Breakout Sessions

Session A (10:15-11:15am)

A1. The Classroom Experience: Panel

Presence of Mind: Contemplative Practices and Whole Student Support

Facilitator: Joan Gabriele and Jim Walker with Norlin Scholars Samantha Bartolo, Shawn D’Souza, Sarah Lurie and Kristy Ung (UCB)

Today’s students have more pressure to credential, are over-extended with enrichment activities and jobs, report elevated anxiety and other mental-health challenges, and are, in Rhonda Magee’s phrase, “radically distracted.” Norlin Scholars Program at CU developed an inquiry-based model for integrated support that shows even small interventions can make a difference in student lives. Interventions/practices in our first and third-year courses include mindfulness, silence, play, embodiment, technology fasts, self-reflection, mentorship and more. Norlin faculty and students will share their experiences as teacher, learners and practitioners in a contemplative classroom, offering assignment ideas and other practical pedagogical tips.

A2. A Practice Encounter with Settler Colonialism

Facilitator: Cynthia Drake (Naropa)

In this session we will experientially explore the legacy of 500 years of settler colonialism in North America. Using contemplative practice as our vehicle, we will examine how bringing our awareness into our inner landscape and outward into the environment around us can facilitate new insights. We will use mindfulness practice, free writing, and dialogue to bring these new insights into focus.

A3. Growing a Mindfulness Center on Campus

Facilitators: Mike Kimball (UNC) and Deb Colbert (CSU)
 

Join us for a discussion about the possibilities for creating a Center for Mindfulness.  We will share our unique stories from the perspectives of Colorado State University and the University of Northern Colorado.

Session B (11:30-12:30pm)

B1. Mindful Campus

Bringing Undergraduate Voices into Discourses on Mindfulness and Wellness
Facilitator: Caitlin McKimmy and Jade Gutiérrez (UCB)

Beginning in January 2019, an interdisciplinary team of faculty, graduate students, university staff, community meditation instructors, and undergraduate students at CU Boulder convened in a joint effort to understand the problems of practice related to mindfulness and to establish a foundation for developing and evaluating student mindfulness programming at CU. To this end, the team has employed participatory research methods to forge a “research practice partnership” among diverse experts to ask questions and design solutions that are driven by the practical needs of the undergraduate community. One thread of this community-engaged research includes a cohort of undergraduate students who are working to design and conduct research to inform the implementation of mindfulness programming at CU. The student research team is following the framework of Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR), a method intended to elicit the perspectives and knowledge of youth to transform systems.

During this breakout session, students from the research team will speak about their experience and share their perspectives on how undergraduates can be involved in the implementation of mindfulness programming on college campuses.

B2. Dialogue on Contemplative Education

Facilitators: Margit Hentschel (CSU) and Richard Brown (Naropa)

Inner knowing is inherent in everyone. How do we invite - and encourage - this special space of being human in an academic setting. This panel offers an exploration of diverse pathways of entry to support a student's whole self while they navigate higher education.  Naropa University and Colorado State University speakers share their experiences on how and why they cultivate and engage their respective campus communities in contemplative education.

B3. Mental Health and Mindfulness

Facilitator: Paulette EricksonEngland (UCB)

Join us for a round table discussion considering  the use of contemplative resources for health and wellness, stress management and personal growth. Utilizing a trauma-informed lens we will discuss the benefits and pitfalls of using mindfulness practices in a therapeutic environment.

B4. Technology and Mindfulness

Facilitators: Mark Werner and Annie Margaret Bruns (UCB)

This breakout session will explore the intersection of technologies and mindfulness practices in educational settings. Dr. Bruns will explore the constructs of deep attention and hyper attention, and their place in addressing the enormous challenges facing our society today. She will explore the role of mindfulness in developing sustained focus, the role of technology in developing hyperfocus, and pedagogical practices aiming to foster students who excel in both states. Dr. Werner will approach this topic from a practitioner’s perspective of decades of experience with technologies used for instruction, and in bringing a mindfulness practice into his daily work. Dr. Werner will ask what role mindfulness might play in counterbalancing the negative effects of being immersed in technologies in work and in learning. He will also explore the roles technology can play in supporting or attenuating mindfulness.