Nurturing Sustainable, Relationship-Rich Academic Environments is the University of Virginia’s initiative to identify and expand the conditions that make experiential learning truly life-transformative. UVA’s Center for Teaching Excellence developed a clear framework for what distinguishes transformative experiences from ordinary ones: students apply knowledge in real-world contexts, do so collaboratively with interpersonal dynamics as an intentional part of the design, and have structured opportunities to reflect throughout — from setting intentions at the start to integrating intellectual and personal lessons at the end.

With that framework as a guide, UVA set about expanding and redesigning existing programs to meet those standards. The Internship Placement Program was reconfigured to include a one-credit ungraded course adding collaborative and reflective dimensions to the internship experience. The Thrive Grants Program incentivizes faculty already committed to course redesign to build transformative experiences directly into their classes, building on the Course Design Institute’s multi-day faculty development seminars. A piloted community engagement course introduced students to theories of equity, citizenship, civic leadership, and social justice through a local lens, with portfolio-based reflection helping students integrate content into their own developing identities. Running through all of these efforts is a deeper institutional goal: building the faculty capacity and campus culture needed to sustain relationship-rich, emotionally supportive learning environments not as one-off programs, but as a durable feature of the UVA undergraduate experience.