In an effort to provide students with life skills they can use to get ahead of crisis and mitigate distress, Pepperdine University developed the Resilience Informed Skills Education (RISE) program. It’s now a specific office within student affairs. The program begins during students’ first term in a credit-based small group and is then interwoven throughout social programming, academics and residence life. It incorporates six dimensions of resilience: physical, social, cognitive, spiritual, service and life skills. And then each dimension features three building blocks.
“The idea was: let’s get upstream,” Connie Horton, vice president for student affairs, explained. “Instead of just being intervention and crisis response, let’s get upstream and teach people skills, ways of thinking, ways of living that would help promote mental health.”
Faculty, staff and students who provide RISE programming or teach the initial course must go through training. It’s designed to help them better understand the six dimensions of resilience, reported Inside Higher Ed, through activities such as role-playing. Students can access RISE programming through a living learning community, one-on-one coaching, academic integration, an annual conference, events and more.
Read about it all here.
