Where it began
Before BelongWell4Life was a website, it was a question asked at Stellenbosch University: can a university help new students believe they belong, and does it make a difference when it does?
Every year, thousands of first-year students arrive at a large, demanding university. Many wonder quietly whether they really belong there, especially those who are the first in their family to study, or who come from schools with fewer resources. Doubt about belonging can make a hard week feel like proof that you should leave.
Being a strong student does not protect anyone from that doubt. So, with colleagues in the Faculty of Engineering, we built something simple to meet students in their first days.
The approach, called Making Differences Count, follows difference-education research (Stephens, Hamedani and Destin, 2014, Psychological Science) and the wider family of “wise interventions”. It takes about 45 minutes, online, and from 2024 it moved into Welcoming Week, before classes begin.
Peer-reviewed and published
Watch: the study in seven minutes, narrated.
First-year Engineering students, 2023 cohort, in Engineering Mathematics 115 and in enrolment a year later.
81.4%
passed Engineering Mathematics among students who took part, against 69.3% among those who did not
53.3 vs 43.9
average final marks for first-generation students who took part, against those who did not
89.0%
still enrolled a year later among those who took part, against 73.8%; 94.5% among those who also did a growth mindset exercise
The honest limit. Students chose whether to take part, so these are associations, not proof that the stories caused the gains. Students who take part may also be more conscientious. What the results do show is a strong, consistent pattern across every group of students, and the clearest gains among those with the furthest to come.
Du Plessis, A., Viljoen, C., Blaine, D., Tadie, M., & Wolff, K. (2024). Fostering belonging: The impact of a wise intervention on diverse engineering students. 2024 World Engineering Education Forum – Global Engineering Deans Council (WEEF-GEDC), Sydney. IEEE. doi.org/10.1109/WEEF-GEDC63419.2024.10854938
Welcoming Week 2026
The same approach, offered to first-year Engineering students before classes began: how the activity works, what 510 students told us, and the honest limits of a first look.
Watch: I Belong Here, eight minutes, narrated. One cohort, measured once, straight after the activity, with no comparison group: these results describe how students responded, not what the activity caused.
Dr Alten du Plessis (Institutional Strategy, Research and Analytics), with Celeste Viljoen, Deborah Blaine, Margreth Tadie and Karin Wolff of the Faculty of Engineering, Stellenbosch University.
From a campus to any community
A residence, a congregation, a club or a team is not a university, but the same lessons travel. Each one lives in a BelongWell4Life course.
Lesson 1
A short, well-made experience in the first days helped students believe they could belong. Stories from people one step ahead did the work that advice alone cannot.
Lesson 2
Students strongly agreed, after the stories, that asking for help is normal. In any community, people ask more readily once someone has said it plainly.
Lesson 3
The stories showed different backgrounds and different routes. Difference became something to learn from, not something to hide.
Lesson 4
Students who had the most to navigate, such as the first in their family at university, gained the most. Build the welcome around them, and everyone benefits.
One more lesson: belonging did best alongside a growth mindset. Feeling you belong and believing you can grow belong together.
The course that grew out of this work is open to anyone who wants to move from loneliness to belonging.
Your evidence-based journey from loneliness to genuine belonging, at your own pace
Loneliness is one of the most common human experiences, and one of the least talked about. Thirty practical tools across six modules and a bonus help you understand your own loneliness, build your inner foundation, grow social confidence, widen your circle, deepen the connections that matter and make a plan of your own.
Universities, schools and workplaces can build their own welcome on the same approach: stories from people a step ahead, reflection, and advice passed on.
Want to build belonging in your own community? The Certificate in Community Building takes its first cohort in 2027; until then, our courses are open to everyone.