Founded in 2012 as the University of Virginia’s first in a series of new pan-University institutes, the Contemplative Sciences Center (CSC) bridges learning and research through immersive, experiential, and participatory learning aimed at integrating personal and intellectual understanding towards human flourishing in individuals and communities. It also advocates deeply contextual forms of research aimed at understanding human learning, development, and wellbeing. It is devoted to a new model designed to address some of the most persistent gaps facing higher education – the academic and the residential, the intellectual and the personal, learning and research, mind and body, and the diverse schools and disciplines – in order to help students and faculty alike reach their full potential. The University of Virginia, as a major research University with global reach, has eleven schools centered around the historical “grounds” designed by Thomas Jefferson: Architecture, Arts and Sciences, Business, Commerce, Continuing and Professional Studies, Education, Engineering, Law, Leadership/Public Policy, Medicine, and Nursing. The Contemplative Grounds initiative aims to facilitate new levels of innovation and efficiency in each of these schools through individuated planning and support as we collectively explore the ways in which contemplative practices, ideas, and values can transform learning, research, and engagement in each area. In order to accomplish this aim, we need to understand the academic fields, social domains of engagement, organizational units, distinctive challenges and gaps, and overall goals in each school, and then work in a mutually engaged fashion. Two schools – Nursing and Education – are already deeply committed to broad transformation, while a majority of schools have deep engagement, and all schools are involved. The long-term goal is for each of these schools to become a pioneer in holistic and systematic integration of contemplation within their respective fields in learning and research. At the same time, the University as a whole will become an environment hospitable to innovative partnerships across these schools and will serve as a model for the transformation of higher education.
