MIEA at Dartmouth College
How Mindfulness Is Changing the Culture at Dartmouth—One Student at a Time
With short-format, small-group learning, Dartmouth empowered students, staff, and faculty to build resilience and emotional awareness—sparking a ripple effect across campus life.
Watch our video to see how mindfulness took root at Dartmouth
“It Helped Me Become Who I Wanted to Be”
On a crisp spring day in Hanover, New Hampshire, Laura Beth White (L.B. to most students) stands in front of Dartmouth’s Baker-Berry Library and reflects on a shift she’s witnessed over the past eight years. “Students used to think mindfulness was a niche interest. Now it’s something they ask for by name.”
L.B. is the Assistant Director of Wellbeing at Dartmouth’s Student Wellness Center, where she’s led the expansion of mindfulness on campus through an innovative partnership with the Mindfulness Institute for Emerging Adults (MIEA). What started as a handful of drop-in sessions has grown into a comprehensive program that weaves mindfulness into the student experience—from one-on-one coaching to leadership trainings and packed four-week courses.
But the real story isn’t just about expansion. It’s about the quiet, sometimes life-changing ripple effects of a student sitting down, breathing, and noticing what’s going on inside.
“I made a friend in meditation class.”
Roberto, a math major from Rome, took his first MIEA course “out of curiosity.” He had tried mindfulness apps but hadn’t found a way to stick with them. But the in-person format changed everything.
“It was great doing it in a group,” he recalls. “We got to know each other gradually—not too fast, not too slowly. I made a friend I’m still in touch with.”
Like many students, Roberto found the accountability and social connection of the group format essential. After each session, he left feeling calmer and more focused—ready to return to studying with more ease. The techniques stuck. “Now I use what I learned to lower my heart rate when I’m spearfishing or freediving,” he adds with a grin. “It’s all breathwork.”
“It’s not about fixing thoughts. It’s about noticing them—and choosing how to respond.”
— Roberto, Student
“It gave me the tools to be with hard things.”
L.B.’s own story started in college, too, in the middle of personal loss and big transitions. “I developed a lot of unhealthy coping mechanisms,” she says. “I didn’t have the tools to navigate all that pain. Mindfulness changed that.”
It’s why she sees MIEA’s program not as a luxury or self-help fad, but as a vital skillset for emerging adults. “I was an athlete growing up,” she explains. “I wish I had these skills earlier. Just learning to breathe with awareness would have changed how I handled stress.”
At Dartmouth, L.B. and her team have worked to make those tools truly accessible. MIEA’s curriculum meets students where they are—offering 75-minute weekly sessions, practical take-home practices, and a trauma-informed approach that’s welcoming to everyone. “Students don’t just learn how to focus better,” she says. “They learn how to be kinder to themselves, how to be present with a friend, how to regulate when things get overwhelming.”
“It’s not just for when you’re on the cushion.”
Ana, a second-year student from Brazil, arrived at Dartmouth with a personal meditation practice. But it wasn’t until she joined the MIEA course that she realized how much more mindfulness could be.
“I used to think the seated part was the whole thing,” she laughs. “But most of life isn’t spent on a cushion. It’s walking to class, eating a meal, having a hard conversation.”
Now, Ana integrates mindfulness into all of it. “It helps me choose what’s worth stressing about. It helps me know myself better.”
That subtle shift—from occasional tool to integrated way of being—is echoed by Jessica, a grad student in molecular biology. “At this stage, I don’t think I can live without it,” she says. “It’s changed how I listen to people. How I breathe. How I move through the world.”
“I don’t think I can live without it now. It changed how I breathe, how I listen, how I move through the world.”
— Jessica, Grad Student
“We’re walking this trail together.”
Siddhant Babla, one of Dartmouth’s lead facilitators, describes the MIEA classroom as “a trail we walk together.” Unlike solo app-based experiences, the in-person sessions create a sense of community and shared language. “Students realize, ‘Oh, I’m not the only one struggling to focus, or feeling anxious, or judging myself.’ That’s powerful.”
He believes that’s part of what makes the MIEA model so effective: it’s built on evidence, but it’s deeply human. “It’s not prescriptive,” he explains. “We don’t say, ‘Do this, feel better.’ We offer tools, and students learn to use them in their own way.”
“You can walk further when you walk together.”
— Siddhant Babla, MIEA Teacher
For some, that looks like better test scores. For others, it’s less anxiety. For many, it’s a sense of coming home to themselves—maybe for the first time.
“This is what real wellbeing looks like.”
At the Student Wellness Center, mindfulness isn’t treated as a bonus skill. It’s part of a bigger vision of wellbeing that’s internal, values-based, and lifelong.
“True wellbeing isn’t just about what you eat or how much you sleep,” L.B. says. “It’s about knowing who you are. Living in alignment with what matters to you.”
That kind of change doesn’t happen all at once. But it begins somewhere.
For Roberto, it began with noticing his breath. For Jessica, it was realizing she could approach lab work with calm. For Ana, it was eating breakfast with gratitude. For L.B., it was finding mentors who taught her how to stay with herself through pain.
And for Dartmouth, it began with a small group of students gathering in a quiet room each week to pause, breathe, and begin.
