Mindfulness Fellow

2022 Mindfulness Fellow 

Emma Cortina

Middlebury College Student Class 24.5’

I dove into mindfulness two years ago when the COVID-19 pandemic struck. Today, I am strongly passionate about my evolving practice of meditation and mindfulness. My practice has helped me learn to regulate feelings, emotions, and thought storms in a productive, non-judgmental way. The ever-changing world we live in makes it difficult to exist stress-free. Through my work with The Scott Center, I hope to increase student and faculty interest and engagement with mindfulness at Middlebury to help others calm and quiet the mind.

2021 Mindfulness Fellow 

Zoya Kobets

Middlebury College Student Class of ‘24

Independent Scholar in Contemplative Studies 

The Mindfulness Summer Fellowship was established as a one-year initiative to gather some of the history, collect the stories, inventory the resources, tabulate the faculty and staff participants, and curate a webpage that would connect these various entities and activities, as well as provide resources for the multiple uses and approaches to mindfulness within higher education. As such, it will become a “cooperative” of sorts.

During the summer of 2021 Zoya Kobets created this “Mindfulness” webpage. Zoya collaborated and met with faculty, staff, and departments across campus to formulate resources on mindfulness. Zoya established programing through orientation, current clubs, classes, and Compass. 

Our goal is to create a webpage that can live on the college website to serve as a resource to anyone interested in learning about the meaning behind mindfulness at Middlebury.

Don’t forget to check out my major in Contemplative Studies if you’re curious about following this academic path. 

As someone who dove into Mindfulness independently about six years ago, I am passionate about its effects on my life. I’ve found mindfulness techniques to not only be helpful for stress-reduction and concentration but encouraging an overall more holistic, balanced, and open perspective on life and emotions. I can also only claim to be a beginner, I am no expert. My hope is that by sharing information and resources to mindfulness our community will cultivate more connections and space for caring for one another. 

Contact me at zkobets@middlebury.edu