Resources Build Healthy Campus Culture - 2025 Newsletter

April 01, 2025

New virtual and on-campus resources are helping Anoka-Ramsey students find connection and support on their own terms. 

Kate Noelke is the Director for Student Mental Health and Wellness at Minnesota State. She points out students are whole people with full, sometimes complex, lives. Through mental health, academic and basic needs support, Anoka-Ramsey and the colleges and universities of Minnesota State aim to help students remove barriers to success while still recognizing the resources they bring to bear.

“You can have experiences, lived experiences, identity, the strengths of culture, the strengths that come with the community that you grew up in, the family that you have, the friend group that you have,” Noelke says. “Those are all things that higher education can leverage when we talk about building communities of care and cultures where everyone deserves to have the right to be who they are as they are where they are. And education meets them there.”

From instructors to student employment supervisors to coaches and everyone in between, she says a connected community can really make a difference.

“It's everyone's job to create a healthy campus culture here because those are things that contribute to retention for students and their ability to be well and access success,” Noelke says.

Read on to learn more about recent additions to the resources Anoka-Ramsey offers to support student wellbeing and success.

Mantra Health

Students enrolled in at least one credit at Anoka-Ramsey have access to free, 24/7 on-demand mental health support through Mantra Health Whole Campus Care. Students can use the virtual platform, available online and through an app, alongside mental health and wellbeing services provided by Anoka-Ramsey’s Counseling Services team.

The tool provides:

• Self-care modules
• Emotional wellness coaching
• Peer-to-peer support
• 24/7 crisis support

Navigate 360

A new tool is helping Anoka-Ramsey students, faculty and academic advisors make college less complicated. Navigate 360 is a platform, available through a web portal and app, which helps students keep track of to-do lists, find the right major, connect with campus resources and more.

For faculty and staff, Navigate provides a centralized location to manage a students’ academic and personal success. Through coordinated tracking and early alerts, the tool aims to help students stay on track toward their educational goals.

Cambridge Campus Fresh Food Pantry

A self-service refrigerated locker system on Anoka-Ramsey’s Cambridge Campus is offering students greater access to fresh foods.

“This solution made sense for Cambridge as it is a smaller campus and finding space to have a full-time food pantry would be difficult, says Anoka-Ramsey Dean of Student Affairs Lisa Harris. “Using a locker system will allow students to request and receive food assistance in a more confidential manner than using a food pantry. This also allows for a more personalized approach to working with students and meeting their food needs.”

Students can request fresh fruits, vegetables, meat, bread and dairy products in a weekly food order. When filled, orders are placed in a self-service refrigerated locker system. Students are notified via text or email when an order is ready and will receive a unique access code to open their locker and access their order.

These items are offered in addition to grab-and-go food bags filled with non-perishable food and personal hygiene items, available once a month to students on campus. Students on Anoka-Ramsey’s Coon Rapids Campus also have access to produce, meat, dairy and non-perishable food through an on-campus food pantry open daily during the academic semester.

These items are offered in addition to grab-and-go food bags filled with non-perishable food and personal hygiene items, available once a month to students on campus. Students on Anoka-Ramsey’s Coon Rapids Campus also have access to produce, meat, dairy and non-perishable food through an on-campus food pantry open daily during the academic semester.

Visit AnokaRamsey.edu/BasicNeeds to learn more about the ways Anoka-Ramsey is supporting students in the classroom and beyond. 
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This feature appeared in the 2025 Anoka-Ramsey Community Newsletter. View a full PDF version of this story and additional pieces.