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Hope Dialogue: Disrupting Us vs. Them
A Feasible Plan for Student Health and Wellness
Kristen Kavon in the School of Education (SOE) is manager of activity courses at the university which serve approximately 1,700 students each term. In spring 2020, she designed and piloted a Pandemic Personal Wellness course offered to help students prioritize their health and wellness during the challenging time of COVID-19. In its first semester, the course was enrolled to its full 50seat capacity. Kavon knew for those students who needed an extra credit, the only option would be an online class, but a typical online fitness class involved too many legal concerns to be feasible. The course allowed students the freedom to design a health and wellness plan that best suited their lifestyle. Additionally, students developed a routine of setting aside time for physical activity throughout their day. “I wanted to offer a lot of flexibility so that students felt they could find an activity that related to the wellness area we were focusing on that felt relevant to their life right now,” Kavon said. The 12-week course required students to log 30 minutes of activity five times a week in addition to other assignments. Students learned about the six areas of wellness: physical, mental, social, financial, occupational, and spiritual. Kavon provided students with a variety of self-reflective assignments that they tailored to their own needs. Sophomore Hanna Rasmussen enrolled in the course after the title caught her eye. “I am a firm believer in being proactive regarding one’s mental, emotional, and physical health. You can’t be your truest and healthiest self if one of the areas is lacking,” Rasmussen said. She is always striving to learn new ways to improve her health holistically and hoped to learn more about herself by taking this course. In the future, Kavon hopes to implement more of a community aspect to the course where students share ideas and learn from each other. “I want students to realize how good you can feel if you focus on some of these areas. It’s a whole big wheel and if you focus on one area more than the other, it can throw things off,” Kavon said.
-Hanna Rasmussen
