Columbia University Hosts Mindfulness Workshop to Help Students Reset and Recharge

Columbia University's Student Life office opened a morning of intentional stillness on March 24 when it hosted "Pause, Breathe, Reset," a mindfulness workshop designed to give students a dedicated space to slow down, reflect, and recalibrate.

The session was held at Dear Mama Cafe in the Jerome L. Greene Science Center on Columbia's Manhattanville campus, situated in the southwest corner of the building's ground floor, with an entrance opening into the Small Square. The cafe, located at 611 W. 129th St, served as both venue and host for the continental breakfast provided to attendees.

Licensed marriage and family therapist Jamie Olivieri, LMFT, led the session, guiding participants through a format built around guided reflection and small-group conversations. The workshop centered on two core themes: emotional awareness and positive self-talk, giving students hands-on practice in recognizing and reshaping internal thought patterns, not just a lecture on why it matters.

The pairing of mindfulness practice with small-group conversation is a particularly effective structure for students navigating academic pressure. Rather than a solo meditation drop-in, the format created room for shared experience, where participants could explore emotional awareness in dialogue with peers rather than in isolation.

The Jerome L. Greene Science Center was conceived as a place for human connection, intellectual excellence, and pioneering research, and is home to Columbia's Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, a hub that brings together faculty and students from across the university. Hosting a student wellbeing event in that space carries its own resonance, placing mindfulness practice squarely within a building dedicated to understanding the brain and behavior.

The continental breakfast added a grounding, communal quality to the morning, reinforcing the workshop's self-care framing. For students who arrived before the day's demands set in, the session offered something increasingly rare in a packed academic schedule: a structured invitation to pause.