The University of Memphis Wellness Fair on Wednesday featured different organizations at the Student Plaza promoting healthy and active lifestyles for students.
Assistant director of student health and counseling services, Linh Luu said the goal of the event is to inform students about wellness resources on campus and promote healthy living.
“The Wellness Fair is there for students to get to know wellness resources on and off campus as well as connecting with other students,” Luu said. “We have a lot of student groups here increasing the sense of connectedness with the campus and also having faces attached to the different resources on campus.”
Luu said she collaborated with other outside organizations to give students the opportunity to interact with a variety of groups on how to be healthy during their college experience.
“As organizers, we collaborated with different offices,” Luu said. “We collaborated with campus recreation services and college arts and sciences, so when we organized the wellness fair, we followed the ‘wellness will’ to have multiple areas of wellness.”
Antoine Dandridge, community engagement coordinator at Planned Parenthood, said he want to bring awareness to students on programs the organization provides.
“We’re here promoting a couple of programs,” Dandridge said. “We have our sex experts program, which is our peer sex education and it’s an actual eight hour training that we offer on college campuses.”
Dandridge said Planned Parenthood is going to provide more resources for students on campus.
“Were looking to reinstitute the campus here in Memphis and provide resources for students to do the work,” Dandridge said.
Several non-campus-related groups also promoted their organizations and how they can help students maintain healthy lifestyle. For instance, associate coordinator of social inclusion and integration for Tiger Life Demarcus Boyce said his organization focuses on providing U of M students the opportunity to be said his involved and achieving their goals academically.
“I help our students become better acclimated and integrated onto the campus,” Boyce said. “So I’m working academic departments, administrative departments, clubs and organizations to give people the opportunity on ways to get our students involved.”
Students can develop social skills through programs such as Tiger Life while attending college. Exercise science major Michelle Williams said it is important to gain knowledge on how to network with other organizations on campus, such as Le Bonheur.
“It will definitely help them figure out that they’re not by themselves,” Williams said. “If something in life happens like stress there not alone, knowing that the resources are there to assist them on their academic journey.”
Psychology major Kiara Amador said she volunteered at the Wellness Fair to encourage students to receive health advice while being a college student.
“We wanted to promote the health of students because it’s really important during this time of year, with midterms coming up and then fall break,” Amador said.
Amador said she thinks students would benefit by not only engaging with representatives from organizations but also getting involved.
“I think it might it easier for students to get involved and then also be the best of themselves and to get to know what they need mentally (and) physically,” Amador said.
University of Memphis students line up to get their annual flu shot before the winter months hit. University of Memphis held their annual wellness fair for students on the student plaza.
The University of Memphis wellness fair has many vendors this year and has a great turn out of students. Companies, Choices and Planned Parenthood were there for students to be informed and check out their booths.
The Wellness Fair at The University of Memphis has a variety of different vendors. The Baptist Collegiate Ministry booth was there to inform students about their ministry and help students to bring wellness to their bodies spiritually.
