Emmanuel College
400 The Fenway
Boston, MA 02115
Website: emmanuel.edu
Description of Organization
In 1919, the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, an international Catholic religious congregation, opened Emmanuel College as the first Catholic college for women in New England. In 2012, the Program for Mindfulness and Contemplative Learning at Emmanuel College was developed as an experiential and research initiative focused on understanding and disseminating mindfulness within the college student population, with overarching goals of: 1) promoting interventions that reduce psychological distress and bolster well-being, particularly in under-served college students and 2) further exploring the relationships between mindfulness and psychological, emotional, and academic functioning among college students.
Grant(s) Awarded
In 2021, a COVID-19 Grant of $5,500 was awarded to Emmanuel College to continue the Mindfulness and Contemplative Learning (PMCL) Program, which includes the Mindfulness Meditation Group Program, The Mindfulness Speaker Series, expansion of the Mindfulness Library and the implementation of a group Mindfulness-Based Intervention Program.
The COVID-19 Impact: The Program Director’s time was reduced for scholarship outreach, grant-writing, conference attendance, and a planned mindfulness teacher training program. Further, professional development funding available to support presentations at scholarly conferences was substantially reduced. With classes moving online, a new series of online mindfulness programs included a Zoom meditation group, a website with recorded meditations geared towards college students and a community email distribution list to share mindfulness practice tips, mindful yoga poses, and meditation handouts.
In 2019, a grant in the amount of $15,000 was awarded to Emmanuel College to help expand the Program for Mindfulness and Contemplative Learning program to develop and implement a series of interrelated, applied mindfulness programs.