Championing Self-Care and Community

On the final day of her Holistic Wellness Initiative, Nichole Champion BA ’25 guided 14 high school students to Horsetail Falls, a scenic waterfall in Oregon’s Columbia River Gorge. For a lot of the students, it was their first time hiking.

Nichole Champion BA ’25 majored in psychology and is now studying to be a mental health professional at L&C's graduate school.“One of the students had recently moved to Oregon from New Orleans,” says Champion. “He told me, ‘I’ve always dreamed of seeing a waterfall, but I didn’t know if I’d actually get the chance.’ To be honest, it made me a little bit teary-eyed. I felt so honored to have given him—and all of the other students—this experience.”

Champion created the Holistic Wellness Initiative, a summer day camp for Portland-area middle and high school students, to address the lack of accessible, youth-centered spaces for exploring mental health, wellness, and community connection. By combining wellness practices with hands-on experiences, the camp offered students practical tools for coping with stress and navigating life transitions.

“I’ve always felt called to do work like this in the community, especially introducing underserved and unrepresented communities to health and wellness activities and experiences,” says Champion, who majored in psychology. “I feel like these are things that a lot of individuals are excluded from.”

With the encouragement of Brian White, director of the Office of International Students and Scholars, Champion applied for and received a $10,000 Projects for Peace grant for the camp. These grants support grassroots projects around the globe that focus on building understanding and finding solutions for resolving conflict and maintaining peace.

Video produced by Pose Pro Studios.

Yoga, Art, Nature, and More

The Holistic Wellness Initiative grew out of Champion’s multi-year work as the wellness coordinator for Inquiry for Justice, a college access program at Portland State University designed for rising first-generation and historically underrepresented high school students in the Portland metro area.

“I was working with these kids and having discussions about the disparities in our communities, and I wanted to introduce them to something else besides the traumatic, dark history of Oregon racism,” explains Champion. “A lot of these students are Black and Brown, so they’re already living that experience and know what it feels like. I wanted to give them tools they can use to deal with stress, emotional regulation, and navigating adulthood.”

Champion took a holistic approach to creating her project that integrated yoga (which she taught), sound healing, art therapy, DIY wellness box creation, and nature-based activities, such as berry picking and hiking. She also collaborated with several community partners, including Black Futures Farms, Free Arts Northwest, and West Union Gardens.

“The feedback I received from students, parents, and community members was overwhelmingly positive,” says Champion. “It was really nice to focus on just health and wellness and nothing else. The students kept asking, ‘Is this happening next summer?’”

Learning With Purpose

Champion’s own background of challenges and hardships helped her better identify with camp participants. She grew up in the South and moved on her own to Portland when she was 18. She finished her senior year at Jefferson High School. After a few months at a local community college, she dropped out. “I didn’t have any support, so I spent the next two years building the foundation I needed to succeed … I got my first car and a place to stay,” she says. After returning to community college and graduating with her associate’s degree, she enrolled at Lewis & Clark.

At L&C, Champion particularly appreciated her classes in social and cross-cultural psychology. “They helped me put a language to the experiences I’ve been navigating as a young adult.” Outside of class, she was involved with the Center for Social Change and Community Involvement as well as the Bates Center for Entrepreneurship and Leadership.

Extending the Impact

This fall, Champion enrolled in Lewis & Clark’s Graduate School of Education and Counseling, where she’s studying to become a youth mental health therapist. But she still plans to keep the Holistic Wellness Initiative alive by registering it as a 501(c)(3) organization in Oregon.

“I’d like to continue to grow the project,” says Champion. “Having my counseling certification and license will help me get donors, sponsors, and more community support to become an established, sustainable organization.” The Bates Center is providing her with seed funding to get the nonprofit off the ground.

“I feel the rigor at Lewis & Clark really helped me to be resilient in putting the Holistic Wellness Initiative together—I had to stay focused on a certain topic, research, manage my time, plan, and organize,” says Champion. “The college gave me the platform and resources to really bring this idea to life.”

Psychology Projects for Peace