University of Connecticut
IN-47: Innovation A

Beginning in March of 2020, UConn joined the national network of college campuses promoting spending time in nature. As part of the Campus NatureRx network, Nature Rx at UConn is a university-wide initiative that brings together Student Health and Wellness -Mental Health division (SHaW), environmentally oriented student organizations and academic departments to explore and promote the benefits of seeking nature on campus and nearby areas. They acknowledge that definitions of nature vary, and that many factors affect how individuals experience nature, such as race, ethnicity, class, gender, culture and childhood experience. NatureRx encourages you to find a way to be in nature that speaks to you.

Dr. Cynthia Jones is the initiator of NatureRx at UConn but the program is the result of a collaboration between the Institute of the Environment, the Office of Sustainability, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, SHaW, UConn Planning Design & Construction, and UConn’s Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. Dr. Jones is a representative of NatureRx on a number of committees including the Arboretum Committee, the Pollinator Committee, and the Environmental Presidential Advisory Council.

Since its inception, a variety of research and initiatives have taken place to further student awareness and engagement with the local environment. During the 2020-2021 academic year, the Department of Psychology embarked on a research project titled Salience of Affordances which examined if engaging with natural environments enables individuals to experience self-efficacy and leads to more psychological benefits. It also helped develop a baseline of listed activities that come to mind for individuals around the university when they explore natural versus built outdoor environments. This research helped determine the vision and scope of NatureRx.

NatureRx has collaborated with the Office of Sustainability to host a number of forest bathing activities in the Hillside Environmental Education Park (HEEP) to educate students on the remediated UConn landfill, expose students to a large network of trails on campus, and to allow students, staff and faculty to engage in wellness activities. Additionally, NatureRx works with the Biodiversity Research Collections to highlight wellbeing in the UConn greenhouses since they are accessible in the winter as green space.

The program’s website highlights a number of other green spaces on campus including UConn’s Arboretum campus tree walk and all the surrounding trails for people to access at their whim. NatureRx has also collaborated with local land trusts to highlight land outside of the institution that students can access should they have access transportation. To increase accessibility, NatureRx has highlighted the bike-friendly certification of the university.

https://naturerx.initiative.uconn.edu/where-to-go/
https://arboretum.uconn.edu/
https://biodiversity.uconn.edu/uconn_botanical_conservatory/
https://today.uconn.edu/2023/01/uconn-recognized-as-bicycle-friendly-university-first-time-it-has-received-the-national-designation/