A kindness initiative on campus spreads community appreciation
BY MELANIE JENSEN, STAFF WRITER
The perfect way to acknowledge and thank a thoughtful friend, supportive professor or hardworking classmate is through the Mason Chooses Kindness initiative, which provides an opportunity to show your appreciation through a small gesture.
Pats for Patriots is a free award program under the Center for the Advancement of Well-Being that allows students, faculty, alumni and people outside of the Mason community to nominate each other for their kind acts. The submission and award is entirely online, and anyone wishing to send a Pat can fill out a Microsoft Form on the Pats for Patriots website.
The sender fills out the name, email and affiliation to Mason of the person they’d like to nominate. They also provide their own name and Mason affiliation before writing a personalized, short message of gratitude that will be included in the e-card sent to the recipient. The form also gives the sender the option to stay anonymous.
Philip Wilkerson, an Employer Engagement Consultant for Career Services and a Communication PhD student at Mason, founded the Pats for Patriots program in October of 2021. He was inspired by the Darts and Pats program at James Madison University (JMU), where he studied for undergrad.
Wilkerson said the Breeze, JMU’s student newspaper, published anonymous student comments ranging from roommate complaints to classmate thank-yous. The positive submissions were called Pats and the negative were called Darts.Wilkerson was inspired by the positivity of the Pats and wanted to incorporate it into the Mason community.
“Why do we always have to wait for something big to recognize kindness? We should be able to do that with small things too,” Wilkerson said. “Let’s not wait for monumental things to celebrate. Let’s celebrate everyday moments.”
Alongside with his alma mater’s school newspaper, Wilkerson said his mentor Lewis Forest, an associate dean for University Life at Mason, also inspired his involvement with the Center for the Advancement of Well-Being. When the center created the Mason Chooses Kindness initiative in 2020, Forest encouraged his colleagues to get involved.
Wilkerson keeps track of each Pats submission in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, and since its creation in 2021, nearly 2,200 Pats have been shared among faculty, students, alumni and others. Each year, Wilkerson receives more submissions than the last, with only 239 in 2022 to 1,238 in 2024. While faculty and alumni submit their fair share of Pats, student submissions makeup around 50% of all nominations.
Some students took advantage of the program to thank their friends for helping them through a tough time, while others thanked their professors for supporting their academic journey. Faculty thanked their colleagues for being hardworking and thoughtful. Students were thanked for their hard work in the classroom and across campus.
“That was so kind of you to purchase bouquets of flowers to hand out to people for Valentine’s Day. I’m sure you made many people’s day by doing that, and it really shows how small gestures can be so impactful! Thank you for representing what Mason Chooses Kindness is all about!” said a Pat submission from faculty to a student.
One student wrote to another, “Not only are you a helpful, kind and amazing coworker, you’re an incredible person. You help us out when we need it the most, you do more than you have to, and you do it all without question. We love you.”
Another student said, “I hope you know you’re doing the best you can. We are all doing life for the first time so it is given that there’ll be mistakes.”
Each submission represents someone on campus reaching out to a member of their community to celebrate the small moments of kindness, strength and understanding, just as Wilkerson had intended when Pats for Patriots began.
While he acknowledges the growth in the number of nominations each year, Wilkerson hopes the program can soon reach every student and member of the Mason community on campus.
“I’ve noticed the frequent flyers,” Wilkerson said. “The people that do know it, really use it. I think the hardest part is getting to new people.”
To promote the program, Wilkerson said faculty from the Center for the Advancement of Well-Being reserve kiosks in the Johnson Center to talk to students. They provide a QR code for the Pats for Patriots nomination form in hopes of getting even more student and faculty participation.
While the outside world can often feel overwhelming, fast-paced and sometimes ugly, the Pats for Patriots initiative gives the Mason community a way to recenter and focus on appreciating the small acts of people around them. Each submission is a small step towards a kinder campus.