Grants Fund Two New Services for Students on Campus

Friday, August 22, 2025

tags: Homepage, Academics, Campus Life

Students will benefit from two new projects funded this summer by grants from the Jesuit Association of Student Personnel Administrators.

Both the University’s Counseling Center and Aylward-Dunn Learning Center were awarded grants as part of JASPA’s Innovation Grant program to expand services for students. As a result, the Counseling Center will pilot new protocols to assist students with ADHD diagnoses and the Aylward-Dunn Learning Center will establish a new space for students to decompress.

“We work with many students in counseling who have ADHD, many of whom struggle to balance all the demands of college – like time management, finding motivation, and staying on top of “life tasks” – without the supports they used to get in high school or at home,” said Rachel Pierce, Ph.D., director of the Counseling Center.

The grant for the Counseling Center specifically will fund executive functioning assessment tools to use during counseling sessions with students, Pierce said.

“From there, we will develop goals and specific strategies, with weekly meetings to track and adjust,” she said. “My hope is that students who have felt overwhelmed or doubted their capabilities will start to feel confident in their ability to balance their busy lives and be successful.”

Separately, another grant funded the creation of a new space within the Aylward-Dunn Learning Center. Sara Keenan, director of the center, said “The Nest” will serve as a sensory-friendly space on campus for students, particularly neurodiverse students, a place to find calm.

“We hope that The Nest will be utilized by a variety of students in order to improve their mental and physical health by allowing them a place to decompress and take a break from the sensory challenges they experience every day,” Keenan said. “Additionally, we hope that by promoting the space on campus, all students will develop an appreciation for neurodiverse students and their unique strengths and needs, and there will be less of a stigma associated with having a disability.”

Keenan said she hopes to have the Nest open in the fall. Both Pierce and Keenan said they see the efforts as part of the University’s commitment to serving all students from admission to graduation and honoring the Jesuit core values.

“It’s an expression of ‘cura personalis’ (‘care for the whole person’) whenever we can meet a student exactly where they are, not view their challenges as deficits, and help them develop skills for success so that they can flourish,” Pierce said. “Ultimately, these are skills we all need for success in life, not just in college.”