Wellness Takes All Forms at Highmark Center

Built around the original Skibo Gymnasium at 100 Tech Street, the newly-opened Highmark Center for Health, Wellness and Athletics(opens in new window) serves as a place for students of all backgrounds and disciplines to receive the support they need to succeed on campus.

A short walk from the Cut, the building is a central hub on campus, nestled between Margaret Morrison Street's residential halls and the academic buildings overlooking nearby Schenley Park.

It seeks to be central to the needs of students not only physically, but functionally. The site serves both as a place for athletics and physical health, and for holistic wellbeing on campus as the new home of Counseling and Psychological Services(opens in new window) (CaPS), University Health Services(opens in new window) and the university's wellness and meaning-making programs(opens in new window).

Carnegie Mellon boasts a diverse student body, having one of the highest rates of international enrollment among higher education institutions in the U.S. Thousands of students arrive on campus each year from across the world, bringing with them a wide range of lived experiences, challenges, personal beliefs and individual ideas of wellness and purpose. As a way to offer a framework for self-care and community support, the university offers access to several tools and resources at the Highmark Center.

Meaning-making, spirituality, and faith-based resources

Jennifer McCurry is coordinator of religious and spiritual life at CMU, and spends much of her time in the Highmark Center. Prior to her arrival, two staff members shared responsibility for Religious and Spiritual Life in a part-time capacity.

"The university chose to make this into a full time position so that there's more consistent and regular support in this way," she explained. "I think it is a really lovely investment in the well-being, and the spiritual well-being in particular, of our students," McCurry says.

The Highmark Center itself, McCurry said, "also shows a real, visible investment in the well-being of students." Within the building's Margaret Morrison street entrance, student employees known as Highmark Ambassadors will be at the concierge desk to help guide students to the specific resources they're in search of.

In addition to her role as coordinator, McCurry is an ordained Lutheran pastor. While this often gives her a unique perspective to offer to those who share her faith, the work she does at the university is inclusive of students of all beliefs. The building, designed to be a central communal location, brings students together to receive any support — faith-based, interfaith or secular — they may need during their academic journey.

"I really look at the word 'spirituality' as something that applies to every kind of person, whether people subscribe to a particular religious tradition or to multiple traditions or to no tradition," she said. "There are lots of people who, for a variety of reasons, don't fall within traditional boundaries.

"Spirituality is really stepping back and taking into consideration our whole well-being: how we understand our identity, how we look at the world around us, and how we have a sense of meaning and purpose," she said. "I think it's really important to make space for experimentation with what it means to care for oneself at the deepest core."

To help facilitate this, several areas are freely accessible to students visiting the center: The circular Interfaith Room, where students can connect within and across traditions; four private contemplation nooks available for use by anyone at any time; and two ablution stations for those who need to do ritual washing before prayer. "Our office of wellness and meaning-making programs is also offering spaces where people can try out some slightly different things, like meditation and mindfulness practices or our monthly gratitude circle," McCurry said.

McCurry noted that much of the programming that happens at Highmark — as was planned around the United Nations International Day of Peace (Sept. 21) and Day of Non-violence (Oct. 2) — may address questions that many consider spiritual, without using the word directly. "Who am I? What's important to me? How does that lead me to engage with the world around me in ways that are a gift for all of us?" she said.

Self-understanding and self-care at Highmark

Students also have the opportunity to seek answers to these questions through other departmental resources in the Highmark Building, including Counseling and Psychological Services.

Viviana Ferrer-Medina, assistant director of outreach, prevention, and education in CaPS, noted that spirituality is one part of a broader picture of support that the university hopes to offer students at the Highmark Center.

"We recognize that for many, spirituality gives us meaning, gives us purpose, gives us hope in life. It can be a protective factor in our mental health," she said.

Ferrer-Medina noted that other aspects of personal identity are important as well. "We try our best to understand the student as a whole being. In the initial consultation, we ask questions not only about their symptoms, but try to learn about all dimensions of their life: their grades, romantic relationships, their own identity — race, ethnicity, and what might be considered invisible identities — with the purpose of providing them support," Ferrer-Medina said.

Physical and emotional wellness

The university is dedicated to offering students the resources they need to adopt healthy, mindful practices. These are not limited to spiritual or psychological resources, but also include clinical offerings, athletic areas and workshops on subjects like sleeping and healthy eating. From the on-site Shake Smart(opens in new window) smoothie bar to state-of-the-art sports facilities, the building is home to tools and resources to help every Tartan reach their personal wellness goals.

The goal is to provide students with the means to thrive in every aspect of their lives, both in and outside of the lecture hall or laboratory.