Over the summer, Pat Lewis, associate professor in the Department of Health Sciences and Public Health, and Jason Hamilton, professor in the Department of the Environment, presented their ideas for a one-credit Nature Rx class at the Campus Nature Rx Colloquium.
Campus Nature Rx is a network of college campus wellness programs that look to treat mental health through experiences in nature. The class, Nature Rx 16000, was first trialed in Spring 2025 and is looking to become more established and refined in its second semester.
Lewis has previously served as an associate professor, department chair and program coordinator of Ithaca College’s Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies, the Outdoor Adventure Leadership major and Immersion Semester Program. However, his former department was cut from the college as part of Academic Program Prioritization in 2021.
Assistant News Editor Julian DeLucia spoke with Lewis about the health benefits of spending time in nature and the process of making a Nature Rx course offering.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Julian DeLucia: I noticed on your school profile that you’re listed as a leisure professional. What does it mean to be a leisure professional?
Pat Lewis: Leisure, by definition, is that space — that time of your day, of your life — that is not other things like going to work or eating. … It’s the stuff that’s not the stuff you have to do. So how can you be a professional at that? Well, actually, there’s a whole industry. There’s a whole aspect to helping people develop programs to lead others so that they can then fulfill that space in their lives where they are making those free, autonomous choices. … I try to teach others, not only how to experience [leisure], but how to then facilitate those experiences for others.
JD: Were you involved with Nature Rx as a program before you got involved with making it into a course?
PL: [About] six, seven years ago, there was this movement here of, ‘Hey, we should push this as a campus program, this idea of Nature Rx,’ and at that point in time, … my previous department was Recreation and Leisure Studies, and I was the chair and I led the Outdoor Adventure Leadership major. … Then COVID happened, and it kind of went dormant for a little bit. Then, not long after that, a new group kind of picked up the momentum. … Lots of people interested from all over campus, all disciplines. … But at that point in time, it was all professionals, whether it was staff or faculty, and it was clear to the group we needed to get more student involvement. And one of the things that we talked about was a class would be a good thing to get students more aware of the Nature Rx idea. That’s a good way to connect what I used to do, which was Outdoor Adventure Leadership, with our department now, which is Health Science and Public Health. There’s this wellness element to our new department, and Nature Rx kind of bridges those two really well.
JD: Is this an Ithaca College specific effort, or are there colleges looking to make a nature wellness class offering?
PL: There is a Campus Nature Rx group, and I believe there are approximately 90 member institutions. … Different colleges are approaching it in different ways, so we’re not alone in that.
JD: What would a Nature Rx class entail?
PL: At its current edition, it’s a block one course. So there are basically seven to eight classes, and in each class, we just do something different. This is gonna sound really silly. We just do something different outside each time. … We’ve done mindful meditation. So we’ve gone outside and just did meditation while in the Ithaca College Natural Lands, just in the forest. We’ve gone orienteering, where we’ve taken a map and compass, made a course around campus, and we just went for a walk outside. We’ve done a woodworking project where we’ve used knives and just carved really primitive silverware out of the wood block. So we made spoons, and some people made butter knives, that type of stuff. … That’s basically the gist is we’re just trying to spend an hour and an hour and a half or so, 100 minutes of our day, just getting lost in the outdoor space.
JD: You mentioned Outdoor Adventure Leadership. What parts of that do you bring to this new course?
PL: Technically, not much at all. … There’s some content, but that’s not the gist of Nature Rx. It isn’t to have them memorize a good dressing system to stay safe outside. That’s not the point of the class. … But, that’s actually one of the things that we presented on was the parts that drove the Outdoor Adventure Leadership major, including things like the … definition of adventure, and what is adventure? Those elements are kind of pushed into this course. … Everything’s just lining up. You’re in the zone, lose track of time, totally focused and kind of have that positive mental experience from that. I believe that by just simply giving adventure a real, honest try, you can slip into that flow state. And if we can get into that flow state, we know it’s linked with all these good, positive mental health benefits, yeah, and that gets to the Rx part of the Nature Rx, right? We’re kind of trying to track toward this wellness idea.
JD: How does time in nature benefit someone’s mental health?
PL: I think nature ends up being the space for people to allow those other things to happen. … We’re all snowflakes, we’re all different. What might work for you in nature may not work for me in nature and we just see that everywhere. I like to ride my bike up in the natural lands, and some people like to look at birds in the natural lands like it’s not that one is better for your health than the other. I just think it ends up being the space or the medium for people to kind of do the things that benefit their health.
JD: What went into planning out each class?
PL: The first time through, I wanted to stay close to things that I felt comfortable with,
that I felt that I could facilitate. … For some of the things, I had to ask a colleague to come and help. … [She] came and led the first session of the mindful meditation and I took notes and I listened and I watched, and then I led the next one. We had woodworking. And I’ve never done woodworking before, but Jason Hamilton showed me how to do it. … There’s something about the activity needing to be foreign enough that no one’s an expert that makes it comfortable, accessible and engaging for everyone.
