From Stress to Strength: Graduate Student Gains Tools for Wellbeing

Graduate student Margaret Milligan doesn’t know a student who isn’t dealing with at least some mental health challenges. 

“We are living through difficult times, which felt extremely difficult during the winter’s Operation Metro Surge,” she says. “Our challenges are as diverse as we are and definitely affect our schoolwork and ability to learn.”

Thankfully, coping skills she learned in Bakken Center courses have made a significant difference in her wellbeing, says Milligan, who is currently earning a master’s degree in landscape architecture with a minor in integrative therapies and healing practices through the Bakken Center.

“The short opening meditations and grounding exercises at the beginning of each session of my Intro to Integrative Health and Healing course really stand out for me,” Milligan explains. “The information I learned from Aromatherapy Fundamentals has also been extremely helpful during this last (stressful) semester of the program. I have found myself using breathing techniques and aromatherapy to reset during stressful and busy times this semester.”

Center instructors really care about her mental health wellbeing and express that to her, she says. 

“They are flexible, understanding of different types of learners, and encourage communication. They also pepper in mindfulness and grounding activities into their lectures and assignments,” says the Nebraska native who earned a bachelor’s degree in religious studies from Nebraska Wesleyan University. “The courses I have taken at the Center focus on the human experience, and that has been incredibly applicable to projects in landscape architecture. Learning from the Center has made me a more considerate and holistic designer, and has shown me the ways that research, personal experience, and community input can weave together and ground a project in a very beautiful, impactful way.

Milligan’s dream job is to work in a public garden or piece of land while also doing horticultural therapy and volunteer management. 

She chose to minor in integrative therapies and healing practices because it aligns with her interest in nature-based therapies, including horticultural therapy.

Milligan is drawn to practices and paradigms that see human and planetary health as one in the same – a world view of connection, rather than segmentation.

“I’m so glad I pursued this minor. It has been so valuable, personally and professionally, to balance design with care of the whole human. I see it as a chance to deepen my understanding of the human condition, and take those lessons of empathy, care, and compassion with me into my life whether that’s in an office meeting, design work, community engagement or at home with my family.”

Milligan believes it is crucial for the University of Minnesota to address student mental health and wellbeing. 

“We must learn how to take care of each other and ourselves while we are pursuing our educational goals,” she says.