USU Students Build Community Through Health-inspired Campus Wellness Activities
By Ian Neligh
With Spring just around the corner, students from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU) were inspired to lace up their sneakers, get outside and break a sweat during the school’s colorful Student Wellness Challenge and for its upcoming Wellness Fair. The events were designed to encourage students and faculty to focus on their personal well-being, while learning about sustainable habits and building camaraderie both in-person and online.
Wellness Challenge
The Student Wellness Challenge ran from Feb. 14 through March 13 as teams of four worked together to earn points, while they navigated activities and themes such as: exercising, mental wellness, fitness, sleep, and nutrition. Points were awarded to students and faculty teams based on both daily and weekly activities related to those categories.
While points were not given for creativity, teams exhibited their colorfulness through names like The Brainy Bunch, Cirque du Sore Legs, Fast Asleep, Psychosaurus Rexes, and Easier Said than Run — to name a few.
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| USU held its annual Student Wellness Challenge from Feb. 14 through March 13. Teams took on colorful names, such as the Psychosaurus Rexes, to earn points, while they navigated activities and themes such as exercising, mental wellness, and nutrition. (Courtesy photo) |
Activities for the second week included being encouraged to do everything from a plank exercise in
three different locations, such as a driveway or grocery store, to doing 8,000 steps a day. Week three included getting participants to do meditation, journaling, or yoga.
This was the second year of the challenge, inspired by the 2020 student-led COVID Cup, created as a competitive workout regime to build fitness and camaraderie amongst classmates during quarantine.
Dr. Kameha Bell, assistant dean, Well-Being Program, in the USU School of Medicine Office of Student Affairs, says the main goal of the challenge was to promote the idea of focusing on personal well-being through community.
“We want students to think outside the box about well-being in general,” Bell says. “A key aspect, or component, of the challenge is the daily task in order to build habits. Another key aspect was the bonus activities to encourage students to try new things.”
Some of the bonus activities included trying a new fruit or vegetable, drinking 50 percent of their body weight in ounces of water and trying a new recipe - and then sharing the recipe with their team.
Bell says that although it can be tricky for students away from the main campus doing training or taking part in clerkships to take part in the activities, it didn’t keep them from participating.
“You didn’t have to be physically here to participate in the challenge,” Bell says. “So it is a great way to extend our well-being program in a way that leverages friend groups and promotes community and camaraderie.”
Because of the event’s success last year, Bell said the school has prioritized doing the event every year.
“We’re leveraging what we learned from COVID to promote student growth and learning while prioritizing their wellbeing in a fun way,” Bell said.
Graduate School of Nursing student Air Force Capt. Josephine Roopnarine says she got involved to help run the challenge this year because she believes wellness should be a priority in the life of a student. Roopnarine, whose own team is called the Motivated Mamas, is also the wellness representative for her nursing school class of ’24.
“I wanted this challenge to give everyone a reason to stay balanced,” Roopnarine says. “It’s really easy to get into a rut and not make wellness a priority.”
She says taking part in the challenge helped make students’ physical, mental health, nutrition and sleep a priority.
“As well as bond together as a community,” Roopnarine says.
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| (Graphic courtesy of Sofia Echelmeyer, USU) |
Upcoming Wellness Fair
The 2022 USU Health and Wellness Fair, where students are encouraged to “Be the Best YOU at USU” will take place on campus on March 16 and virtual sessions with an emphasis on wellness education will be held on March 17.
The first fair, held in 2019, provided participants with health and wellness education while raising awareness of the resources available to students at USU, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, and Naval Support Activity Bethesda. This year’s event will provide information on traditional and non-traditional ways to care for one’s well-being.
“It’s a one-day in-person and one-day virtual event — so kind of a hybrid holistic health looking at some aspects of your mind, body, and spirit and how that all ties together,” Roopnarine says.
The in-person portion of the event will have booths for everything from burpees to origami therapy. The fair will also feature foam rolling, blood pressure screenings, yoga and more. There will also be live performances sponsored by USU’s Apollo Society and by the Dermatones, USU’s a cappella student singing group.
The virtual portion of the fair will include 25-minute presentations covering topics such as budgeting, wellness coaching, information about ultra-processed foods, dietary supplements, and meditation.
Roopnarine adds the fair will also provide students with information about physical exercises, or ergonomics and what they can do when sitting at a desk to help prevent neck and back pain.
Roopnarine says the fair is an opportunity for students to be exposed to different ideas about fitness and health that they can adapt into their lives.
“I know for a lot of students it feels like this is an extra thing on their list to do — but I feel like, if you make the effort to take care of yourself, you’ll see yourself being more effective in every aspect of your life,” Roopnarine says.
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| USU students practice wellness with Shetland, one of the university's facility dogs. Part of the goal behind the Student Wellness Challenge was to help students make physical, mental health, nutrition and sleep a priority. (Courtesy photo) |
