UMass Boston held the Walk with GRACE 2026 event May 7 on the Campus Center Quad in honor of Mental Health Awareness Month.
The event lasted from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. and featured various interactive booths, speakers, food, games and a guided GRACE Trail walk that began at 1:00 p.m., led by GRACE Trail’s founder, Anne Jolles.
The Quad was filled with activities like a large inflatable obstacle course, painting, creating sound baths, free books and Roxy’s Gourmet Grilled Cheese food truck. Organizations like U-Access, Campus Recreation, Harbor Health and University Health Services had info stands with resources for students. The event also featured several giveaways with prizes ranging from AirPods and gift cards to a wellness basket filled with items like a candle warmer and blankets.
GRACE Trail is an organization that creates designated walking paths for those struggling with their mental health to connect with nature by reflecting on the five main guiding questions: What am I grateful for? What do I need to release? What do I need to accept? What is my next challenge? And what can I embrace as possible?
Third year student athlete, Jenna Fitzsimmons spoke at the event. Fitzsimmons is a member of UMass Boston’s women’s ice hockey team, as well as a member of the Student Athlete Advisory Committee, where she serves as the committee chair of the Student Athlete Mental Health and Well-Being subcommittee. She opened up about her experience balancing being a student athlete, working several jobs and maintaining relationships with friends and family, and the toll it took on her mental health.
“No one should ever have to deal with their brains alone. That’s not what friends, and families, and coaches, and professors, and other human beings are for. Communities exist because we need one another and we should feel comfortable accepting that because if you don’t, if you don’t let yourself be vulnerable and seek help when you need it, then life gets that much harder,” stated Fitzsimmons in her speech.
Founder Anne Jolles also spoke at the event, telling the story of GRACE Trail and how the movement has grown over the years since its founding in 2015. Jolles began taking walks around her house in Plymouth whilst her son was deployed in combat in Afghanistan. Initially, she was inspired by an article she read detailing the stories of veterans “walking off their war” in the Appalachian Mountain Trail. She began asking herself the five questions that are the driving forces behind GRACE Trail and eventually placed a rock with the word “grace” on it, marking the first official GRACE Trail.
Since then, there are now twelve different GRACE trails across the country, including one at UMass Boston. According to the GRACE Trail website, this trail was created in collaboration with university leaders, the College of Nursing and Health Sciences and the JFK Presidential Library, and it resides along the harbor walk that surrounds Columbia Point. Currently, there are trails in Massachusetts, Texas, Connecticut, Wisconsin and Vermont, with a new GRACE Trail coming in fall of 2026. Each trail is marked with signs displaying the five guiding questions that make up GRACE Trail.
In her speech, Jolles highlighted the importance of introspection and how, in our current society, it can be difficult to take the time to check in with yourself.
“We live in a world where AI can answer almost anything, but not everything, as we learn today. It can’t answer the most important questions in your life,” she said. “GRACE Trail is about helping you pause, listen for your own answers and choose your direction forward … You got the answers inside you, and that’s what GRACE Trail helps you find.”