With Giving Tuesday coming up on December 2, Jason Borrelli ’94 is inviting all who are able to help launch a new mental health initiative at Penn State, called the Learn to Flourish Design Hub.
Recently, Jason was on a Zoom call with Penn State discussing their Giving Tuesday campaign. As some of you know, his and his wife Julie’s philanthropy thus far at PSU has primarily been focused on the Real Estate program within Smeal, as well as various student scholarships (and of course, tailgates). As they thought about what was next, they quickly zeroed in on mental health. Below is an excerpt from the PSU HHD website (https://prevention.psu.edu) that provides some explanation of the Hub’s purpose and expectations:
“The initiative is unlike any other at Penn State in that it will facilitate collaboration between faculty experts and engaged students as they work together to co-design, test and disseminate interventions meant to prevent adverse mental health outcomes and promote flourishing among college students. The idea for the Learn to Flourish Design Hub has its origins in a 2017 course called “The Art and Science of Human Flourishing,” which focused on leveraging mindfulness and compassion skills to effect personal and social transformation. The hub will expand this work by using participatory action research, which is a model through which students and faculty co-design interventions and the research studies that refine those interventions. These efforts will create a pipeline to develop a wide array of resources to promote positive mental health and well-being in young adults. In addition, the Design Hub will proactively collaborate with faculty from across the University who bring varied disciplinary expertise to the challenge of co-designing effective preventive measures.”
As Jason noted, it is hard to imagine any of us not knowing someone among our family or friends that does not struggle with mental health issues such as anxiety or depression. Jason and Julie met with Craig Newschaffer (dean of College of Health and Human Development) and Blake Colaianne (Assistant Research Professor), who will be the Executive Director of the new Learn to Flourish Design Hub.
There is certainly no expectation or obligation, but if any of this resonates with you, and if you would like to be a part of launching this Hub, you can do so via the PSU Giving Tuesday website as pictured below.
Once you get to the home page, click on “Make Your Gift Early” (this will likely change to “Make Your Gift” once we get to Giving Tuesday). Then you can type “flourish” in the Designation search box, and you should see the Flourishing Fund pop up. Lastly, if you would like any additional information regarding this Learning to Flourish Design Hub, please reach out to Jason at [email protected].