Sara Tiradossi / Winonan
New waves of health events are slated to occur at Winona State University.
Beginning Monday, Jan. 25, health and wellness services started hosting healthy Mondays, wellness Wednesdays and health huts, sponsored by the student health and wellness advocates club.
Kathryn Hansen, health and wellness promotion coordinator, is in charge of scheduling the specific presentations to cover for each event based on the campus calendar.
The healthy Monday and wellness Wednesdays topics have been scheduled since the beginning of the semester. Hansen said the program structure of the health events is the same as last semester, but the presentations and topics are constantly updated with new information and delve into new topics.
“This semester new topics will include OERC [outdoor education and recreation center] gear demo, sexual assault awareness month, financial health, the power of buying local, pedestrian and bicycle safety and an expert panel on contraceptive options,” Hansen said.
Hansen said healthy Mondays and wellness Wednesdays are both well attended, but the most popular topics include sexual health, alcohol or drug education and stress management. Both events are hour-long presentations on various health topics covering all seven dimensions of wellness.
“They are interactive sessions in which participants walk away with new suggestions, skills and/or tools to further their own personal journey of wellness,” Hansen said.
Besides healthy Mondays and wellness Wednesdays, health huts are also part of the health events scheduled for this semester that began last semester.
“Health huts are a series of weekly awareness events to discover more about wellness at Winona State, connection to campus and community wellness resources,” Hansen said.
Hansen said the health and wellness staff works closely with the student presenters and expert faculty presenters to ensure the most accurate and up-to-date information is provided to students, and the learning objectives for the presentation are met.
“The presenters are all trained peer educators or expert faculty staff with training in health communication, referral skills and empathy as fellow Winona State warriors,” Hansen said.
Hansen said the presentations are designed to be interactive and provide students ample opportunity to practice engaging in healthy behaviors as much as a topic area may support.
“To effectively change behavior, efforts need to not only target knowledge of a topic or behavior, but also must target one’s attitude towards a behavior and one’s skill to perform the desired behavior,” Hansen said.
The student health and wellness advocates club also play a role in the organization and planning of the events by providing feedback on the topics to cover each semester, Hansen said.
During the spring semester of 2016, health and wellness services expecting a higher attendance than last semester, Hansen said.
