It’s about this time of the semester when the stresses of college life can get overwhelming. Whether you’re a freshman transitioning away from home, a senior juggling studies and internships or any student navigating life’s stressors, this class is for you.
“Be Well is really a unique space. It gathers students who are curious about mental health, students who already have a baseline understanding about mental health, and students in need of mental health resources. Guided by a master’s student training to become a therapist, students work in peer groups to share and grow,” said Dr. Amy Morgan, a clinical therapist and assistant professor at UMD’s School of Public Health and the main brainchild of this experiential one-credit course.
“Throughout the course, students are acquiring the skills they need to avoid getting to the point of suddenly having a crisis and needing to go to the counseling center.”
Stress and mental health crises remain a major public health issue for college students, with 30% of students in 2024 reporting that anxiety negatively impacted their academics.
Students enroll in Be Well from across the university, not just those pursuing degrees involving mental health, said Morgan. From animal science to chemistry to engineering and more – students come to the class with varied understandings and experiences around mental health.
Mental health is just as important as physical health. This class teaches you how to address this very important aspect of your health.
“I thought it looked interesting but I didn’t need the class – I wouldn’t characterize myself as very sad.,” said information science student Leanna Yun-jin Seck, ’27, who said she primarily enrolled for more credits to try to graduate early. “But actually I think having these spaces is really important. Personally, I can bottle up a lot of emotions and it’s not normalized to talk about it or how to cope with it.”
Morgan says the class is specifically focused on prevention, equipping students with the skills to help prevent and alleviate mental health crises. Alisha Hussain ‘27, a family health major who took the class hoping to learn how to manage sadness and stress, found this approach deeply meaningful.
“Learning about mental health and being able to talk about it is important to me because a close family member attempted suicide during the pandemic. This was the first time my family talked about the weight of mental health,” said Hussain. “Students need to be able to have these conversations so that they do not have to get to that point.”
Other students in the class, like Mist Nguyen ’25 who is non-binary and studying to become a therapist for LGBTQ youth, are more used to sharing about emotions and describing their mental state.
“As a former STEM student, I know how stressful and competitive it can be. Mental health is not really a priority. But in this class I saw a lot of people making connections and things clicking,” said Nguyen. “Mental health is just as important as physical health. This class teaches you how to address this very important aspect of your health.”
Meeting in person once a week, students discuss topics including healthy boundaries, recognizing and managing depression, anxiety and stress and healthy social media use. They also take part in a session on suicide that includes practical evidence-based approaches to support people experiencing suicidal thoughts.
The Be Well class is designed for experiential learning and exchange in a safe space. The facilitator introduces each topic and essential terminology and then steps back so students can discuss from their own perspectives and experiences.
It is a wildly popular class... I would love to package the curriculum to make it readily accessible to other university systems.
The idea came to Morgan as she observed campus mental health resources overwhelmed at the height of the COVID pandemic. She began to envision a class where students, equipped with proven skills, could help each other and themselves. Initially funded through a UMD Teaching and Learning Transformation Center grant, the class is now in its final year unless new funding is secured.
Morgan exchanged with other family science faculty, including Drs. Amy Lewin, Mona Mittal and Kevin Roy, as well as considering the latest research and her own clinical experience, to come up with a class that offers students practical skills about recognizing and managing their mental wellbeing.
Be Well is the first class of its kind at UMD and nationwide, says Morgan, who gets frequent requests for the syllabus from other universities.
“It is a wildly popular class – our feedback is unanimous that students feel like everyone should have the option to take it. I would love to package the curriculum to make it readily accessible to other university systems.”
UMD students can still sign up for one of the two Spring 2026 Be Well sections via Testudo.