The Camp Cozy Reset: A Holistic Approach to Wellness through Engagement

As higher education professionals, we are deeply familiar with the rhythm of the academic year—bursts of energy in August, moments of momentum mid-year, and, inevitably, the fatigue that settles in as the year progresses. While we often design experiences to support social and community building, we can often overlook the equally important question: how are we sustaining our residents and ourselves?

One program that has reshaped this conversation in my work is Camp Cozy, an annual wellness-centered experience I developed that is grounded in the Eight Dimensions of Wellness. This framework, which encompasses emotional, physical, social, intellectual, spiritual, environmental, career, and financial well-being, reminds us that wellness is holistic and interconnected, not a one-time intervention.

Camp Cozy invites participants to slow down, reflect, and re-engage with their well-being in tangible, low-pressure ways. The model can be adapted across campuses, departments, or even individual practice. Below are strategies and “cozy” interventions aligned with each dimension—unique experiences we designed to help professionals and residents reenergize and finish the academic year with intention. Students and Staff alike get to enjoy this event. 

Emotional Wellness: Creating Space to Feel and Process

Emotional wellness involves understanding and effectively navigating feelings while developing healthy coping strategies.

Our Resilience in Your Student Experience (RISE) office created a sensory room that involved essential oil blends, alcohol-ink art, and prompted journal reflections. 

Physical Wellness: Small Habits, Big Impact

Physical wellness extends beyond fitness to include sleep, nutrition, and daily movement.

Our recreation office created a stretch and yoga series for the event, aiming to teach participants easy techniques they can do at their desk, while studying, or in between classes. 

Social Wellness: Cultivating Meaningful Connection

Social wellness emphasizes belonging, support, and healthy relationships.

My student team in Leadership & Involvement created a series of relay races, aimed at bringing people together on teams of people they have never met before. Our aim was for residents to leave with one new connection or relationship from the event. 

Intellectual Wellness: Reigniting Curiosity

Intellectual wellness encourages lifelong learning and creative engagement.

Our Academics and First-Year Experience Unit developed a series of escape room games and riddles, aimed at giving a brain challenge to participants through puzzles, problem solving, and communicating with others. 

Spiritual Wellness: Connecting to Purpose

Spiritual wellness centers on meaning, values, and a sense of purpose—whether or not it involves religion. For this area we focus on hobbies; the continued curiosity in a hobby or discovering a new one. 

Our Learning Centers and MakerSpace Units designed several activities for this area. Our Learning Centers developed a racing game simulator, both for a fun experience but to show how residents can explore gaming design with their center. Our MakerSpace brought in new student-created projects like a Claw Machine, WORDLE game, and a Crossword puzzle, both for those hobbies, but to showcase the engineering and woodworking skills that can be learned in their office. 

Environmental Wellness: Designing Supportive Spaces

Environmental wellness highlights how our surroundings influence well-being.

Our student lead Team Green brought in native California plants, teaching participants not only the importance of native plants in the care of the environment around us, but also how just getting out and “touching grass” can be the best thing to do daily. 

Career Wellness: Reconnecting with Professional Identity

Vocational wellness involves finding satisfaction and alignment in one’s work; included here was our focus on how to goal and dream of your future career. 

Our Career Center hosted a vision board activity, where participants were able to create a vision board for their future career goals, wants, and dream of where they see themselves after college, or maybe the next job after their current one. 

Financial Wellness: Reducing Stress Through Awareness

Financial wellness includes managing resources effectively and planning for the future.

Our Financial Wellness Program hosted financial trivia games and “dump your financial fears” board. The goal here was to not only provide skills on financial areas, but to also be a space where participants can openly discuss fears around financial curiosities and worries.

Why “Cozy” Works

The success of Camp Cozy is not rooted in large budgets or elaborate programming. Instead, it thrives on three principles:

• Accessibility: Activities are low-cost, low-pressure, and easy to implement. The room is kept at a lower light and low-fi music is played instead of intense playlists

• Intentionality: Each experience connects to a dimension of wellness through experts. Campus Partners and Internal Residential Life units run activities from their expertise areas.

• Community: Participants are reminded they are not navigating burnout alone. We provide this through our food stations and DIY craft stations that are separate from the 8 wellness activities. 

Wellness, as many models emphasize, is an ongoing and self-directed process, not a destination. Programs like Camp Cozy simply create the conditions for people to pause, reflect, and choose how they want to show up for themselves and others.

As we head into the tail ends of our academic year, consider this: 

You don’t need a full camp experience to begin, just a moment of intention. Happy Camping!