November 2025

This November, the Endeavor Lab Colleges (ELC) join institutions nationwide in celebrating National Career Development Month. This provides an opportunity for small liberal arts colleges to showcase how the liberal arts naturally integrate career and life readiness with student well-being.

Across the country, mental health remains one of the most pressing concerns on college campuses and in the workplace. According to the Spring 2025 National College Health Assessment, only 51% of students believe their college or university prioritizes their health and well-being. For the ELC, this reality reinforces an important truth: career and life readiness cannot be separated from well-being. When students explore their purpose, values, and sense of belonging, what the Japanese concept of ikigai describes as “a reason for being”, they’re not just preparing for a career. They’re building lives grounded in meaning, balance, and self-understanding.

At our small liberal arts colleges, career development is reframed as a process of self-discovery and vocational calling (NetVue). Finding a career path means exploring meaning, values, purpose, and belonging within a community of practitioners. At Endeavor Lab Colleges, experiential learning – whether Bennington’s Career Quest, one of our four work-college programs, Antioch’s cooperative education, or internships – students engage in learning that connects knowledge with practice. These immersive experiences prepare students for both career and life through encouraging the exploration of what truly motivates and inspires them to contribute to their communities and professions.

A liberal arts education supports students in developing the human skills that sustain well-being and lifelong employability, particularly in our fast changing and AI driven world. Through coursework, mentorship, and real-world experiences, students learn to:

• Develop soft skills that prepare them to thrive in the evolving workplace—including communication, adaptability, and creative problem-solving in the age of AI.

• Practice resilience, building confidence through reflection, feedback, and the ability to learn from mistakes.

• Cultivate emotional intelligence, improving focus, empathy, and self-awareness; qualities that strengthen both leadership and wellness.

• Build strong relationships with faculty, peers, and professional mentors who form a community of care and lifelong connection.

When young people feel understood and supported, they gain the confidence to explore who they are and how they want to contribute to the world. The Endeavor Lab Colleges are addressing student well-being and career readiness head-on by combining career development with community care and personal growth. We help students imagine futures that are not only successful, but also meaningful and sustainable—reducing stress on campus, at work, and in our quickly changing employment landscape.

As we celebrate National Career Development Month, we’re reminded that preparing for a career is about creating a life of purpose, balance, and connection.

Amplifying Advocacy: Career Development in a Disrupted World of Work 

Wednesday, November 19, 2025 | 12:00-1:00 PM ET

This free webinar from the National Career Development Association (NCDA) explores “how we can activate engagement, adapt with creative resilience, and advocate more powerfully—together” in these disrupted times. Read More…

*If you are not an NCDA member or do not have an NCDA record, please create an account to register for this event at no charge.

Navigating Work-Life Balance

Wednesday, November 19, 2025 | 1:00-2:00 PM ET

This free webinar from Mindspring Mental Health Alliance explores actionable strategies for balancing “personal and professional responsibilities, helps people to avoid job burnout, and promotes employee engagement, retention, and productivity. Learn practical strategies to create balance in your busy life with actionable tips & inspiration to prioritize what matters most.”

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. As a team, they are actively developing a formal articulation of the intersection of mental health well-being, belonging, purpose, and the liberal arts. Through the use of short-form curriculum mapping tools, faculty representatives from each institution have begun to identify preliminary connections shared across our liberal arts curricula and potential opportunities for increased integration of well-being-related constructs and skills in the curricula. 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. Following the Fellows Gathering at Antioch College, the group is focused on evolving a shared language of community care and resilience and institutionalizing wellness across systems and campus cultures. Current priorities include strengthening campus task forces, documenting innovative models, and developing a collaborative CC&CR toolkit and roadmap to sustain this work. 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. The Career and Life Readiness Committee is finalizing a cross-campus assessment and developing a roadmap to integrate career and life readiness into curricular and co-curricular experiences. Meanwhile, the Tools and Resources Committee is identifying key tools, models, and supports to strengthen institutional capacity, particularly for smaller or resource-limited campuses. Together, both committees are now focused on 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 been workshopping ideas for the upcoming mini-grant proposals, due November 15. We’ve also discussed various tools and platforms that various colleges are already using to support their Endeavor work. Additionally, the group discussed the pacing and evolution of projects across the three years, and explored opportunities to weave Mapping Belonging more intentionally into other areas of each campuses’ Endeavor initiatives. The Mapping Belonging work group meets alternating Mondays, 1-2 PM ET.

As the leaves begin to fall around the US, the Nature Rx working group has been focused on building the foundation of these programs across our institutions. With representation from all 10 schools in our collaborative we are working to understand the challenges our campuses are facing and expand the impact of these programs. By looking at best practices and expanding our idea of what it means to immerse students in nature, from primarily backcountry experiences, to embracing more aesthetic, place-based experiences that are accessible to all of our students, will allow us to provide more opportunities for our students. We are doing this through embracing Art Rx and other urban based biophilic principles. The Nature Rx work group meets alternating Tuesdays, 2-3 PM ET.

Our group of Student Fellows has met twice. As we begin to identify the areas of collaboration for this group and how they can best integrate into the work of their campuses, we have spent time getting to know each other and learning more about the student experience on each other's campuses. Thus far, the conversations have focused on 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 Recap

Mapping Belonging Application Form

Nature Rx Funding Application Form

Please Note: 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.

Faculty and student life leaders from the 10 small Endeavor Lab Colleges (ELC) met October 27-29 at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio for the inaugural convening of the Endeavor Fellows. This gathering brought together representatives from small liberal arts colleges, Maine to Arizona, to strengthen a shared vision for placing well-being, belonging, community care, and purpose at the center of the liberal arts experience.  

Through dialogue, embodied practice, and collaborative design, Fellows surfaced shared elements of the liberal arts tradition and a collective understanding of well-being and community care as relational, systemic, and sustainable, and of resilience as the capacity to recover and grow together.

Over two days, campuses spotlighted existing models, co-envisioned adaptable tools, and began transforming parallel initiatives into a connected ecosystem of shared learning. Participants emphasized the importance of evolving from siloed academic and wellness programming to an institutionalized culture of care that embeds well-being across systems, policies, and campus life. 



Faculty Fellows

The Faculty Fellows dedicated significant time to exploring both the shared and distinctive elements of their curricula through the lens of the liberal arts. Across three energized sessions, the group identified powerful ways in which the liberal arts embody knowledge and practices that support students’ well-being, belonging, resilience, and purpose. Through hands-on curriculum mapping, faculty from across campuses identified shared constructs and skill-building within the liberal arts, as well as new possibilities to further integrate well-being, belonging, and purpose more intentionally throughout curricula. This collective work reflects a meaningful, shared commitment to strengthening student engagement, academic success, and holistic development.



ELC Presidential Fellows advancing wellness within the liberal arts curriculum include:

• Queen Zabriskie - Antioch College 

• Mark Hopper - Blackburn College

• Jenny Rohn - Bennington College

• Hien Nguyen - College of the Atlantic 

• Sara Estrada-Villalta - Prescott College

• Suzanne Bessenger - Randolph College

• Carol Dickson - Sterling College

• Ron Haflidson – St. John’s College, Annapolis

• David McDonald - St. John’s College, Santa Fe 

• Susan Ortiz – Warren Wilson College

Community Care and Resilient Communities Fellows

Student life and student support staff explored evidence-based models for building “community care” and “resilient” campus environments. Members began by defining the meaning of “community care” and “resilience” across ELC campuses, identifying strategies that reflect what “care” and "resilience" mean across ELC campuses, identifying visible practices that embody these values, and mapping barriers and success indicators.

The ELC’s goal is to develop a shared vision and practical resources, including curriculum, coaching materials, and other tools to enhance community care, resilience, belonging, and the integration of mental health and wellness into campus culture. 



ELC Presidential Fellows engaged in community care and resilience initiatives include: 

• Malek Stewart - Antioch College 

• Steven Young - Bennington College

• Mindy Beisner - Blackburn College

• Maya Caines – College of the Atlantic 

• Jason St. Clair – Prescott College

• Jennifer Bondurant - Randolph College

• Craig Wilson - Sterling College

• Heather Lopez – St. John’s College, Annapolis

• Christine Guevara - St. John’s College, Santa Fe

• Robin Martin – Warren Wilson College

Emerging Insights and Next Steps

The convening also surfaced overlapping challenges including faculty and staff fatigue, inconsistent institutional buy-in, and language fatigue around “resilience.” Fellows underscored the need to move from reactive approaches to proactive, trauma-informed, and prevention-based strategies that strengthen community capacity.


The convening concluded with identifying shared priorities:

• strengthen campus task forces,

• document and share innovative models, and

• sustain a rhythm of cross-campus collaboration.

Together, the ELC’s efforts are establishing the foundation for a truly integrated framework of institutional wellness across all Endeavor campuses.

Check Out John’s Blog: From Uncertainty to Opportunity: How Experiential Learning Builds Resilient, Career-Ready Graduates

John has been an active member of the Purposeful Life and Work Group since 2024 and now serves as Co-Lead of the group alongside Danielle Lico, Vice President of Student Affairs at St. John’s College. In this role, he helps advance initiatives that encourage students to connect their academic experiences with purposeful, values-driven career and life planning.

At Bennington College, John serves as Dean of Integrated Learning and Career Readiness, where he leads one of the nation’s most immersive applied learning programs. He oversees the integration of academic and experiential learning, ensuring that all students complete four career-aligned internships before graduation, while fostering meaningful partnerships with employers and faculty to support student success. Most recently, John received the J.W. Paquette Superior Leadership Award from Midwest Association of Colleges & Employers. This award recognizes distinguished service to the association and exceptional leadership within the career services and recruiting field.

Since joining the Purposeful Life and Work Group, John has contributed to its knowledge base through the creation of the Career Quest Program, a developmental model designed to help students understand the career development process and make informed academic and career decisions. The program introduces students to self and career exploration, personal branding, and career management strategies, and is now being reimagined as a first-year orientation to Bennington’s distinctive Field Work Term experience.

John holds a Doctor of Education from Webster University and is a certified résumé writer, digital career strategist, and interview coach. His work is guided by a commitment to helping students gain the skills, experiences, and networks needed to thrive in an ever-evolving professional world.

If you know someone or a program at your institution that you would like to be highlighted, please contact ELC@sterlingcollege.edu. 

A sensory bag is more than a collection of tools. It provides resources and experiences to be shared and explored with others. It also serves as a micro-practice in community care. Each item offers a hands-on way to personally explore the Community Resiliency Model (CRM) wellness skills, helping us tune into our nervous systems, support regulation, and strengthen collective resilience. These tools are meant to be experienced, not just understood. The Sensory Bags remind us that care is something we can hold, sense, and share. Click this link to learn more about the construction and use of  Sensory Bags as Tools for Community Care and Resilience.

Chelsea Piechowski became Randolph College’s first Chief Wellness Officer in July 2025. In this role, she oversees the Terrell Health and Counseling Centers and leads campus-wide wellness initiatives, integrating health, counseling, and prevention services to foster a culture of care and resilience.

Before joining Randolph, Chelsea served as Director of Counseling at a Federally Qualified Health Center, where she developed and supervised integrated behavioral health programs. She is also the founder of Collaborative Counseling & Consulting, LLC, and of The Wellness Collective, both focused on holistic, neurodiversity-affirming, and trauma-informed approaches to care. She is a Licensed Professional Counselor, Nationally Certified Counselor, and Approved Clinical Supervisor, recognized for her expertise in neurodiversity and trauma-informed care. Chelsea is passionate about creating inclusive, strengths-based systems that help individuals and communities thrive. 

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