MindMAP: The Influences of the Mindfulness Ambassador Program on Graduate Students

Inspiring Minds seeks to broaden awareness and impact of graduate student research, while enhancing transferable skills. Students were challenged to describe their research, scholarship or creative activity in 150 or fewer words to share with our community.

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MindMAP: The Influences of the Mindfulness Ambassador Program on Graduate Students

Canada’s graduate students face numerous demands. The Mindfulness Ambassador Program (MAP) uses an evidence-based, holistic curriculum that teaches mindfulness strategies to promote well-being. Stress is often central to graduate students’ experiences, which can negatively impact their well-being, self-awareness, and interpersonal relationships. However, to date, no formal research has been conducted using the MAP for graduate students. My research will: 1) qualitatively explore graduate students’ perspectives of the MAP’s influence on their experiences of stress and their relationships with themselves and meaningful others; and 2) quantitatively assess if MAP participation elicits changes in graduate students’ levels of stress, self awareness, and/or interpersonal skills. Twelve graduate students will participate in a Zoom-based, six-week MAP. I will be collecting data at two time points (baseline and immediate post-intervention), and then use thematic analysis and paired t-tests to evaluate the data. Findings will help determine the applicability and potential of the MAP for graduate students.

Varsha Vasudevan
MSc candidate, Health and Rehabilitation Sciences
Faculty of Health Sciences - Western University

Supervisor
Jennifer Irwin

Varsha Vasudevan (she/her) is a Master of Science student in Health Promotion at Western. She completed her Bachelor of Health Sciences with an Honours Specialization in Health Promotion from Western in 2021. Broadly, Varsha’s research interests involve promoting the well-being of university students, such as exploring the influences of mindfulness in graduate students, reducing sedentary time in undergraduate students, and using strengths-based approaches for campus thriving. Varsha is a recipient of the Canada Graduate Scholarship – Master’s Program. Varsha would like to express her gratitude for her supervisor, Dr. Jennifer Irwin, who has and continues to guide and support her, through research and life.

You can connect with Varsha via email at: vvasude@uwo.ca.

View Varsha's work as it appears in the Inspiring Minds Digital Collection: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/inspiringminds/288/.