Last Tuesday afternoon, students gathered in the GSU’s Metcalf Ballroom for nutrition and fitness advice and, more importantly, therapeutic massages to ease the mid-semester blues, as Student Health Services hosted its 2012 Wellness Expo. A total of 47 booths were arranged throughout the ballroom, sponsored by various BU- and non-BU-affiliated organizations. Amongst them were BU’s Sargent Choice Nutrition Center, the Center for Career Development, BU Office of Disability Services, the Center for Anxiety & Related Disorders, as well as the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center, City Sports, and Exhale Spa. Several of the stands offered delicious incentives for visiting, such as “Nutorious” Nuts and Cedar’s Mediterranean Food. A booth hosted by SHS featured blood pressure and cholesterol testing. Another tested students’ volume levels on their iPods to tell them if their listening habits were detrimental to their hearing health.
The afternoon also featured a schedule of demos. Among them was a yoga pose demo from Bare Bones Yoga, Reiki from The Healing Way, finger tapping taught by Boston Intuitive, and a rape aggression defense demonstration from the BU Police Department.
Upon entry, students were given swag bags filled with all sorts of resources and goodies. Students were handed postcards and challenged to have them stamped at ten different booths for the chance to win digital cameras, workout gear, yoga mats, calorie counters, and board games among other great prizes.
SHS wellness coordinator Michelle George said the purpose of the expo was to “expose students to many different ways to improve their health and/or live their lives to fullest by taking better care of themselves.” The expo offered a venue for bringing the abundant health services offered to BU students together in one space. The expo serves as a fun way of reminding students of what BU has to offer and how they can be proactive about their health in order to excel academically and socially in their time at BU. George said, “The most important aspect in health is knowing your own body. In other words, know how much sleep you need, what experiences stress you out, when you are starting to feel ill, and when you are not feeling like yourself. This knowledge will set you up to be aware of when to seek out help. In addition, students can attend wellness programs, request workshops, or visit a practitioner to ask questions to help them better understand health as it relates to them as an individual.” The expo offered students a literal display of the many wellness programs and resources at their fingertips for when help becomes necessary.
If you missed the expo, it doesn’t mean you have to miss out on any of the great services offered. Unfortunately, this probably doesn’t apply to those massages. Student Health Services will be around campus during the month of April promoting healthy sexual decision-making and STI testing.
To find out more about future SHS-sponsored events, visit http://blogs.bu.edu/wellness, like BU Student Health on Facebook, or follow @BUStudentHealth on Twitter.
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