Photo by Kate Douglas
Wellesley President Paula Johnson in her office.
our students come from so many different backgrounds), and when you think about a world that is far more complex and uncertain, we have to take a step back. We must more clearly understand our campuses as a reflection of that world. We need to both better understand our students who enroll and better understand the experiences they will have as they struggle to make sense (and interact) with the world. Within that context, what, then, is our goal? At Wellesley our goal is to educate young women who are going to make a difference in the world. That’s been our mission since
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our founding. What does that mean in today’s world as we prepare very well-educated women for lives that require resiliency and perseverance? Resilience is key, given that our students are facing an interconnected and fraught world that is changing perhaps faster than at any other time in recent memory. This reality lays the foundation for a critically important mental health agenda. MCQ: What do universities and colleges need to do to address that? Is it a new awareness of students’ mental and emotional development? Does that translate into changes in program-
ming? Do you deal with it at the health center level? What are some of the things you’re thinking about? PJ: All of the above! It’s everything from having a clear picture of our students, as they are, when they walk in the door; to then understanding what our community, as an ecosystem, does or doesn’t do to promote their health; to evaluating (and tracking) how we address all of that. I think the right approach is to really think about this as a public health initiative, one that is intimately connected with the day-to-day work that we do here. As we look at our students