During a Large-course Wellness Check-in, students complete a brief questionnaire that gauges their well-being, provides optional feedback to the instructor, and offers a connection with a wellness coach during a stressful time of the semester.
Large class sizes and high academic expectations — especially in gateway courses — can leave students feeling anonymous and unsupported. Many first-year and first-gen students, in particular, struggle with stress, imposterism, and uncertainty about seeking help.
The intervention
Using an early-intervention model, faculty administer voluntary surveys that normalize well-being support and give students a safe space to reflect.
From a student’s perspective, faculty emphasize care. They can identify stressors and opt in for coaching or instructor follow-up. If requested, their connection is tailored with referrals to therapists, wellness coaches, academic resources, or campus activities.
In Fall 2026, Wolverine Wellness is supporting a pilot wellness check-in intervention with Graduate Student Instructors (GSIs) who teach in large courses. This is a key population, given the demands on GSIs in gateway courses and the impact that can have on undergraduate student learning, well-being, and sense of mattering. This approach would impact thousands of undergraduate students, given the number of students GSIs teach across the university.
Impact
Since 2020, this intervention has expanded to 13 courses across five schools/colleges (10,000+ students), with a major footprint in high-stress STEM courses.
- 83% of first-gen and 72% of non-first-gen students feel supported by wellness check-ins.
- 88% of faculty report increased confidence in student well-being support.
- It’s especially effective for first-year and marginalized groups — reducing stigma, bolstering belonging, and supporting early intervention.
Sustainable expansion
Strategically embedding these check-ins in high-stress and/or high-impact classes creates a culture that no student is “just a number,” and strengthens faculty’s ability to promote mattering at scale. We also hope to pilot interventions with graduate student instructors and assess impact. This innovation will both address a population that is often overlooked and that also serves as graduate student instructors.
This early-intervention model embeds “opt-out” wellness check-ins into large, foundational courses to help students — especially first-year and first-gen students — feel supported, reduce stigma, and connect to tailored resources. Now reaching over 10,000 students across five schools and expanding to include GSIs, the initiative strengthens faculty and GSI capacity to promote mattering and well-being at scale so no student feels like “just a number.”
