Outcomes and Lessons Learned

Overall, we were encouraged by the student feedback and final grades following the 3M Sessions that provide support that these holistic in–person sessions are beneficial for first-year students as they transition to university.  Students identified that they experienced high levels of academic stress and that the academic challenges that they encountered most frequently related to time management, procrastination, and workload while anxiety/emotional reasons and motivation/distraction were also key issues. 

Generally, the sessions that focused on academic skills were identified as the most useful, although the most mentioned specific 3M sessions were those relating to stress– coping strategies (meditation and chair yoga).  When students were asked to justify why the sessions were helpful, stress relief/coping strategies was the most mentioned reason. 

Moving forward, new approaches to reducing student anxiety by encouraging participation in these sessions should be explored. We will also work to add a session on eating healthy on a budget and incorporate artistic strategies for coping with stress. However, these preliminary findings provide evidence that holistic in– person approaches that help students connect with the campus community may be important in fully addressing the first-year transitional experience.  We hope that helping students through this difficult transitional time will create greater opportunities for success in a diversity of students.