Click here to find the map and content to follow the URBAN Trail!

In Fall 2021, Dr. Sarah Camhi (Kinesiology) and her team of students unveiled the guided URBAN Trail to our campus community.  The URBAN Trail is a guided mindful walk around the University of San Francisco (USF) campus aimed to boost your mind, body and spirit (Cura Personalis). Trail content is based on a book written by USF professor and alumnus Hal Urban,  The Power of Good News: Feeding Your Mind with What’s Good for Your Heart. 2021: Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

The trail features 7 themes: Cura Personalis, “U”, Reframe, Balance, Appreciate, Nourish and Pass it On.  A community engaged process was utilized to develop content and input was given from our USF faculty, staff, students and local community members at 2 different stages and incorporated in the final product.  This process took 3+ years to develop content, pilot test, gather feedback, revise, and install the URBAN trail which was generously supported by USF Faculty Development Funds and the Jesuit Foundation Grant.

Research found that participating in the guided URBAN Trail increased mindfulness and reduced both stress and anxiety of University students (Burdick et al., 2022).  To increase the reach of this resource to our university and local community, we adapted the trail in 2023 to be self-guided for anyone to enjoy at anytime! Future plans include more research to evaluate the effectiveness of the trail for improving mental and physical health in our faculty, staff and our local community.  For more information on what mindfulness is, please see resources at the bottom of our page.