Harvard Chan School and FAH Partner to Foster Connection and Creativity in the Next Generation of Public Health Leaders

Find out how our longtime learning collaborators at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health used our Campus Colors & Connection workshop to help first-year graduate students connect.

For the second year in a row, Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health has made social connection a cornerstone of its Fall orientation, ensuring that 100% of incoming graduate students for the 2025–26 academic year personally explore this growing public health issue. By integrating The Foundation for Art & Healing’s (FAH) Campus Colors & Connection workshop as a recommended orientation activity, Harvard Chan School is not only prioritizing student health and well-being—it’s also underscoring a powerful lesson: social connection is fundamental to public health.

Graduate school can be an overwhelming experience. Despite the excitement, living far from friends and loved ones, completing advanced independent research projects, and, for some students, navigating life in a new country, can trigger feelings of stress and loneliness. When left unaddressed, those feelings can spiral into more intense mental health challenges. Research indicates that almost 40% of graduate students show signs of moderate to severe depression, and more than 40% show signs of moderate to severe anxiety. Programs to address these mental health risks are important because they can help lay the foundation for a flourishing public health workforce in the years to come.

Our partner schools across the U.S. and Canada are already taking steps to nurture student connection and wellness through simple and fun arts-based programs. For more than four years, Harvard Chan School has partnered with The Foundation for Art & Healing (FAH) to deliver Campus Colors & Connection workshops at orientation. These workshops combine mindfulness, creative expression, and conversation to help students reflect on their emotions and share them with others in a low-stress, warm, and welcoming environment.

About Our Collaboration

At the core of our partnership with Harvard Chan School is a shared commitment to advancing public health, which includes supporting future practitioners in the field. This exciting collaboration started with FAH founder and president Jeremy Nobel, MD, MPH, a long-time Harvard Chan School and Harvard Medical School faculty member and a proud Harvard Chan School alum. Dr. Nobel’s teaching and research activities include addressing loneliness, isolation, and social disconnection as both personal and public health concerns—topics that relate directly to the challenges many graduate students face as first-years and beyond.

Dr. Nobel even teaches a class at the Harvard Chan School exploring the impact of loneliness on individual and collective wellbeing. The course includes an interactive “Arts and Connection” experience from The Foundation for Art & Healing and concludes with group projects in which students pitch possible approaches to addressing loneliness, identify obstacles to program success, suggest innovative strategies to overcome those obstacles, and present ways to measure the overall benefits delivered, just as they will be doing after graduating. The course equips students with creative approaches to navigating loneliness and disconnection, which they can incorporate into their own public health programs or even practice on their own.

Beyond Dr. Nobel’s class, FAH and Harvard Chan School are exploring the ways creative expression can raise awareness of loneliness and reduce stigma, lowering students’ stress levels and helping them connect with themselves and others. This year’s Campus Colors & Connection workshops at Harvard Chan School were a case in point, creating a space for students to de-stress and connect. More than 150 students took part in one of six Campus Colors & Connection workshops led by Harvard Chan School facilitators trained by FAH. Each session introduced creative approaches to addressing loneliness as a public health issue, guided students through mindfulness and coloring prompts to reflect on the year ahead, and helped them connect with fellow classmates. At the end of each workshop, participants assembled their expressive drawings into “quilts,” turning solo creations into community artifacts.

Close-up of Harvard Chan School students’ Campus Colors & Connection drawings.

Reflections from a Student

Second-year masters student Derek Chang, who is studying cancer epidemiology, chose to help facilitate a Campus Colors & Connection workshop this year after enjoying it so much in Fall 2024, when he first arrived on campus. Reflecting back to his experience as a workshop participant, he shared, “It was a nice pause in all the buzz to just sit down and be more in touch with what I was feeling at that time and be more introspective in terms of what the upcoming academic year would bring.”

Derek was excited to offer these same benefits to a new cohort of Harvard Chan students. He noted that the school year goes by quickly, which can make it difficult to pause and reflect. “It happens in a flash. I know that people fill up their schedule with things and want to get the most out of this experience, so it’s really nice to just have a moment to be in touch with your feelings.”

In addition to creating space for personal reflection, the workshop reaffirmed Derek’s interest in the intersections between arts and health. Citing examples ranging from the bubonic plague to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, Derek said, “The arts have always played a huge role in medicine and public health. They have always been a way for artists to not only express sorrows and grief attached to public health burdens but also capture a moment in time.”

He even noted that creative activities and public health research require some of the same skills, from comparing and contrasting visual information to recognizing patterns. In other words, Campus Colors & Connection was more than just a nice break for incoming Harvard Chan students. It was a great way to get them emotionally and intellectually engaged.

 

Insights from a Staff Member

As a Career Coach/Advisor in Harvard Chan School’s Office of Career and Professional Development, Andrea Heller has a passion for helping students make the most of graduate school. A certified mindfulness instructor, she believes intentional moments of reflection are a powerful way to focus attention, reduce stress, and sharpen decision-making. She found the mindfulness portion of the Campus Colors & Connection curriculum to be both accessible and effective: “It was a quick and easy exercise that was simple to follow. I felt that it invited participation at whatever level you felt comfortable with. It was great.”

What struck Andrea most during the workshop was the enthusiasm with which students were connecting with each other. She said, “I was pleasantly surprised by how engaged they were. They were participating, they seemed to be having fun, and they were creative with their colorful designs.” She realized that part of what made this fun and collaborative atmosphere possible was her own openness as a facilitator. “Sharing my own experiences with color and how I have noticed it impacting me seemed like a way to break the ice for them.”

Our post-workshop survey results support Andrea’s comments on student engagement:

  • 94% of respondents said it was a positive experience
  • 88% of respondents said they felt more connected to others afterwards
  • 76% of respondents felt more in touch with their emotions and feelings

When asked if she would recommend the workshop to other campuses, Andrea affirmed, “I would recommend it. I think it’s a really fun, simple way to get people to pause and to be creative.” Her one piece of advice for future facilitators? “Don’t take it too seriously! You should also have fun with it and make it your own.”

Take Action on Your Campus!

Whether you serve undergraduate or graduate students, you can bring Campus Colors & Connection to your school, too. Join Harvard Chan School and 60+ more campuses using the power of creative expression to help students connect. No special skills or certifications are required to become a facilitator—just one 90-minute training session delivered online. Facilitators can be staff, faculty, or even other students.

To bring Campus Colors & Connection to your school, visit our Campus UnLonely page and register for a free information session. Together, we can help young adults embrace mindfulness, creative expression, and conversation to strengthen their sense of connectedness on campus and beyond.

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