Longwood University
Volume 6 Issue 4
Longwood University is committed to the comprehensive wellness of all students and employees. The P.I.E. Wellness Challenge is the most recent initiative aimed at improving the Physical, Intellectual, and Emotional wellness of our community. On September 12, 2015, almost 40 Exercise Science students worked as research assistants, under the direction of Dr. Nate Saunders, to evaluate the aerobic fitness and body composition of 120 Longwood students and employees! The research assistants were then tasked with monitoring the weekly activity levels of their participants for 10 weeks before repeating the aerobic and body composition testing. Not only did the Exercise Science students benefit from utilizing skills learned in the classroom to serve their community, participants of the study received valuable information regarding their own wellbeing and had a personal activity mentor. The somewhat startling discovery from the initial testing was that there were no significant differences between students and the much older employees with respect to their aerobic fitness and body composition. Since we know that people tend to lose fitness and gain weight in the years after college, it is alarming that on average our 20-year-old students exhibited the same walking and running speed, weight, and girth measurements as the older generation. The great news is that Longwood University has a unique opportunity to address this problem. The P.I.E. Wellness Challenge provides wellness educational opportunities and incentivizes participants to improve their physical activity levels. It is presently open to all students and employees of Longwood University, and in 2016 we will extend this to immediate family members. We take pride in the health of our university community and are continually working to improve the quality of life for all. Longwood University 201 High Street Farmville, VA 23909