Adverse life events and trauma have the potential to devastate college students' lives across all domains of well-being, including physical, emotional, intellectual, spiritual, and social. Thriving despite these challenges requires academic resilience. Physical activity is one well-known strategy to support increased resilience. No research has examined physical activity's role in supporting context-specific academic resilience. To further examine this phenomenon, a three-study approach was conducted. (1) Care strategies were explored in partnership with staff and leadership at a health organization for torture survivors as a trauma-informed and culturally appropriate care model. An explanatory sequential mixed methods design was conducted through two focus groups: staff (n = 5; social workers, therapists, and caseworkers) and leadership (n = 4). Quantitative and qualitative findings highlighted best-practice strategies across evidence-based care models and critical improvement areas. (2) Trauma event exposure, academic resilience, and physical activity were examined in undergraduate students (N = 484). Findings indicated that trauma event exposure (89%) was significantly higher than previous research (p < 0.001), with most college students being physically inactive (58.6%), and average academic resilience was narrowly above "low" and significantly lower (p < 0.001) than the normative comparison group. (3) Aligned with the strategies identified in the first study and in response to the needs identified in the second, the impact of an online learning management system-based physical activity intervention on academic resilience was explored with higher education students (N = 43). Control (n = 19) and treatment (n = 24) student groups across three academic online courses participated in a 6-week physical activity pre- and post-intervention. A 2x2 repeated measures Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) revealed that the intervention impacted negative affect and emotional response, a subscale of academic resilience, with positive nonsignificant trends for global academic resilience, reflective and adaptive help-seeking, and perseverance. Together, these findings warrant further investigation. In conclusion, students in higher education are experiencing high levels of risk associated with trauma and adverse life events, and their academic resilience appears to be suffering. A physical activity program may potentially improve academic resilience. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com.bibliotheek.ehb.be/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]