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

Conversations on Jesuit Higher Education, Sep 2018

By Laura D. Valtin, Mindy McWilliams, and David Ebenbach, Published on 09/01/18

A PDF file should load here. If you do not see its contents the file may be temporarily unavailable at the journal website or you do not have a PDF plug-in installed and enabled in your browser.

Alternatively, you can download the file locally and open with any standalone PDF reader:

https://epublications.marquette.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2175&context=conversations

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

Well-being in the Curriculum: W hat Faculty Can Do to Address the Mental Health of Our Students Laura D. Valtin 0 0 Valtin , Laura D.; McWilliams, Mindy; and Ebenbach , David (2018) "Well-being in the Curriculum: What Faculty Can Do to Address the Mental Health of Our Students," Conversations on Jesuit Higher Education: Vol. 54 , Article 8. Available at: https://epublications.marquette.edu/conversations/vol54/iss1/8 Follow this and additional works at; https; //epublications; marquette; edu/conversations In her Synaptic Transmission course, Kathy Maguire-Zeiss (neuro science) examines the effect of sleep deprivation on the brain, body, and resulting functioning. © Can Stock Photo / Andreus Well-being in the Curriculum What Faculty Can Do to Address the Mental Health of Our Students By Laura D. Valtin, Mindy McWilliams, and David Ebenbach Today’s college students are ties, where we strive for cura facing mental health chal- personalis in our interactions lenges at an alarming rate. Ac- with students. However, the cording to the American idea of translating this to the College Health Association’s classroom – giving meaning2017 National College Health ful attention to the wide range Assessment, over half of all of academic, social, physical, college students reported feel- and mental health needs of ing overwhelming anxiety in our students – can be dauntthe past 12 months. Nearly 40 ing. One way to do it is to percent of college students re- bring college mental health ported feeling “so depressed and well-being topics into the it was difficult to function,” classroom and make them over 60 percent reported feel- part of the open and serious ing “very lonely,” and 87 per- academic conversations we cent felt “overwhelmed.” It’s have with students. Another clear that our college students way is to design our courses are struggling. What can edu- so that they integrate the cators do to help? various strands of students’ This question has particu- disparate lives – weaving tolar relevance for instructors at gether their social and emoJesuit colleges and universi- tional lives with their academic and cognitive lives. And most important, we can help students to develop a sense of belonging on our campuses, foster meaningful relationships, and create connections to people within our campus community who can help them not only on their academic path but also on their life journey. The Engelhard Project: An Experiment in Curriculum Infusion The Engelhard Project: Curriculum Infusion Model Faculty link academic course content to a selected well-being topic through the following elements: • Readings & Discussions • Campus Resource Professional Visit • Student Written Reflections In 2005, a group of Georgetown faculty, teaching and learning center staff, and counseling and student services professionals began to experiment with these kinds of conversations in the classroom, with the aim of destigmatizing mental health and other stressors, After faculty determine a mental health or wellengaging students more deeply in their learning, and being topic for their course, they incorporate three nurturing feelings of belonging and meaningful con- engagement components into their teaching: relenections. Initially supported by the Bringing Theory vant readings, discussion with a campus resource to Practice Project, this effort is known today as the professional, and student written reflections. Engelhard Project for Connecting Life and Learning. Faculty select class readings that illustrate and The project uses a “curriculum infusion” approach, support the connection between the chosen topic, in which faculty integrate topics of mental health and the course’s academic content, and students’ own well-being into their courses. lives. Alan Mitchell (theology) teaches Introduction As part of the project, faculty select a specific to Biblical Literature with a focus on friendship and mental health topic as the focal point of their com- health relationships and assigns relevant biblical mitment to creating space in the classroom for the texts from the New Testament (specifically from “real world.” A sampling of such topics from past Luke and Acts of the Apostles) that demonstrate the courses includes anxiety, depression, eating disor- richness of friendship traditions. ders, flourishing, adjusting to college, and coping To enhance the discussion of the readings and to with stress. The opportunities to make connections truly bring campus life, national data, and relevant between these topics and course content are endless college student issues into the classroom, the faculty and can be found in unexpected places. For example, partner with a campus resource professional for a over his years of involvement with the project, Jim classroom visit and discussion – for example, a staff Sandefur (mathematics) has used math models to il- member from Counseling & Psychiatric Services, lustrate the effects on the human body of dr (...truncated)


This is a preview of a remote PDF: https://epublications.marquette.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2175&context=conversations

Laura D. Valtin, Mindy McWilliams, David Ebenbach. Well-being in the Curriculum: What Faculty Can Do to Address the Mental Health of Our Students, Conversations on Jesuit Higher Education, 2018, Volume 54, Issue 1,