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.
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 Team
Our leadership team oversees 500+ certified SKY Campus Facilitators. 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
Assistant Director
Kelsi Lynde comes from being a SKY Campus Happiness student leader herself. She went from an overwhelmed, anxiety filled, mostly happy person, to someone who has found happiness without conditions and no more uncomfortable anxiety. She joined this team full time after a year of serving teens through Americorp. From her time at MIT, USC, Purdue to supporting student leaders and SKY Campus Teachers across the country in creating an impact on campus, she does it all. including SKY Campus Social Media coordinator.
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.
JAMEELAH
Director of HBCU Programs
Jameelah Carver is one of the founding members of SKY youth & university programs and has been a meditation and breathwork instructor since 1999. She has equipped thousands of students with tools to effectively manage their minds and emotions and become compassionate, service minded leaders in their communities. She previously served as the Co-Director of SKY Campus, developing new teachers, leading campus teams and community initiatives at universities such as Howard University, Stanford University, USC and UCLA.
HARRY
Project Manager: DC area & inspiring emerging leaders
While attaining his Bachelor’s in Construction Engineering, Harry felt a calling to uplift mental well-being through service. Introduced to meditation as a teenager, he's maintained a regular practice ever since. Inspired by the
Art of Living's vision for a violence-free, stress-free society, Harry has devoted 16 years to empowering students and young professionals. He brings his boundless enthusiasm and a vibrant personality to SKY Campus as he continues to uplift and train individuals with over 10,000 teaching hours under his belt.