A Comprehensive Well-Being Program for University Populations
SKY Campus Happiness is a comprehensive biopsychosocial program tailored for university populations–students, faculty, and staff–offered by the International Association for Human Values and Art of Living Foundation and designed by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.
Our Mission
Bringing meditation, breathwork, emotional intelligence, social connection, and service leadership to college students, faculty and staff.
Our Vision
We envision happy and mindful campus communities where students, faculty, & staff thrive in life and lead with clarity of mind, resilience, purpose & belonging.
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The SKY Campus Happiness Program incorporates an empirically-validated curriculum and includes:
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Evidence-based breathwork
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Evidence-based meditation
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Yoga
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Emotional intelligence
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Leadership
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Service learning
The cornerstone of our programs is the SKY Breath Meditation (Sudarshan Kriya) whose effects have been studied in open and randomized controlled trials, both in healthy populations (including developmental populations), and in those with psychopathology.
Science-backed techniques for total wellbeing.
Yale University
A randomized controlled study run by Yale University scientists evaluated the effect of SKY and two other programs - Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction and Emotional Intelligence - on undergraduate well-being as compared to a control group. Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction showed no improvement compared to the control group, Emotional Intelligence showed one improvement (mindfulness) and SKY had the highest results of all the programs, benefiting stress, depression, mental health, mindfulness, positive emotion and social connectedness.
Seppälä et al., 2020, Frontiers Psychiatry
SKY vs a cognitive behavioral intervention
Harvard University
A randomized controlled study run by Harvard University scientists evaluated the effect of SKY versus a cognitive behavioral intervention. SKY demonstrated greater improvements than the cognitive behavior intervention in perceived stress, sleep, social connectedness, distress, anxiety, depression, conscientiousness, self-esteem, and life satisfaction. SKY also led to improved sleep and stress reactivity. Results were observed immediately after and 3 months after the workshop.
Goldstein et al., 2020, forthcoming in Journal of American College Health
Our Programs
For students, administrators, faculty and staff
Our Team
Our leadership team oversees 500+ certified SKY teachers. We work together to build customized plans uniquely suited to each college and university campus.
ANNELIES
Founding Director
Annelies Richmond is an international trainer of meditation, breathwork, leadership and social connection, and has trained 1000+ certified teachers globally. She speaks and teaches at institutions such as Yale University, Purdue University, Texas A&M, Google and the United Nations. She founded SKY Campus Happiness in response to the dire need for powerful well-being solutions in our universities, and is passionate about empowering our young people.
STEPHANIE
Director of Operations
After a successful career in business, Stephanie has dedicated herself to changing the face of education. She provides leadership training, structure and support for SKY Campus Happiness on 101 university campuses.
NINA
Director of Fellowships & Media Coordinator
Nina Sanyal a Breath & Meditation expert with over 15 years of teaching experience. Alumni of The Ohio State University, with a background in Marketing working in the Pharmaceutical industry for years. She now brings both her professional experience and passion to uplift campus communities to SKY programs.
KELSI
National Campus Support
& Impact Coordinator
Kelsi Lynde comes from being a SKY Campus Happiness student leader herself. She now supports student leaders and SKY Teachers on their campus impact and to roll out national initiatives.
KAITLIN
Campus Partnerships Coordinator
Kaitlin is our Campus Partnerships Coordinator, with the central goal of uplifting campus communities through our evidenced based programming. She became a SKY Happiness instructor in 2018 during her senior year at the Ohio State University and is inspired by sharing breathwork, meditation, and empowering student leaders. Kaitlin makes a huge impact supporting administrations to bring in these evidenced based techniques onto their campuses to support student mental health and success.
NAMRATA
SKY Advanced Programs Coordinator
Namrata Verma has been teaching Breathwork and Meditation for over 10 years. She coordinates our SKY advanced programs, Silent Retreat and Leadership Training that give SKY grads an opportunity to dive deeper, become resilient leaders and also certified meditation facilitators. Having experienced sky programs during her undergrad, she is highly inspired to serve the campus community. Prior to this, she has worked as a software engineer at Dell, IBM, Intel in Silicon Valley.
MICHELLE
Program Coordinator
& Grant Specialist
Michelle discovered SKY Campus Happiness as an undergraduate student at Purdue University in 2014. After completing her M.S. in Natural Resources Social Science, Michelle was hired as a Research Associate and Outreach Coordinator at Purdue, where she contributed to several projects related to conservation and farmer decision-making. Michelle coordinates national grant initiatives and mentors student leaders across the country.
KATIE
Health Education Specialist
As a Certified Health Education Specialist, SKY Campus instructor, and university professor, Katie brings to the team years of experience facilitating breathwork and meditation for students, staff, faculty and alumni across the country. Katie earned her Master’s Degree in Policy, Planning and Management. In addition to years of working with students, she has led trauma and stress relief programs with Wabanaki community members, incarcerated and formerly incarcerated populations, those in recovery from substance use, and those experiencing mental health challenges.