Saddleback College Becomes First Community College to Join the LearningWell Coalition
The LearningWell Coalition is proud to announce that Saddleback College has joined as its newest member—and the first community college in the Coalition’s growing network of institutions committed to student wellbeing and transformational education.
Saddleback College joins the Coalition through its innovative initiative, Finding Your Career Path: Connect, Grow, and Build—a student-centered program designed to support personal narrative development, identity formation, and lifelong career agency. Rooted in research on purpose, belonging, and self-reflection, the initiative leverages faculty mentorship, peer support, and the thoughtful integration of AI tools to help students articulate their aspirations and chart meaningful pathways forward.
“The Finding Your Path project seeks to address the unique challenges faced by our students by creating spaces for personal narrative development,” said Saddleback College President Dr. Elliot Stern. “By encouraging students to create memoirs and personal narratives, we provide them with invaluable opportunities for self-reflection, enabling them to recognize the strengths and ambitions that will define their career and life paths. The use of AI in this project is both forward-thinking and transformative, preparing our students for the AI-powered world of tomorrow.”
Saddleback College’s deep commitment to holistic student success—particularly for first-generation, underrepresented, and disproportionately impacted students—aligns powerfully with the mission and values of the LearningWell Coalition. Through its focus on identity, agency, and purpose, the Finding Your Path initiative reflects the core components of the Coalition’s vision for higher education that supports long-term flourishing in life and work.
The program is set to launch as a pilot in Summer 2025, with full implementation planned for Fall 2025. Workshops and reflections on personal and career identity will be co-led by faculty, counselors, and student mentors, with a strong emphasis on equity, storytelling, and community connection. Over time, Saddleback aims to scale the program to additional student populations and embed its practices into academic and co-curricular life across the college.
“Saddleback’s initiative exemplifies the kind of creativity and innovation that will help to build the future of higher education,” said Keith Buffinton, Executive Director of the LearningWell Coalition. “We are thrilled to welcome Saddleback as our first community college member and look forward to learning from their leadership.”
With the addition of Saddleback College, the LearningWell Coalition continues to grow its diverse network of institutions—from research universities to liberal arts colleges and now community colleges—committed to embedding the development of identity, agency, purpose, belonging, and character into the student experience.
About the LearningWell Coalition
The LearningWell Coalition is a national network of colleges and universities dedicated to evidence-based, learner-centered education that supports lifelong flourishing in career, community, and personal wellbeing. The Coalition supports institutions in designing, implementing, and assessing transformational educational experiences, while elevating these approaches through a robust thought leadership platform, including LearningWell magazine.
