The College of Liberal Arts’ Humanitas program is organized around one goal: to make sure students understand that they are more than just students — they’re humans, too.
The program can trace its origins to 2021, when college staff members came together to form a committee focused on supporting the mental health and well-being of the college’s students. Following the return to campus after the COVID-19 pandemic, the committee began by hosting COLA’s first iteration of the now semesterly “Poetry on the Pond” event, where students from the college were invited to read poetry aloud to their peers. The first event drew more than 100 students, and subsequent events have drawn more than three times that number. To the organizers, this level of student engagement and excitement proved two things: students need community, and they want to engage in relaxing, wellness-based practices.
The committee that first organized “Poetry on the Pond” has since evolved into the Humanitas Student Well-Being Collective, a program housed under COLA’s Office of Student Engagement and run by Maggie Wilhite, the college’s student wellness coordinator.
“Humanitas is here to understand and give students a chance to think about, learn about, and experience holistic well-being,” says Wilhite. “We want to push forward these initiatives that are shifting a culture from one that is competitive, exclusive, intense, and not welcoming to one that is empathetic, open, kind, and supportive.”
With the support of student wellness ambassadors, or “wellies,” Humanitas aims to provide well-being advice and resources to the larger COLA community through a variety of workshops and other programming. For the last three years, the organization’s signature series has been its “Wellness Labs,” weekly well-being workshops that focus on a different form of wellness every Wednesday of the academic year. Wellness Lab topics range from “Understanding Imposter Phenomenon” to “Creating a Personal Dopamine Menu,” and many attendees are liberal arts students who want to take the time during their week to practice self-care.
Following the success of the Wellness Labs, Humanitas expanded its efforts in fall 2024 with the launch of a new Student Well-Being Center in UT’s Jester Center. With a dedicated physical space, the organization is now able to provide their services to more students, Wilhite says.
The center hosts a plethora of resources for students to help them recharge and prevent burnout. There are materials available for creative therapeutic activities, like beading, air dry clay, and origami, as well as journaling prompts to ensure students feel creatively fulfilled. The center has a power nap station with a recliner and weighted blanket, and it also provides students with sleep kits, equipped with eye masks and a sleep advice pamphlet, in an effort to support their mental and physical health during their time outside the center.
Wilhite is a big believer in the power that a space can hold. So, when it came to designing and decorating the Well-Being Center, she set out to create a space that transports visitors into a space that felt calm and cozy.
“When people come into the center and they say something like, ‘I feel like I just entered another building,’ that’s the highest compliment to me,” she says. “It feels almost like a portal to a healing space where you can take care of yourself.”
As part of the move into the Jester Center, Humanitas also created a community room that can be used for workshops, classes, and meetings. The tables in the room can be moved to host a variety of wellness sessions, from open mic nights to group yoga. When the room isn’t being used for scheduled events, students can utilize the room for studying.
Wilhite’s own office is also located in Jester alongside the Well-Being Center and community room, and she encourages students to step in and talk to her whenever they need to.
The goal of the Well-Being Center, community room, one-on-one student support, and other Humanitas events is all the same, Wilhite says: to allow students to step outside of the constant swirl of academics and career to take a moment to consider themselves more holistically.
“The service that we are essentially providing, alongside just raising awareness about holistic well-being, is giving students a framework to understand what that is,” she says. “This is a starting place to think about your needs as a human and what that means to you as you start your journey of independence as a young adult.”
Alongside the new Well-Being Center, Humanitas’ Wellness Labs continue to offer a variety of supportive activities to students both in and out of COLA. One of the Spring 2025 workshops, “Creating Your Own Vision Board,” was designed to help students visualize their goals for the year and inspire them to make steps to achieve their visions.
At the workshop, Morgan Dean, a wellness ambassador with Humanitas and a student employee at the Well-Being Center, spoke about the impact the weekly Humanitas workshops have had on her life as a student.
“I feel like they help my own mental health,” she said. “Sometimes I don’t feel like going, but by the time I leave I always feel better. It makes me feel lighter, and it gives me a creative outlet, so I get to express my feelings in a productive way. It’s hard to make time for self-care as a student, because there’s so much going on, so having this weekly thing that I have to come to is really beneficial.”
When asked about the impact Humanitas could have on other students, Dean said, “I think it’s a great place of community and putting yourself first sometimes. Our motto is ‘You’re not just a student, you’re a human,’ which I think is great, because I think a lot of students, especially at UT, get caught up in performing well academically. But there is so much more to life, and having that perspective shift is so good.”
Diana Arriaga, one of the student participants at the vision board workshop, said she saw Humanitas as helping students to find a sense of community on campus. “Something that I hear a lot is how people struggle to connect with other students, especially if they’re transfers or they aren’t used to big schools,” she said, “so I think it’s a really nice, low-stakes way to find a community. It’s still a way to find different people and to find different ways to connect.”
Wilhite says she wants to continue to expand Humanitas and build on the culture of friendliness and belonging the program fosters in COLA. The new physical space of the Well-Being Center is just the first step.
“Now that we have a physical space to provide wellness services,” she says, “I can definitely see the center becoming a touchpoint for students across all of UT, not just those who live in Jester or who have classes there. For anyone coming to and from class, knowing there’s a place where they can go and feel supported or take a break and care for themselves is so important. I think this will be a place students stop on their way to classes just to take care of themselves so they can continue getting out there and doing the hard things.”
Learn more about the Humanitas Student Well-Being Collective at Learn more about the Humanitas Student Well-Being Collective at https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/undergraduate-students/student-resources/humanitas.html