Combating Loneliness Through Outreach and Wellness Programming During a Global Pandemic

How does a university serve the needs of students in the face of a global pandemic? In truly unprecedented times, administrators were pushed to perform in new modalities and under very different circumstances. For many months, change was the only constant and student support needs were a whole new world to navigate. The purpose of this phenomenological action research study was to conduct outreach and implement wellness programming as an intervention to reduce loneliness in college students experiencing isolation or quarantine due to COVID-19. Four theoretical frameworks guided the study, including the work of Astin (1975, 1984, 1993, 2001), Kuh (2001), Hawkley and Cacioppo (2010), and Fullan (2001). In this qualitative study, data pertaining to student well-being, loneliness and motivation to persist were collected through the use of pre- and post-intervention semi-structured interviews as well as participant journal entries. Study participants were undergraduate students who had tested positive for COVID-19 or had been exposed to COVID-19 and were therefore in isolation or quarantine, respectively. The intervention extended the length of the semester and involved implementation of outreach and wellness programming initiatives for each participant. Through the findings provided, one can see the impact of isolation or quarantine on college students as well as the influence of the intervention on student well-being, connection, and persistence to graduation. The discussion of this work will describe the implications of this study as well as the lessons learned.