Wellness Classroom Visits

In-person and interactive

The presentations are designed to highlight the importance of specific theme related to well-being and academics, teach a specific strategy relevant the topic, and provide information about relevant campus resources and support. During the presentations, volunteers also share their experiences as a student which normalizes experiences with mental health and academic challenges and promotes help seeking. After a presentation, instructors will be sent additional mental health and academic resources to share with their class.

Topics for Winter 2026 include:

• Managing Burnout
  Students frequently report feeling overwhelmed by competing demands. This presentation helps students understand the stress response and introduces mindfulness techniques to reduce stress and negative thought patterns, while cultivating a sense of balance and well-being.
• Prioritizing Wellness
  Student well-being is strongly linked to academic success, yet wellness is often deprioritized. This presentation invites students to reflect on areas of wellness they are neglecting and offer practical strategies to help them prioritize wellness in their daily routines.
• Mindfulness for Stress Management
  This presentation focuses on understanding the stress response and overviews mindfulness techniques students can use in the moment to reduce stress and negative thought patterns, and foster more positivity.
• Practicing Self-Compassion
  Students are often their own harshest critics, which can negatively impact mental health and academic success. This presentation highlights the benefits of self-compassion and provides strategies to build resilience, boost confidence, and enhance overall well-being.
• Overcoming Perfectionism
  Perfectionism is common in academic settings. This presentation explores the drawbacks of perfectionism, encourages the development of a healthier mindset, and teaches strategies for overcoming setbacks. Ideal before or after getting receiving exam or assignment grades.
• Building Social Courage and Meeting New People
  This presentation explores the reality of social anxiety and provides practical tools  for building social courage and making new connections. Recommended for first year courses.
• Making Positive Behavioural Changes: Presented by the UCalgary Recovery Community, this presentation highlights  why the ability to change our behaviour is essential and how to make those positive changes.
• Building Career Confidence for Wellbeing: A degree can open many paths, but how do students figure out which one feels right for them? This presentation will help students learn about the career compass and reflect on what they have learned in their course and understand how their unique combination of interests, traits, and skills can guide them toward a meaningful and motivating career.
• Study Smart, Stay Well: Organizing your studying with self-care in mind: This presentation explores evidence-based best practices for effective learning, with a focus on structuring study sessions and building consistent study habits alongside coursework. Finding a balance is key, so emphasis will be placed on building healthy habits to distribute studying around self-care to reduce the need for cramming.
• Study Smart, Stay Well: Transforming studying into meaningful learning: This presentation focuses on evidence-based best practices for effective learning, with an emphasis on how to more effectively process information, moving from rote memorization to deeper learning.
• The Writing Mindset: Discover your writing rhythm: This presentation guides students on how to plan and carry out large writing assignments by focusing on developing an approach to writing that works for them.
• The Exam Mindset: Developing a positive approach to exam preparation: This presentation provides students in planning for and taking exams, with a focus on intentional planning and navigating challenges.  It is best scheduled at least three weeks before an exam to allow students have time to apply the strategies learned.

Looking for other options?

As an alternative to in-person visits, we can also:

1. Facilitate presentations virtually over Zoom
2. Provide PowerPoint slides and materials to instructors who would like to facilitate the presentations to their class themselves
3. Provide instructors with Wellness Classroom Visit videos that they can show their class at any time
4. Check out the Student Wellness Services Health Promotion & Outreach Team website to explore other ways we work with faculty to support them in promoting student wellbeing.

Please email us to inquire about these options at communityhub@ucalgary.ca.

Background

This project recognizes the reciprocal relationship between students’ mental health and their academics. In the most recent National College Health Assessment, 58% of students reported that academics were traumatic or very difficult to handle. In addition, three of the top four factors indicated by students as affecting their academic performance were directly related to their mental health, including stress (42%), anxiety (35%), depression (24%) and sleep difficulties (29%) (ACHA, 2019).  

In addition to being driven by this data, the classroom visit initiative was conceptualized based on student feedback provided by undergraduate interviews conducted in 2021 by the Campus Mental Health Strategy Teaching & Learning Subcommittee as part of a Strengths and Needs Assessment (Lindsay, Bernier, Boman, & Boyce, 2023). Students emphasized the importance of the following key activities to support student mental wellbeing in their courses: 

• Prioritizing mental health consistently and collectively across their courses
• Guiding students to relevant mental health and academic supports
• Promoting mental health literacy, including incorporating education on mental health into classes
• Facilitating connection building between students   

These findings underscore the value of developing initiatives that both support student wellbeing and academic development, which is the purpose behind Wellness Classroom Visits. The initiative was piloted in fall 2021 and winter 2022 and had great uptake and positive feedback from students and faculty. We received SU Quality Money which enabled us to grow and expand the program from fall 2022 to winter 2024. We are excited to continue to offer this program in collaboration with the Community Mental Health & Well-Being Strategy. Since the project's inception in 2021, it has made a significant impact, reaching over 48,300 students and receiving overwhelmingly positive feedback.