NEW YORK – Barnard College is expanding its commitment to student, faculty, and staff wellness with the introduction of the REJen experience, a state-of-the-art relaxation suite in the Francine A. LeFrak Foundation Center for Well-Being. The high-tech offerings are a generous gift from philanthropist and wellness innovator Jennifer Carolyn King that will help Barnard College — through its Francine A. LeFrak Foundation Center for Well-Being — facilitate wellness across the campus.
The REJen experience includes three innovative, stress-relieving technologies designed to be used in conjunction to support nervous system regulation, relaxation, and overall mental and physical well-being:
- Shiftwave Chair: A zero-gravity recliner that tones the nervous system with mechanically generated pulsed pressure waves to enhance circulation, aid muscle recovery, and promote deep relaxation.
- Sensate: A sensory device that uses vibrations and sound to reduce stress and promote resilience.
- Apple Vision Pro Goggles: Offering immersive nature experiences designed to help users unwind and reset.
“This unique gift in honor of Francine LeFrak directly aligns with the mission of the Rugged Elegance Foundation, which is to inspire healthy, adventuresome, soulful living,” said Jennifer Carolyn King, President of the Rugged Elegance Foundation. “The REJen experience — three unique and powerful healing modalities — is the first of its kind at an institution of higher learning. The REJen experience at Barnard includes a Shiftwave Chair, which does a neurological reset to the body and brain in minutes, a Sensate, which tones the vagus nerve, and a pair of Apple Vision Pro Goggles, which offers an immersive experience into nature from the comfort of the Shiftwave. We hope our gift of the REJen experience will serve to regenerate the physical and mental resilience of Barnard’s students, faculty, and staff. We also hope the REJen experience becomes an inspiration to other colleges and universities as they begin to learn of the positive impact at Barnard’s new Francine A. LeFrak Foundation Center for Well-Being.”
The REJen experience is open to all Barnard students, faculty, and staff during the Center’s regular business hours. Appointments can be scheduled online.
“I am so happy that the entire Barnard community will benefit from the REJen experience in the Francine A. LeFrak Foundation Center for Well-Being at Barnard College,” said Francine A. LeFrak, President of the Francine A. LeFrak Foundation and the Same Sky Foundation Fund. “Students today face incredible stress, and thanks to Jennifer King and Tim Fredel's Rugged Elegance Foundation, Barnard will be the first college campus to experience this groundbreaking wellness technology that treats physical and mental health by toning the vagus nerve, promoting healing and reducing stress. Jennifer King’s passionate advocacy for wellness and years of philanthropic work have impacted thousands of lives. After learning about the LeFrak Center’s innovative approach to well-being through physical, mental, and financial wellness, she believed the REJen experience would be a powerful addition to bring healing to students. We are so grateful for this generous gift to the Center.”
“Everyone who tries out the new high-tech mobile modalities for destressing has raved about them,” said April Autry, Executive Director of the Francine LeFrak Center. “The relaxation suite has been a fantastic addition to our many wellness offerings, and we’re so grateful to Jennifer King for making it possible.”
Located in the Francine A. LeFrak Foundation Center for Well-Being, these technologies provide students, faculty, and staff with a new way to manage stress, improve sleep, and enhance focus. The REJen experience builds on the Center’s mission by integrating cutting-edge stress relief technology into its existing programming, which provides students with access to wellness education, peer-led workshops, fitness resources, and financial fluency tools.
Through a multidimensional approach, the Francine A. LeFrak Foundation Center for Well-Being sets the standard for well-being in higher education. The three core pillars of the Center, which opened in October 2024, are mental, physical, and financial well-being.
About the Three Integrated Pillars:
- Mental Well-Being - Signature programming created by the Francine A. LeFrak Foundation Center for Well-Being team amplifies the importance of holistic well-being, particularly with programming to address key mental health issues, especially for girls and women. The Center will provide a space for students, faculty, and alumnae to build community at Barnard.
- Physical Well-Being - The Francine A. LeFrak Foundation Center for Well-Being will set a new standard for well-being in higher education — and education at all levels and in all settings — by applying a wide lens that includes multiple dimensions of well-being in its programming. This includes programs to promote physical movement and learning about topics of wellness from experts in our community. The center will house a dance studio and state-of-the-art fitness center that will be available to all Barnard community members.
- Financial Well-Being - Using a framework that is inclusive of all members of the community and beyond, the Francine A. LeFrak Foundation Center for Well-Being will address the key dimensions of financial fluency and the tools to propel success. The Center will host speakers and events and will offer the Francine A. LeFrak Foundation Financial Leadership and Fluency Certificate, recognizing students for their commitment to financial fluency and well-being.
Use of these relaxation technologies has immediate and long-term health benefits, including resetting the stress response, reducing inflammation, and helping to restore healthy sleeping patterns. Some have likened a session in the Shiftwave Chair to “a year’s worth of meditation in 10 minutes,” and combined with the Apple Vision Pro and the Sensate, the REJen experience is a cutting-edge relaxation experience available to the Barnard community.
About Rugged Elegance Foundation
Founded and led by Jennifer Carolyn King, Timothy Fredel, and the King Fredel’s three adult children, Jessica, Nikolas, and Hayley King Fredel, the Rugged Elegance Foundation was created to inspire healthy, adventuresome, soulful living and philanthropic giving. RE is focused on the physical and mental health of for-profit founders, founders of social impact enterprises, and founders of movements. The family’s soul sanctuaries in Sea Cliff, San Francisco, and Kennebunkport, Maine, have become “places to purpose” for founders’ well-being called The Retreat: SF and The Retreat: ME, where the REJen was born. Today, the King Fredels, serial founders, are creating a movement of their own called “The Necessary Pause” at Rugged Elegance Retreats where successful founders’ second homes provide a custom, curated “Day to Breathe” to fellow founders. The goal of Rugged Elegance? To ultimately 12x the positive impact of founders via the gift of a “Day to Breathe,” the gift of their REJen experience and via RE…the soulful network, where founders connect to cultural, financial, intellectual, political, social and soulful capital.
About Barnard
Barnard provides a singular educational experience, as a world-renowned college focused on excellence across the arts and sciences, with all the academic resources of Columbia University and the City of New York as an extended classroom. Founded in 1889, Barnard was one of the few colleges in the nation where women could receive the same rigorous and challenging education available to men. Today, Barnard is one of the most selective academic institutions in the country and remains devoted to empowering extraordinary women to become even more exceptional. For more information on Barnard College, contact Barnard Media Relations at 212-854-2037 or mediarelations@barnard.edu.
About the Francine A. LeFrak Foundation
The Francine A. LeFrak Foundation’s mission is to help change the lives of those who need an opportunity to achieve success. Through targeted partnerships, the Foundation provides access to training, education, the arts and facilities while preserving culture around the world.
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