The research is becoming increasingly clear; where we are profoundly impacts how we are. That is, we are beginning to really understand that our community connections, our feelings of social inclusion and even our physical spaces are profoundly tied to our ‘wellbeing’. There is no population where this is more important than college or university membership where there is a general decline in health that can be mediated by the way we structure our community and provide equal parts stress and support.
We are so proud of our faculty who joined the Campus Health team, a group of fourth year nursing students and Thrive initiatives (supported by Human Resources) in our first attempt to bring promotion of student well-being into the classroom, as part of the curriculum. You may have noticed our students out on campus giving away apples and inviting faculty to participate. A total of 38 faculty members agreed to receive the mental health literacy and promotion power point slides we created! Of these faculty 14 completed an evaluation at the end of Thrive week and told us that they found the slides very helpful.
Special thanks to our ‘wellbeing heroes’ who have begun the important work of creating wellbeing promoting classrooms! If you see these faculty on campus please congratulate them on their community service and thank them for helping to make our campus a better place to be!
Christine Balfour, Wendy Andrews, Lesley Lutes, Constance Crompton, Sean Lawrence, Jannik Eikenaar, Janet Kluftinger, Trudy Kavanagh, Barbe Wilke, David Jack, Rebecca Tyson, Soheil Mahmoud, Ramon Lawrence, Brendan Dsouza, Laura Patterson, Zheng Liu, Richard Klukas, Carlos Teixeira, Michael Treschow, Jacqueline Denison, Natalie Murdoch, Kit Pasula, Paul Gabias, Hugo DeBurgos, Kyong Yoon, David Jefferess, Daniel Keyes, Marie Loughlin, Martin Blum, Miles Thorogood, Tyler Donner, Norma Hilsmann, John Hopkinson, Carole Robinson.
Also special thanks to graduate student Carmella White who took it upon herself to be the advocate within her department! More than 1100 students were impacted by her initiative! Also thanks to Dr. Lesley Lutes who picked and supplied 500 apples that she gave out to students to promote Thrive events!
Our colleagues at Simon Fraser are publishing and trialing some excellent work about subtle changes that can be made in the classroom environment that profoundly impact student health. We are beginning the work here at Okanagan Campus too as we continue to activate the Okanagan Charter for Health Promoting Universities. How can you be a part of creating the healthiest campus possible? Join us! Contact Melissa Feddersen or Casey Hamilton (Campus Health Specialists).
Jessica Bergen, Priya Sian, Mairi Horth, & Kristen Booth, UBCO 4th Year Nursing Students