New course helps fight student loneliness
The Connection Project is a research-based course for credit that helps students learn interpersonal skills and develop meaningful relationships.
The antidote to loneliness is connection, but making connections can be easier said than done — that's where The Connection Project comes in. The new one-credit course aims to bring students together with the goal of combatting loneliness.
In 2023, the U.S. Surgeon General declared loneliness a national epidemic. According to a study corresponding with the announcement, “the mortality impact of being socially disconnected is similar to that caused by smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day.”
Loneliness had already been on the radar for many colleges and universities. In 2018, University of Virginia (UVA) Professor Joseph Allen founded a program focused on reducing loneliness and depression in college students. With the help of Program Director Alison Nagel, it developed into the outward reaching The Connection Project, which piloted at Virginia Tech in 2023. This year, with support from Hokie Wellness, Virginia Tech has made it available as a credited course through human development and engineering education.
The Connection Project "helps students get to know each other, have the opportunity to be vulnerable, and have deep conversations,” said Colleen Driscoll, assistant director of Mental Health Initiatives for Hokie Wellness. “One of the biggest things students have been surprised by is that the program works and they make friends through it.”
According to surveys completed at the end of the pilot program:
- 100 percent of students would recommend The Connection Project to a friend.
- Students described The Connection Project as an inclusive, welcoming space to have mindful conversations.
- Students said it helped them feel more confident, more aware of others’ feelings, more connected, and more open and willing to connect. Students also reported increased feelings of belonging at Virginia Tech, feeling healthier, more hopeful, better able to regulate their feelings, and feeling less ashamed.
- Students described The Connection Project as a fun, well-paced, and meaningful program.
According to a 2022 study on UVA’s program, while the course benefits students of all identities, the impact on loneliness reduction has been especially large for students in racial and ethnic minority groups and students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds.
About 10 percent of participants in the pilot program applied to be student facilitators for future The Connection Project courses. In follow-up discussions with those students, Driscoll said they reported lasting benefits from the semester-long program.
Leah Bartholomew, a mental health intern for Hokie Wellness, was introduced to the concept of The Connection Project (TCP) as a high school student in Charlottesville. Nagel was working on her dissertation on The Connection Project and conducted research at Bartholomew’s high school. Years later, when the course piloted at Virginia Tech, she knew she wanted to be involved. She served as a facilitator for one of the pilot programs, and this semester, she will help facilitate three more courses.
“I feel really honored again to be a part of bringing something that was created where I was created to the community that I'm building for myself,” she said.
She describes it as a sort of “emotional support group,” where participants can be vulnerable in a safe, welcoming space while learning how to form and deepen interpersonal connections.
“The college experience is a lot of high risk, high reward,” she said. “You leave your comfort zone when you step on campus and, at least in my experience, scramble to build a new one. TCP is a wonderful way to build yourself a safety net. It's a vulnerable experience, but it helps you grow.”
The curriculum is strategic and research-based. The content is conversational and fun, integrating classic game formats like Would You Rather with topics focused on self-reflection and interpersonal growth. Class sizes are limited to 10 students so everyone has space to share and get to know each other.
It’s easy to forget that a little bit of anxiety is natural when starting something new, but Bartholomew said that one of the things she appreciates about the curriculum is that it starts by acknowledging and understanding the brain and body’s responses to unfamiliarity. From there, the course moves through conversations on vulnerability, trust, connection style, and values.
“People assume that you'll be making the most meaningful connections in your group, and sometimes that’s true,” said Bartholomew. “But on a larger scale, you learn how to strengthen the connections that you already have in your life. It equips you with the skills to know what connection looks like for you.”
Students are not asked to do anything they aren’t comfortable with. Some of the most rewarding growth Driscoll observed was in shy or quiet students. Some of them opened up and became more outspoken over the course of the semester, but others found validation in learning that everyone engages in different ways, and that their presence was still powerful and valuable to their peers.
The course is graded on an A-F scale with grading based on attendance and engagement. There are no homework assignments or tests; students are only asked to show up and be present.
To students interested in signing up for The Connection Project, Driscoll said it’s being offered because it has been proven to help.
“We really care about our students, and we want them to have a strong sense of their well-being,” she said. “TCP has incredible, lasting value. In the students who have participated so far, I’ve seen the changes play out in real time on campus.”
Enrollment is available on Timetable during add/drop periods. Applications for student facilitators will open later in the semester, and all students, regardless of prior The Connection Project completion, are welcome to apply.
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