Seniors Kate Whyte, Trishta Nguyen, Kena Desai, and Anika Bhatia stand in front of centuries-old wall in Northern Ireland.
Each year, the President’s Award for Global Learning, administered by Texas Global, sends UT students out into the world to engage with international partners and address global issues. With guidance from supervising faculty, participating students spend three semesters (spring/summer/fall) working on a focused area of study as part of an interdisciplinary team.
Leading with Peace / Designing for Healing
In 2024, the President’s Award for Global Learning funded four initiatives — one of these was “Leading with Peace: Lessons from Northern Ireland.” The initiative sent students abroad to understand the reconciliation process, using the historical conflict of “the Troubles” as an example. Supervising faculty Bruce Kellison, Noël Busch-Armendariz and Monica Martinez envisioned “Leading with Peace” as a way to help students “understand the pervasiveness, impact, and barriers created by conflict and violence and the usefulness of peacemaking and restorative justice practices.”
Fifteen students (four project teams) participated in the Leading with Peace initiative. One team — Anika Bhatia, Kate Whyte, Kena Desai, and Trishta Nguyen (all seniors) — chose “trauma-informed design” as their focus. What is trauma-informed design? Anika provided a basic definition:
“It’s making a space for people who have a history of trauma. Using colors to make them feel safe, creating open spaces, using natural light, windows, greenery — making a space that allows people to heal.”
For their project (a capstone project, of sorts), the team initially set out to create a toolkit of trauma-informed design elements that could be used by hospitals and clinics; over time, however, they shifted their focus to creating that same toolkit for student spaces on the UT campus.
Kate explained, “Our main focus now is students experiencing burnout and don’t really have a space to process the work they are doing and to promote healthy, productive habits. We want to install principles of trauma-informed design in healing places on campus.”
Trish added, “We really want our project to uplift and promote the mental health of students.”
Experiencing Belfast
A peace wall in Belfast.
In late July, students and professors packed their bags and headed to Belfast, Northern Ireland, the first stop on their 4-week itinerary. There, they saw vestiges of the Troubles, a violent, 30-year conflict between Catholic Republicans and Protestant Unionists. (The Good Friday Agreement ended the Troubles in 1998, and N. Ireland remained a part of the UK.)
The team was particularly moved by the peace walls — originally built from corrugated metal and barbed wire — to keep the peace, or, at least, to reduce instances of violence — by separating Protestant and Catholic neighborhoods. Still standing and often built out of more permanent materials, the peace walls are covered with murals. Kena explained, “The peace walls take the form of whatever is going on, so the walls keep changing. Right now, there’s a lot of Palestine/Israel messages.”
Kate added, “There are ways that conflict still looms. But there are other ways that Northern Ireland has really responded through design with spaces for healing and recovery.” She noted, for example, that during the Troubles, “they weren’t able to build buildings with glass, because there were so many threats of bombings. But now there’s a mall in Belfast that’s completely constructed out of glass.”
More lessons in healing
The students were also moved by their weeklong stay in stay Corrymeela, a nonprofit center dedicated to helping communities explore their differences and repair relationships.
The stay at Corrymeela deepened their understanding of trauma-informed design. Kate explained, “They used so many trauma-informed design principles there — things like connection with nature, natural lighting, inclusive seating arrangements to promote productive conversation between different groups.” Additionally, one of the speakers at Corrymeala introduced the students to the concept of “playing the five-string harp” — creating spaces that nurture all five senses.
Throughout the trip, the professors intentionally wove in meditative, restorative experiences for the students: a silent walk on the beach, an art therapy session, opening and closing circles where the students gathered to share their experiences and reflections. The circles were especially impactful on the students — so much so, that they hope to incorporate the circle concept into their design toolkit and suggestions for improved spaces on campus.
Trish said, “Circle time feels like a support group where people are sharing their experiences, their thoughts, their opinions. How can we include these on campus, in a way that people feel like they are seen, they are heard, and that there’s a space where they can be at peace?”
Restorative Spaces for Longhorns
One of four Mind Body Labs on campus.
Now back on the Forty Acres, the students are using their knowledge of trauma-informed design to create a design toolkit and a list of recommendations for improved MindBody Labs.
Currently, there are four MindBody Labs scattered throughout campus — at McCombs Wellness Center; the Nursing School; the Student Services Building; and the Student Activity Center (WCP); all fall under the umbrella of the Counseling and Mental Health Center (CMHC). The MindBody Labs are windowless rooms, outfitted with comfy chairs and featuring audio and video lessons on a variety of mental health practices like deep breathing and meditation.
The students recognize that the labs are an important contribution to campus — but they also see opportunities for improvement.
The first step, they said, is increased awareness: The students have a hunch that most of the campus doesn’t even know the MindBody Labs exist; to test that hunch, they have launched a campus-wide survey.
The next step: suggesting doable changes — different paint colors, lighting adjustments, playlists, a menu of scents, perhaps — to improve the spaces. Trish added, “This is where the five-string harp comes in. What do these students hear when they’re in the labs? How do they feel when they see the lighting? Is it warm lighting, or is it white light? Does it make them feel like they’re in a hospital or a classroom setting? What are they feeling, touching? Are there blankets?”
Trauma, Healing, Productivity
The team emphasized that there’s a connection among trauma-informed design, healing and productivity. Trish explained, “Our research shows that trauma can lead to poor work performance, absenteeism, tardiness … We found that trauma-informed design principles not only reduce stress and burnout, but also enhance productivity.”
The students’ passion for this project is palpable. Even after class wraps up in December, they want to do more: “We want to work with CMHC to see how successful the MindBody Labs are. Are the labs really improving their performance in classes and their day-to-day life? ”
Ultimately, the team hopes that by introducing UT students to thoughtfully designed, healing spaces, that their fellow Longhorns will begin to seek out, and even create, those sorts of spaces as they enter the workforce and carry out their adult lives.