Meet Dr. Amanda Minervini | Director and Founder, EGLHE & Professor at Colorado College

We had the good fortune of connecting with Dr. Amanda Minervini and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Dr. Amanda, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
I created EGLHE (Equine-Guided Learning and Healing Experience, a 501 (c) (3)* non-profit foundation) to respond to the mental health crisis among our youth, which the pandemic clearly exasperated. As a college professor, I was well aware of the toll of mental health issues on our students, and I felt I had to do something beyond teaching content to help and support my students’ learning. As an equestrian, I knew about the incredible healing power of horses. So, I finally put my job and my hobby together, bridging student-centered pedagogy with the principles of Warwick Schiller’s Attuned Horsemanship. So EGLHE was born, in April 2022. In an EGLHE session, a small group of students works with one especially trained horse. The horse will decide who to work with and when. Horse and student together will practice some exercises that are part of attuned horsemanship, such as being present (easy to say, right?) and matching steps. Matching steps might have similar effects to EMDR.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
It was not easy to pursue an academic career, especially as an accented immigrant from Southern Italy who is also a first-generation college student. How I got here, from the beaches of Apulia to Colorado (of all places!) is a long and rocambolesque story, but I owe my successes to a number of mentors who helped me so generously and to whom I owe unending gratitude.

Once I finally got a more stable academic job, I realized that I could do more for our students. To establish a nurturing learning environment, I share some information with my students about me, the person behind the professor, at the same time as I ask questions about them, what they love to do. For years, I noticed how fascinated my students tend to be with the fact that I care for a number of nonhuman animals, including a horse, an off-the-track Thoroughbred called Mr James (Jimmy). Finally, it was my students’ excitement and curiosity, and the mental health crisis heightened by the pandemic, that led me to create my no-profit foundation, EGLHE (Equine-Guided Learning and Healing Experience). So I do not know that I am the only college professor to do this, but what sets me apart at least at my college, is that during one of my field trips, I take a group of students to meet Jimmy at the beautiful ranch where he lives, and Jimmy will be their teacher and guide that day.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I take my friends trail riding on some of our beautiful trails in the Palmer Divide/Monument area. In particular I love Sandstone, Lincoln Mountain and Dawson’s Butte. If they can’t ride, we hike!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My academic mentors Dr. Anna Botta, Smith College, Dr. Jim Hicks, UMass Amherst; the founders of Attuned Horsemanship, Robyn and Warwick Schiller; the EGLHE Board of Directors, Haley Griffis and Shaula Carboni.

Website: https://amandaminervini.weebly.com/eglhe.html

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aminervi/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/amanda.minervini/

Other: https://amandaminervini.weebly.com/

Image Credits
Lonnie Timmons III (for Colorado College)