Child Study Center program We Are Connected offers its students community

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — For even the most outgoing students, arriving at a place the size of Penn State can be a daunting experience that for some may lead to isolation, loneliness, anxiety and depression. With intentions of mitigating those risks, the University’s Child Study Center (CSC) has developed We Are Connected, an evidence-based curriculum that gives the program's undergraduate students the opportunity to come together in a shared, safe space where they can forge deeper connections and resiliency practices while gaining valuable leadership and communication skills.

The program is based on the University of Virginia’s Connection Project, according to Jennifer Murray Connell, director of the We Are Connected program and associate clinical professor of psychology.

“The CSC has a commitment to experiential learning opportunities for students and this program providing undergrad students valuable hands-on skills that they can use on campus and in the future is incredibly powerful,” Connell said. “The curriculum and learning teach the kind of skills that can put students ahead of others when the time comes to apply for a job or grad school.”

According to CSC co-directors Rina Das Eiden and Jenae Neiderhiser, getting the program off the ground was among their top priorities upon taking the reins of the center in 2024. After attending a talk by Connection Project founder Joseph Allen, they knew the initiative would fit well with the CSC’s mission and make for a nice complement to the center’s Friendship Group program, a 400-level psychology course taught by Connell that provides social skill development activities to children in the State College community while also serving as a training opportunity for high-achieving undergraduates interested in working with children and youth.

“We thought it was important for the Child Study Center to work more with the community — which the Friendship Group does, but childhood doesn’t end at 18,” Neiderhiser said. “We thought it was also important to reach our college community here. And we’re delighted that Jennifer is doing this for us.”

We Are Connected allows students to engage with the curriculum through three linked courses. Upper-class students can enroll in a two-semester, six-credit (three per semester) 400-level training sequence focused on leadership development, group dynamics theory and communication skills. In the second semester, students who demonstrate a high aptitude and interest serve as facilitators for the program’s one-credit course, designed to bring together a diverse group of undergrads, primarily first-year and transfer students.

“It’s truly experiential learning,” Eiden said. “The students are learning about the theory and evidence behind group facilitation, leadership skills, how to help people connect with each other. And then they’re implementing it in the second class with Jennifer’s supervision. It transfers to pretty much everything they’ll do in their lives.”

Four sections of the one-credit course were held in the spring, with each class made up of six to 10 students and two student facilitators. The groups met once a week for 75 minutes, participating in activities and conversations geared toward fostering closer connections.

The course has no tests, but students are required to complete graded papers. They’re also asked to fill out regular, anonymous feedback surveys, which CSC graduate students compile into data for future research projects.

Mayuri Purani and Alexa Barber served as co-facilitators for one of the course sections. Purani, who graduated in May with a bachelor’s degree in psychology with a business option, said the skills she learned will be put to good use in her first post-college job as a client associate at AlphaSights in New York City.

“I’ll be working a lot with people and trying to navigate their needs as well as possible, so a lot of the communication and interpersonal skills I learned in the course are going to serve me well in the role,” Purani said. “Professor Connell did a wonderful job modeling how we’re going to go through the course together and be vulnerable and then take all of that and teach it to other people. I learned a lot about myself in the process.”

Purani said the seven students in her and Barber’s section were “diverse in every respect” as far as their backgrounds, majors and interests. Required to take off their ear buds and put away their phones, the group at first struggled to make conversation. Purani and Barber even admitted to scripting their initial sessions.

However, that awkwardness eventually gave way to a real sense of camaraderie as students realized they had more in common than they thought. In time, they became friends who started meeting outside of class for coffee and dinner.

“Everyone was kind of nervous at first. Now, they have so much to say,” said Barber, a rising fourth-year criminology major and child maltreatment and advocacy studies minor. “Seeing that change in them is so amazing. They’re not only becoming friends with each other, but friends with us, too. They’re making real connections.”

With that connection came a willingness to be vulnerable and share deeply personal stories of overcoming adversity, with some students telling them for the first time “out loud,” Connell said.

“It’s very rare to have these types of conversations with people you just met,” Purani said. “It taught me about my own levels of resilience, because I didn’t think of my own story as resiliency, just that it was something that was really hard. Reframing it with this class was powerful because I was able to reframe my own story and what that means. When you share a story that was hard for you and someone says, ‘That makes me feel better hearing how you got through it,’ that’s very heartwarming.”

“To have people tell you you’re so strong and inspiring makes you think, ‘Maybe I am stronger than I think,’” Barber added.

Sam Stockman, one of the students in Purani and Barber’s section, said he particularly enjoyed the course’s storytelling exercises, which made opening up to his fellow students that much easier.

“I thought it was an incredibly welcoming space, and I walked out of it with some great new friends,” Stockman said. “It was an amazing experience.”

This fall, 20 students will be admitted to the program’s second cohort, with all participants required to commit to both semesters. Those interested can find the application form on the We Are Connected webpage or contact Connell at jlm180@psu.edu.

Ultimately, Eiden said, the hope is for We Are Connected to become a permanent curriculum that can be implemented on a much wider scale. Connell said she’d be thrilled to see that happen.

“I love this class, and I love seeing how the students are coming together with these skills that they’ll be able to take with them for the rest of their lives,” Connell said.

Indeed, Barber described the experience as nothing short of “life altering.”

“This course has taught me a lot about myself, and these ideas about vulnerability and radical kindness were things I brought with me to other classes,” Barber said. “The theories I’ve learned have transformed the ways that I can go about helping others. If I could get up on a soapbox and preach about it, I would.”