Life Lessons

Beyond figuring out how to do laundry or which classes to take, today’s college students must navigate a gauntlet of challenges their parents never imagined. For one, student loan debt continues to be a major concern. In addition, while the COVID–19 pandemic contributed to feelings of isolation and loneliness, research suggests that the growing use of social media and other technologies among college students is exacerbating the problem. Then there is AI, with a 2024 BestColleges survey finding that 53 percent of college students “are worried about the impacts of AI on the workforce.”

Living with these kinds of challenges day in and day out can add to anxiety, depression, academic underperformance, a struggle to find meaning, and the decision to drop out. A study using data from the Healthy Minds Network’s annual student survey found a 50 percent increase from 2013 to 2021 in the prevalence of mental health issues—including anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation—among US undergraduate and graduate students. Although the prevalence of these issues rose for all racial and ethnic groups during this time, students of color used mental health services the least, according to the study.

Given the number of challenges facing students today, colleges and universities need to employ a range of creative solutions to support student success. These should entail a holistic approach that considers overall well-being: if we help students flourish in life, we will also help them succeed academically. I saw the reality of this firsthand with my holistic academic success course, one of the offerings of the Holistic Health Studies (HHS) program at San Francisco State University (SFSU).

HHS was born in 1976 when the Center for Interdisciplinary Science’s founding director, George Araki, offered two new holistic health courses at SFSU. Today, HHS offers more than twenty general education courses and a twenty-two-unit minor, serving nearly a thousand students per semester from across campus. The curriculum explores health and well-being from an interdisciplinary perspective, ranging from self-care strategies to reflections on complex global issues. Regardless of specific content matter, nearly all classes include some type of self-care instruction and practice, such as meditation, imagery, and relaxation.

I was fortunate to serve as the director of HHS for more than a decade. As an instructor in the program, I observed that for most students who were underperforming in their classes, a lack of traditional academic skills was not the core problem. The real problem was that they were struggling to balance complex life challenges. So about fifteen years ago, I created a three-unit, HHS course, Holistic Approaches to Academic Success. The course included traditional academic success course content, such as memorization techniques and test-taking strategies. It also had three other key components. The first was instruction in self-management tools, such as how to recognize and work with emotions and strategies to improve organization. The next component was the creation of motivating personal goals, such as seeking a higher GPA, exercising regularly to manage stress, or reducing screen time.

The final component was a focus on how to solve life challenges. For that I developed a problem-solving model based on a Kaizen continual improvement approach, which involves identifying and naming the problem, strategizing solutions, testing and evaluating, modifying as needed, then taking action. Several sections of the course were offered each semester. Each had about fifty participants, 60 percent of whom were first- or second-year students.

The course textbook was Learning Life: The Path to Academic Success and Personal Happiness, which I wrote. One of the first things we memorized in class was the opening phrase from the book: “I don’t know how to do that yet, but I will learn.”

That line epitomized the class ethos—that you may not be able to do something yet, but you do have the capacity to learn how (especially if you use the right strategies). One key assignment asked students to pick a challenge that was affecting their success in college and life. They were free to choose anything (within reason). Interestingly, only 6 percent of students focused on traditional academic skills. The most common challenges involved emotional literacy and mental health issues, such as low self-worth, anxiety and depression, and drug and alcohol use. Other popular challenges centered on self-management skills related to planning and organization, as well as wellness topics, such as healthier eating and exercise.

Students researched the challenges they picked, considering possible steps they could take to address them, then developed action plans, implemented and tested them, and finally evaluated the outcomes. There was no right way to work on their challenges. Students came up with ideas that suited their individual needs and that were based on their research and the course content. As an example, to manage screen time, some students eliminated their most troubling social media apps from their phones, others used apps that regulated usage, and a few rewarded themselves with social media time for completing a study session. Students ultimately presented a report on their research and findings.

Students also participated in topic-related subgroups to share ideas, brainstorm, and offer encouragement. I provided extensive individual and group feedback and coaching. If a student was working on the ubiquitous challenge of procrastination, the student would research the topic, share insights with the group, receive encouragement and guidance from me, and hear ideas from peers about what worked for them. If a junior or senior was a calendar aficionado, I would ask that student to sing the praises of calendars in class or in weekly online forum posts. As a result, I would often see younger students start using calendars, many for the first time, and then become ardent fans of to-do lists and scheduling systems. As students gained more control over their time, their phone usage went down, their ability to stay on task improved, and they reported reductions in stress, better exam scores, and a greater sense of accomplishment and pride.

In 2020, SFSU’s institutional research office provided me with ten years of data that allowed me to compare more than eight hundred students who had completed the course with a group of matched peers who had not taken the course. The analysis showed that students who participated in the course had a higher cumulative GPA than their matched peers. Of greatest interest was the progressive nature of that change over time. Students who took the course in their first year, thus having the longest time to integrate the course skills, achieved the largest GPA improvement as compared with their matched peers. A similar GPA improvement was found for sophomores and juniors, just lower for each respective year. Seniors, who had the least amount of time to integrate course content, showed no difference in GPA (but were still more likely to graduate than their matched peers). These findings suggest a carryover of learning across time—the more time students had to use the skills, the larger the improvement.

The analysis also revealed that after completing the course, students who received Pell Grants, came from underrepresented backgrounds, and/or were first in their family to attend college were significantly more likely than their matched peers to stay in college, graduate, and graduate sooner, with more units and a higher GPA. Overall, the findings suggest that course participants learned and continued to work with strategies that helped them navigate life challenges, facilitating their ability to progress faster and further than their peers. One of my students, Catalina, picked emotional literacy for her challenge topic and decided to work on her low personal and academic self-image. I ran into her about a year after the course ended. She told me that she was doing much better academically and that she was still working on her challenge project.

Like Catalina, many students today are struggling with life challenges that affect their sense of meaning and purpose and their academic performance. A focus on well-being and effective coping is essential if we want our students to thrive in college and beyond. I believe that one of the most effective ways we can support them is to help them recognize that they are problem solvers: “I don’t know how to do that yet, but I will learn.” Teach them the skills, give them strategies for handling life’s challenges, and they will support themselves and each other.

Visit DrAdamBurke.com to learn more about the course and find related research.

Illustrations by Jin Xia