WeLAB
Students as catalysts for systems change, access, and belonging at UConn
What is WeLAB?
WeLAB is a space where undergraduate and graduate students access tools, opportunities and connections to dig into questions that make us think, communities that make us whole, and experiences that generate action to build a stronger culture of belonging.
A living system of co-design – WeLAB student projects cross departments, dissolve silos, and flip hierarchy.
- Empowers undergraduate and graduate students to become catalysts for change through individual and collective impact.
- Equips students with tools, opportunities, and networks to lead initiatives that challenge inequities and build a stronger culture of belonging.
- Elevates curiosity-driven projects that center the lived experience as expertise in belonging work across UConn campuses and the wider community.
- Engages diverse voices and partnerships through community building and mentorship to amplify student-led thought, research and transformation.
- WeLAB cultivates a space where joyful resistance, agency, and unsiloed collaboration become actionable tools for reimagining campus culture. We believe that the path toward institutional change is paved by those willing to sit in complexity and ask difficult questions, with the student voice leading the conversation.
- Alignment with UConn’s Strategic Plan & the Well-Being Collective.
- Core Principles (inspired by Design for Belonging / Othering & Belonging Institute / Emergent Strategy):
- Co-creation & shared leadership
- Belonging as infrastructure
- Identity-affirming & justice-centered design
- Systems change through student agency
- History / Why WeLAB?
- Student needs: loneliness, isolation, disparities in belonging.
- Gap in traditional belonging programs (top-down, exclusion of student voice).
- WeLAB as UConn’s response and innovation.
- What’s in it for Students?
- Project Funding
- Personalized Mentorship
- Dedicated Workspaces
- Hands-on Learning Workshops
- Balance & Wellness support
- Building a Lasting Legacy
- Student Outcomes:
- Understanding access and belonging impacts
- Developing co-created deliverables
- Building leadership and project management skills
- Creating lasting artifacts of change work
- Student Voices:
- Rotating testimonials or quotes: “I feel like I found community.”
- Embedded video clips or TheirStory oral histories
- Program Structure
- Fall Retreat (kick-off)
- Monthly Community Connections
- Quarterly Mentor Check-ins
- Workshops (project design, evaluation, storytelling)
- Annual Symposium
- Spring Retreat
- Commitments & Expectations
- Year-long engagement (Fall + Spring; Continued Summer Support)
- Contribution to project design, belonging research, and community cultivation
- Application Process
- How to apply (deadlines, eligibility, link to application form)
- FAQ
- Current & Past Student Projects
- Brief highlights of pilot prototypes (with photos, student names, outcomes).
- Categories: identity-affirming initiatives, peer networks, mentorship systems, storytelling projects.
- Deliverables (Dark for Now)
- Co-Design Toolkit
- Pilot Prototypes
- Narrative Anthology (TheirStory)
- Evaluation Framework
- Impact Data (pulling from logic model + evaluation framework):
- Student agency and belonging outcomes
- Cross-department collaborations
- Policy or practice changes influenced by WeLAB
- Campus Partners – still needing permission from several
- UConn Well-Being Collective
- UConn Student Health & Wellness
- UConn Department of Student Activities
- UConn Vergnano Institute for Inclusion
- UConn Office of Undergraduate Research
- UConn Humanities Institute
- UConn Research on Resilient Cities, Racism and Equity
- UConn Human Rights Institute
- UConn Rainbow Center
- Rudd Center
- Community Partners
- Faculty & Staff Mentors
- How to get involved as a mentor or collaborator.
- Calendar of:
- Monthly Community Connections
- Workshops
- Annual Symposium
- Pop-ups and storytelling events
- Stakeholder Events (cross-promoting relevant events from other departments for the WeLAB Community to be aware of)
- Architects
- Lara Chiaverini
- Micah Heumann
- Katie Roy
- Meg Marshall
- Student Lab Partners
- Rotating profiles of student leaders involved in WeLAB.