Today’s news cycle is packed with stories of heightened anxiety among teens and young adults. Elevated anxiety can have a significant impact on students’ college experience and affect their ability to work, study, make friends, and even participate in daily activities.

Not surprisingly, Meredith students are affected by these trends. That’s why the campus community is engaged in a wide range of efforts to help students manage these challenges – and become even stronger.

What the Data Shows

Through an annual Student Satisfaction Survey, Meredith checks in with students about various aspects of their college experience – including their anxiety levels. In the most recent survey, nearly half of the respondents (44%) agreed that anxiety had negatively impacted their college experience. 

According to Beth Meier, director of the Counseling Center, there is likely no single reason for the increased anxiety among young people. Rather, it’s a combination of factors.

“Social media and excessive time on smartphones have contributed to this generation’s anxiety and sense of loneliness,” said Meier. “The pandemic certainly added to anxiety levels and isolation. Additionally, the division in our country, the rise in mean-spirited and hateful communication, and racism all add to anxiety levels.”

This fall Meredith participated in the National College Health Assessment (NCHA), sponsored and distributed by the American College Health Association (ACHA). Topics covered in the nationwide survey included overall health and community, sleep, mental health, food security, nutrition, exercise, and more. Survey data will provide valuable information about Meredith students as well as regional and national trends. 

Just as there is no one reason for increased student anxiety, there is likely no single way to address it effectively. Fortunately, programs and departments across campus are working to support students through varied (and often creative) programming.

Counseling Center

Meier said that although finding the causes of distress is valuable, leaning into a solution-focused mindset is equally, if not more, important.

According to the Center for Collegiate Mental Health (CCMH), data shows college students have been feeling more anxious since the pandemic. Meier said one symptom that stands out is that students fear others do not like them.

“When asked to provide facts to support this fear, students rarely can. However, students are feeling lonely. It’s tough to ask someone to lunch or ask someone sitting alone in the dining hall if they’d be up for company,” she said. “I have rarely met a student who would ask someone they don’t know well if they could sit with them during a meal, but all say they would welcome someone asking them.”

Fortunately, the Counseling Center can help students learn to manage their anxiety and fears, primarily through individual counseling. Counseling is tailored to meet the individual’s needs and concerns. Some of the things students might want to work on include learning to regulate or manage emotions like anxiety and depression rather than being overwhelmed by their feelings and building friendships or improving trust and closeness in their relationships.

Data shows students who participate in counseling see their symptoms improve.

“As part of the initial appointment, students complete a 64-question survey, rating their symptoms of distress. We see ratings drop, often significantly, as counseling progresses, indicating students are feeling and doing better,” said Meier.

These improvements affect how the students feel, with research showing symptoms decrease most dramatically within the first four counseling sessions. Research also shows mental health counseling helps students function and positively impacts their ability to stay in college and graduate.

Student Health and Wellness Center

According to Mary Johnson, ’07, director of health services, students are coming to college with very different life experiences and perceptions than in previous decades.

“College wellness as a whole is changing,” she said. “The risky behaviors have decreased because students are not taking risks. It’s good because they’re not going around without seatbelts and not wearing helmets when they ride bikes. They’re too scared to put themselves in challenging situations, which is great overall, but at the same time, I think it comes out of a place of fear.”

Johnson said the Meredith community is doing far more than many colleges of comparable size to support its students, and the variety of offerings is helping to meet the varied students’ needs.

“There isn’t one voice that’s going to reach everybody. And we have so many talented individuals on this campus with such a wealth of knowledge that it taps into all of those strengths,” said Johnson.

Meredith is revitalizing its advisory wellness committee, which disbanded because of the COVID-19 pandemic, to bring these voices together. Johnson said she’s hopeful the committee will establish more cohesion to wellness efforts across campus.

Johnson believes helping students manage their anxiety is inextricably linked to their overall wellness, so steps they can take to improve things like nutrition and exercise, safe sexual practices, mindfulness meditation, and more can all help their mental health, too.

The latter is a particular passion for Johnson, who is a certified Koru Mindfulness instructor. She holds two to four workshops a semester that teach students both meditation and mindfulness exercises.

“They walk out with tools that can help them. And it always fills up really quickly, so we know it’s reaching the students where they are.

Listening closely to students is another passion for Johnson, who said her team is fortunate in the amount of time they can spend with students when they come to the Health Center – and that, in turn, has helped to inform the Health Center’s practices.

“We’re growing with the students. If it looked like what it was 10 years ago, we wouldn’t be doing our job, right? We wouldn’t be serving our students. Because our students are always changing, it’s important that we’re not just static, that we move with them,” said Johnson. “They want to leave with something more than a prescription. They want to leave with knowledge. And I think that shift in our student population has created a shift in our clinical model.”

Library

The Carlyle Campbell Library may traditionally have served as the academic heart of campus, but library staff has taken seriously the need to support students holistically. In recent years, library initiatives include adapting space and furnishings to make the library feel more welcoming, providing resources designed to support students’ mental health, and offering programming that supports community building.

“We feel like the library has a role to play in helping address the mental health challenges of our student body,” said Jeffrey Waller, interim co-dean. “We decided to develop a collection of mental health workbooks to help students understand the issues they’re wrestling with and learn some new coping mechanisms and skills to deal with those things.”

Waller said while it’s not a substitute for counseling, these resources offer a way for students to help themselves. The books use therapeutic approaches and were chosen in partnership with the Counseling Center.

Another innovative way the Library supports students is by paying close attention to its trending reads section for young adults, one of the Library’s most popular collections.

“We want to make sure that our students can see themselves in the resources that we’re providing. Not only is the young adults section popular, but these are books that are on the forefront of inclusion,” said Amanda Sullivan, ’98, research and instruction librarian.

The Library has hosted a variety of events for students, including Mental Health Day, craft events such as bracelet making and succulent plant potting, and chair massages during spring finals through a partnership with Wake Technical Community College. They also maintain an ongoing coloring station that is well-used by students.

All of these choices may seem beyond the typical idea of what libraries are doing. According to Waller, that’s precisely the point.

“Libraries have to evolve, because students and faculty can get most of their research needs online remotely from their dorm rooms or apartments. And so we need to find new purposes for our library as a crossroads space on campus,” said Waller. “These community-building events are a logical extension of that because we all care about trying to rebuild community in this post-COVID environment.” 

One unusual way the library helps to mitigate student anxiety is by supporting them financially. The library partnered with Technology Services to purchase laptops so that students who have a financial need and are unable to get a laptop or their laptop is damaged can get an extended loan for a semester. 

“We also work with faculty to select electronic resources that can be used as a textbook or as supplemental materials so that students don’t have to purchase them,” said interim co-dean Carrie Nichols. “And like public libraries, we no longer charge fines for most of our materials, which makes our facilities more accessible.

Sullivan said she thinks librarians are uniquely suited to helping students who may be struggling to communicate and engage with the community.

“You always have your librarian antenna up,” she said. “This is a service position, and we just have this tingle like, ‘Do you have a question? Can I help you with anything? Oh, well, let us know if you do.’ Just that small interaction and planting the seed lets students know we’re an open and welcoming presence.”

Lowery Fitness Center

In the Student Satisfaction Survey, the number one resource students said improved or sustained their mental health was the Lowery Fitness Center. This data point was not at all surprising to Heather Sanderson, assistant professor of health, exercise and sport sciences and director of the Lowery Fitness Center.

“Once a student experiences the physical activity practice they gain self-confidence and recognize how their body and mind respond during and after the exercise,” said Sanderson. “I always say to students, ‘People feel better after they exercise. It’s a quick mood booster.’”

Sanderson said the connection between exercise and mental health is noted by the positive changes in the cardiorespiratory, endocrine, and nervous systems. Those who suffer from anxiety tend to have elevated levels of stress hormones and quicker sympathetic nervous system responses. 

“A reduction in hormones of the sympathetic nervous system (the fight, flight, freeze mechanism) occurs immediately following exercise,” she said. “Parasympathetic (rest and digest) nervous system hormones are released and activate the vagus nerve to slow the heart and respiratory rates down, which promotes a feeling of relaxation and calm.”

She observed that many anxiety-reducing activities, such as deep diaphragmatic breathing and various exercise techniques, train the vagus nerve to improve the strength of the parasympathetic nervous system and then suppress the sympathetic nervous system. With continued regular exercise, students have a stronger parasympathetic nervous system long term.

Sanderson said brain structures are influenced by regular exercise, which not only helps manage mental health, it also improves memory and cognition.

“Studies have shown growth in brain structures such as the hippocampus (memory center) and the prefrontal cortex (problem-solving and creative thinking area) with regular exercise,” she said. “Students who are physically active in college are more successful in the classroom because of the neurological and physiological benefits of exercise on mental health.”

Students engage with the Fitness Center in a variety of ways. Free classes are offered through the Angels in Motion (AIM) small group exercise program and through health and physical learning courses, which are general education requirements. Health, Exercise, and Sport Sciences students teach wellness activity classes through the AIM program to other students. According to Sanderson, the peer-to-peer connection creates a stronger sense of community, which makes participants more likely to continue their exercise practice.

“I always hear students commenting how much better they feel after they leave the Lowery Fitness Center. We also have evidence from our health and physical learning course evaluations from students,” said Sanderson.

Additional Support Services

Meredith’s student support is broad and deep, with programs specifically focused on helping students succeed in college. StrongPoints®, Meredith’s personal advising and coaching program, helps students emphasize their unique strengths and find ways to use them in their studies, personally, and professionally. Student Success Coaches are assigned to students, giving them a go-to person to answer questions of all kinds, from academic concerns to advice on where to find a particular campus resource. And Residence Life provides a range of programming on topics such as building social connections, making healthy and safe choices, and fostering personal growth.

Alumnae

Meredith alumnae may have faced different challenges when they were in college, but they are committed to supporting the current generation of students. Hilary Allen, ’01, director of alumnae relations, said her team and Meredith alumnae recognize that today’s students have different needs.

“They face more pressure than ever – academic, financial, personal. Our student outreach initiatives were a response to that and a means to support students, create community, and certainly offer fun engagement activities.”

During the 2023-24 academic year, the Office of Alumnae Relations sponsored 28 student events; this year, they sponsored 16 different student events throughout the fall semester. 

Alumnae outreach efforts and programming for students increased after starting the 1891 Club, the student alumnae association. According to Allen, during COVID-19 they wanted to do even more to support all current students, including those who might not be members of the Club. They launched a series of student pop up events that continue today, such as First Day of Class (FDOC) Celebration and the Halloween and Galentine’s Pop Up events.

Offerings continue to evolve. One of the newest was the Ask an Alumna Series last year, which includes two sessions per semester and concludes with a networking event. Each session features a panel of alumnae experts and topics have included Health and Wellness, Time Management and Organization, Financial Literacy, and Resumes and Interviews. 

Another new offering is Onyx Connections, a more informal gathering. Facilitated and staffed solely by alumnae volunteers, Onyx Connections allows alumnae to return to campus to offer baked goods, flowers, visits with a pup, a listening ear, and much more. 

“Our alumnae enjoy the on-campus student events just as much as our students,” said Allen. “These events provide wonderful opportunities for alumnae to return to campus to connect, support, and encourage our current students. It’s also important for students to see that alumnae remain engaged and loyal to the College. We hope that our current students will one day be alumnae who want to return to campus and support students in the very same way.”

Allen said students enjoy the events, as well.

“We recognize that our students lead busy, hectic lives; we want the events to be fun, beneficial, and easy for them to participate in. I think that is why we always have such great participation from our students because they can just show up,” said Allen. “In events with a craft, such as the trucker hat bar that we hosted this fall, I love seeing their creativity, how they work independently, and how they support and encourage one another. They recognize that this type of outreach is unique to Meredith and part of what makes this such a special community.”