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December 8, 2020

Dear Friend,

It’s been a remarkably challenging year for many people and organizations. The Contemplative Sciences Center is no exception. The essence of our work at the University of Virginia and beyond is to promote individual and collective flourishing through contemplative practice, social connection, cultivation of skills and dispositions, and experiential learning. The COVID-19 pandemic and associated safety precautions disrupted this mission by preventing us from gathering together in the same physical space. We missed supporting our UVA students and faculty through face-to-face programming; we lost the opportunity to bring social and environmental justice leaders from all over the world to Charlottesville for our annual Dalai Lama Fellows assembly; and we felt the pain of our Compassionate Schools Project (CSP) teachers, unable to hold the hands of their elementary school students during daily mindfulness practices.  

Yet, with the support of our generous donors and partners, we adapted to these difficult times and found new ways to foster social connection, resiliency, contemplation, and hope amidst the uncertainty and distance.

Make a gift to support our programs today.

For example, this fall we welcomed over 700 students, staff, alumni, parents, and friends of UVA worldwide to our new weekly virtual Meditation on the Lawn series. We empowered a talented group of UVA students to support their classmates through a new Daily10 meditation series on social media platforms, and we produced our first ever Intercollegiate Meditative Morning, co-sponsored by William & Mary and Virginia Tech. We offered digital tools for cultivating well-being, including through our new partnership with Insight Timer, and our academic and contemplative instructors found creative ways to bring their lessons and guidance to students, faculty, and others online. We also led our inaugural group of student-athletes through the first semester of their Citizen Leaders and Sports Ethics Community Impact Fellowship.  

Our Dalai Lama Fellows came together virtually for a rich online assembly, and we continued to guide them through our contemplative leadership program and to support from afar their crucial social justice work in locales across the globe. We watched in awe as CSP teachers persevered through numerous obstacles to continue bringing the CSP curriculum to some of our country’s youngest and most vulnerable students, helping them develop the social, emotional, and contemplative skills to thrive even during the most challenging times. 

We are inspired by the resilience of the students, faculty, and staff with whom we work and the incredible dedication and generosity of our partners and donors this past year. This support not only sustained our current programming, but also enabled us to move forward with a number of strategic student flourishing initiatives, including the development of innovative digital platforms such as the University of Flourishing online portal, a Flourishing Habits app, and the Flourishing at UVA website for UVA students. We are excited to reveal more about these new initiatives as we prepare to launch them in the new year. Also, we eagerly await the start of UVA’s January term when we will host over 600 undergraduates for a two-week intensive course on meditation and the secular world co-taught by myself and Kurtis Schaeffer.

As 2020 comes to an end and we all look to the future with a renewed sense of hope, please consider joining us in our mission of individual and collective flourishing by making a gift to support our programs today.

With gratitude,

David



David Germano, Executive Director                                
Contemplative Sciences Center, University of Virginia 

   

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