bridging the traditional siloing of Academic Affairs and Student Life, mixed teams of Fellows embraced a “design charrette” format, filling Ribble Lounge on Randolph College’s campus with vibrant discussion, newsprint, sticky notes, big screen presentations, and resource prototyping. The result was an energizing and supportive atmosphere where a shared commitment to student success and whole-person education was translated directly into initial prototypes of customizable and actionable tools and resources to support our campuses in co-creating well-being.

Building off our collective work to reshape how care and learning intersect, in just one afternoon of co-creation (3.3 hours = 195 minutes), our Fellows generated four master toolkits containing 13 interchangeable, modular style resources. The next day, Faculty and Staff Fellows “reality -tested” and received feedback from our Student Fellows on the student facing pieces of this work. Students’ candid insights provided immediate, grounded feedback that elevated “faculty speak” into authentic student-centered language, ensuring materials resonated deeply where they mattered most.

The collaborative momentum punctuated by the morning session extended directly into the Student Fellows’ Leadership Retreat. Beyond shaping institutional toolkits, the students spent the remainder of their day and a half practicing core leadership and Community Resilience Model (CRM) competencies—learning how to balance personal self-care with supporting peers in high-stress moments. By connecting NASPA Peer Educator frameworks with real-world campus scenarios, reflecting their personal values, and exploring the role of values in courageous conversation, students developed tangible skills for personal self-care and peer support. They left Randolph equipped to serve as vital bridges for whole-person education and a plan to support the ripple effects of well-being on their home campuses.

As the Curriculum, Community Care, and Student Fellows working groups continue to refine and polish the 13 modules over the coming months, we invite you to explore the newly published Praxis post on the ELC Website. It offers a fascinating look into why the design charrette model works so well in higher education, how to bypass institutional paralysis, and how to adapt this dynamic facilitation format on your campus to turbo charge collaboration and change.

Check out Gardening for Mental Health: Growing Connection, Wellness, and Community.

The Endeavor Lab College’s (ELC) core values of multi-dimensional well-being, belonging, and purposeful work align naturally with Antioch College’s mission and its foundational “Three Cs”—co-op, classroom, and community. Antioch is also one of nine nationally recognized work colleges, three of whom take part in the Endeavor Lab Collaborative. With funding and capacity building support from the ELC, Antioch has created a wide range of impactful initiatives that directly touch the students’ lives and campus culture. Some highlights include a reimagining of the first-year curriculum that contributed to recent increases in first-year retention (72% AY24/25 to 88% AY25/26), new and enhanced courses such as Philosophies of Well-Being and Dialogues Across Difference, and on-going campus workshops in Restorative Justice, Intergroup Dialogues, and Trauma-Informed Care. ELC integration funding also supports a full-time Community Care Organizer who helps guide long-standing campus governance traditions like weekly community meetings, Community Days, and elevating student voices.

Another outstanding example of the integration of the “Three Cs” on Antioch’s campus is the ELC supported Nature Rx programming, spearheaded by Licensed Professional Counselor and Gardening for Mental Health Program Facilitator Micki Cole and Assistant Director of Counseling Services De'ja Bush, in partnership with the Antioch Farm and the Apothecary Garden work crew. Building on the establishment of the Apothecary Garden in 2021 and the launching of the Gardening for Mental Health Program which began in Winter 2025, Micki and De’ja have helped expand nature-based wellness across campus. This programming provides flexible, low-barrier wellness opportunities for all students, ranging from hands-on gardening, mindfulness, and animal care to farm workshops, composting, and tracking biodiversity in classes and through iNaturalist.

Be sure to check out their updated Praxis post “Gardening for Mental Health: Growing Connection, Wellness, and Community,” to explore the full story behind their evolving program. The feature highlights how the original Apothecary Garden project (“Mental Health & Wellness Bloom in Antioch’s Apothecary Garden”) has expanded into a network of outdoor wellness learning experiences and outlines Antioch’s plans to expand its assessment of impact for students through QR-code-based reflections on mood and connection, alongside program participation, work crew hours, and recorded iNaturalist observations.

Together, these Endeavor-supported efforts reflect Antioch’s commitment to cultivating a vibrant campus culture where students grow skills, foster meaningful connections, and center well-being in their daily lives.

You can follow this work for all groups through the “real time” meeting notes housed in the Knowledge Base.

The Curriculum Working Group has prioritized its curriculum mapping efforts across all campuses, working collaboratively to ensure steady progress in this work that requires distinctive strategies and involvement from each campus. The group is also working to launch a new round of mini-grant applications to support innovative projects aligned with ELC priorities. At the end of September, many of our members participated in Community Resilience Training, which was especially timely as we prepared for our Presidential Fellows Gathering at Randolph College.

At the gathering, our group, together with the Community Care group, used a charrette model, a fast-paced collaborative planning process, to develop modules for four comprehensive toolkits that will serve as substantive resources for promoting well-being and resilience across our campuses in advising, orientation and first-year programs, policy for faculty and staff, and curriculum. We will continue to work on these toolkits to refine the work we’ve started. The engagement of the cross-institutional (faculty, staff and student) teams in the process continues to expand our perspective and understanding.

The Community Care and Community Resilience (CC&CR) working group has moved from initial planning into active implementation and resource development for AY26–27. Building on the launch of Community Resilience Model (CRM) training and the development of six short instructional videos and activity guides, the group is now focused on translating these resources into practical, adaptable tools for use across Endeavor Lab Colleges. Current focus is on developing a shared Community Care and Resilience Toolkit, including CRM Flow Zone visuals, self-assessment tools, experiential activities, and resources for integration into classrooms, Orientation, student leadership, and campus wellness initiatives. Peer Educator training is also advancing, with NASPA Certified Peer Educator (CPE) frameworks informing student leader development in areas such as values clarification, empathy, boundaries, intentional impact, and supportive peer connections. At the October Endeavor Fellows Gathering, CPE training began with our student fellows and staff fellows working closely with faculty fellows to collaborate on resources, share campus implementation strategies, and identify opportunities for common assessment and sustainable integration across institutions.

The Purposeful Life and Work Group is currently supporting the pre-launch review of the Virtual Center for Purposeful Life & Work. At this stage, access is limited to working group members who are exploring the Center’s content, resources, and interactive activities from the perspective of faculty, staff, and administrator users. Members are also encouraged to utilize the resources with students, as appropriate, and document questions, access issues, and other feedback that can help strengthen the experience for the Center’s intended audiences. The working group will convene later this month to discuss feedback from this initial review and determine approaches for incorporating the Center’s resources into our work moving forward.

The Mapping Belonging Work Group will spend Academic Year 26-27 developing toolkits to be shared in the ELC knowledge base. These toolkits will support the inclusion and development of specific mapping strategies into campus mapping projects. Some toolkit examples, based on strategies developed in specific campus contexts, include: Archival and Historical Integration, Indigenous and Inclusive Representation, Participatory Student Data Collection, Ecological and Field Guide Mapping, Physical Signage and Sustainability, Digital Assets and Technical Workflows, Nature Rx, and Mapping Integration. These toolkits will continue to support colleagues across the ELC in building out and developing their mapping belonging projects over the coming years.

The Nature Rx and Embodied Experience working group has started this new academic year with a renewed focus on developing toolkits that can serve as bridges for people looking at expanding or beginning their programing with Nature and Embodied Experience. Some institutions have completed the funding proposal process for FY2027 while others are still exploring this process and determining new additions to their campuses’ Nature Rx & Embodied Practices projects. This funding will continue to support the great programing that is happening across the ELC institutions while also focusing on expanding access to our programs. Campus teams are working to more intentionally track participation and impact data as they move deeper into the program implementation stage. As a team, the ELC has developed supportive partnerships with like-minded organizations such as the Campus Nature Rx Network and the Association for Experiential Education to help further advance our work.

The Endeavor Presidential Student Fellows have hit the ground running with a new leadership curriculum, new ideas for expanding our impact, and much of the group attending our Presidential Fellows Retreat hosted by Randolph College in early October. The working group plan for this year is focused on elevating our student voices, implementing meaningful programming for our peers, and acting as collaborative partners alongside the Presidential Faculty and Staff Fellows on their campuses. At the Presidential Fellows retreat, Student Fellows participated in a listening session offering feedback on Faculty and Staff resource development, began their peer educator training, and developed skills to support the integration of the Community Resilience Model on ELC campuses.

Featured Resources

If you’re seeking practical tools to bring the Community Resilience Model (CRM) to life on your campus, explore these downloadable resources created by Chelsea Piechowski, Chief Wellness Officer at Randolph College and co-facilitator of the Community Care and Community Resilience Working Group. Designed for classrooms, residence halls, and shared spaces, the “Know Your Flow” infographic and “CRM Skills Companion” offer a simple, nonjudgmental framework for checking in on your personal zone and practicing a quick neurobiological reset.

Do you have a syllabus statement, conversation guide, program outline or other materials that promote a culture of well-being on your campus? Expand your impact - sharing them can save us all valuable time and benefit all ELC institutions.

Click our Share Resources link to submit your materials to the ELC Knowledge Base–our shared consortium library designed to support whole-person education across all ELC institutions without the drain on bandwidth that comes from recreating the wheel.

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