Reorient to what matters
Reorientation partners with colleges to redesign the student experience so every student has daily proof that they belong, contribute, and are building a meaningful life.
“What if an overlooked cause of the campus mental-health crisis is that students rarely get proof their lives matter now?”
For many young adults, life has become a qualifying round: boxes to check, hurdles to clear, worth proven later. Classes, clubs, and even friendships are framed as steps toward a future payoff—grades, internships, jobs. Everyday experiences that build healthy humans—time with friends, sleep, movement, making things—get crowded out by the race to stay competitive. Whatever time is left is swallowed by apps designed to capture attention and showcase “bigger, better” lives elsewhere. It’s easy to absorb the message: today only matters if it advances tomorrow.
We call this deferred mattering—the belief that life “counts” only after the right milestones. When students rarely see evidence that they matter now, their value can start to feel conditional or inconsequential. It’s no surprise that in recent national surveys, more than half of young adults report little or no sense of purpose, and those with low purpose report roughly double the rates of anxiety and depression.
Colleges and parents see the downstream effects—and sometimes, despite good intentions, amplify them. The good news: with the right structures and support, they can help young people gather daily proof that they belong, contribute, and are already building lives that matter now, not someday. That’s the work Reorientation exists to support.
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