ARConnections
A newsletter of the Academic Resilience Consortium
Volume 2: Issue 1
Spring 2022
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Don't miss our
Webinar on March 30th
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ARC Explores Webinar Series:
COVID-19 & Mental Health in Higher Education
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Coming in April:
ARC Explores: Helping Students Thrive through Academic Recovery Courses
Wednesday April 20, 2022
Join us in this session led by Ashley Gragido, Associate Director of Student Success & Academic Resiliency at California State University San Marcos. Learn about theories that can inform the structure of student success courses on the topics of academic recovery, resiliency, and personal development. Leave with ideas about how to create your own courses, including course themes, sample assignments, and next steps to build collaborative partnerships on your campus.
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Program Spotlight on
The Academic Guides Program
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Program Spotlight on
The O'Neill Resilience and
Wellbeing Initiative
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Rebecca Gilbert – Indiana University: Bloomington | | |
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The O’Neill Resilience and Wellbeing Initiative at Indiana University Bloomington is an exciting partnership between the Student Health Center and the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs. The O’Neill School identified wellbeing as a core value; in 2020, they approached the Student Health Center to create a program which promotes student resilience development. | | |
The current program consists of four components:
an 8-week, 1 credit hour undergraduate course,
a series of graduate student seminars, sponsored health-coaching sessions and licensed counselors with offices in the O’Neill building.
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The undergraduate class is a unique feature of this project. Resilience and Wellbeing for Public Leaders is a research-based, psychoeducational course that integrates key concepts from health coaching, cognitive behavioral approaches and positive psychology to create a dynamic, experiential learning opportunity for personal growth and development. Students support and learn from each other through structured peer-mentorship workgroups. They learn how to apply skills learned in class and how to set and achieve meaningful goals. | | |
After completing the class, students are welcome to take advantage of further health coaching to maintain their progress. | | | |
Program Spotlight on
The Gratitude Challenge
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Alex Bolinger - Idaho State
The COVID-19 pandemic has been very challenging for our university community and especially for incoming and early-career students who missed out on many academic, extracurricular, and social opportunities in high school and their first semesters of college. We launched the Idaho State University Honors Program's Gratitude Challenge in the fall of 2021 to combat the profound sense of isolation, emotional exhaustion, and other challenges to our students' mental health and overall well-being. The Gratitude Challenge is grounded in a growing body of research on the benefits of writing letters of gratitude to rebuild a shared sense of community and to increase the well-being of both students and the people around them (Adair et al., 2020; Kumar & Epley, 2018).
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We are looking forward to sharing how one numerically small program on campus used the Gratitude Challenge to reach out to the entire campus community and generate participation that benefited hundreds of students, faculty/staff, and alumni. | |
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What are the Characteristics of Resilient People? | |
Cognitive Flexibility
- Being aware of negative thoughts
- Avoiding perfectionism
Active Coping Skills
- Seeking out resources
- Engaging in healthy responses to stress
Emotional Self-regulation
- Having the ability to focus
- Planning ahead
Optimism
- Being hopeful for the future
- Having a sense of humor
Physical Well-being
- Getting good sleep
- Having healthy eating and exercise habits
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Supportive Social Network
- Building prosocial skills that foster supportive relationships
- Engaging in positive communities
Mindfulness/Spirituality
- Having positive core values and beliefs
- Finding meaning and purpose in life
References
Iacoviello, B. M., & Charney, D. S. (2014). Psychosocial facets of resilience: Implications for preventing posttrauma
psychopathology, treating trauma survivors, and enhancing community resilience. European Journal of
Psychotraumatology, 5. https://doi.org/10.3402/ejpt.v5.23970
Wu, G., Feder, A., Cohen, H., Kim, J. J., Calderon, S., Charney, D. S., & Mathe, A. A. (2013). Understanding resilience.
Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 7, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2013.00010
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hello@academicresilience.org
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https://academicresilience.org/
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