For anyone in the Beach family looking for tips about eating, sleeping or drinking, they need not look any further than “Wellness Wednesdays” in the University Student Union.
The Student Health Services is providing weekly workshops on topics such as sex and sexuality, eating and exercise – even surviving finals and getting your Z’s.
“Wellness Wednesday” continues to truck along this Wednesday from 12:30-1:30 p.m. in USU room 305 with a lecture entitled “Food for Life – Nutrition.”
This is the first semester that SHS has hosted the weekly workshop series. According to Health Resource Center Coordinator Heidi Girling, the initiative began because Associate Vice President for Student Affairs, Mary Ann Takemoto, wanted a new program that was more of a lecture series on campus that would be available to staff, faculty and students every week.
“Our director, Dr. Takemoto, she is incredibly inspiring, and always has great ideas,” Girling said. “[She wanted] a lecture series that wasn’t in a location like the clinic, because sometimes people don’t want to walk all the way down here. She wanted it central, so that was her idea…do it in the student union.”
Girling was put in charge of launching the program, and said she was excited about the idea of incorporating outside speakers.
“‘Wellness Wednesday’ gives it a real nice theme,” Girling said. “And I love that we’re bringing in other people from campus and off campus, because then it’s not just us health educators, the same people talking all the time; different people every week.”
One of the guest presenters that she is looking forward to is clinical psychologist and UC Irvine psychology professor Dr. Nita Tewari.
“[She] is going to do the one about feeling disconnected, but you’re connected all the time, Girling said. “We hear that a lot from students who feel really lonely, but they’re always on their phone – they talk about feeling isolated.”
Girling hopes that the workshops will help students with more than just their physical health, but mental health as well.
“Even though we’re the health center, and we deal with physical health, in my department we’re also looking at the whole person,” Girling said. “That’s what this whole ‘Wellness Wednesday’ is about.”
Students can also help themselves by getting co-curricular units for attending lectures. Students who go will swipe their ID card upon arrival to receive one co-curricular unit for every workshop they present at.
Co-curricular units are credits that incoming first year students now need to earn alongside their other course credits.
“It’s getting them involved in activities on campus,” Girling said.
Students who plan on attending should RSVP via BeachSync. The website also offers the full schedule of lecture topics.
Girling said not all in attendance have signed up prior, and those who sign up don’t all show, but it is helpful for her to gauge the size of the group, because she brings food.
So don’t be afraid to invest in yourself, keep your mind and body in tip-top shape with some help from Student Health Services.