Student Wellness Project
Wilfred Chan wrote something in The Eye[1].
As the saying goes, “In order to change, we must be sick and tired of being sick and tired.” Our meeting with Dean Valentini after Tina’s death inspired me to start an open movement called the Student Wellness Project. Now comprised of students from all four undergraduate schools, including members of the groups like Stressbusters, the Student Health Advisory Committee, the Columbia Neuroscience Society, and the student councils, the project has one aim: to creatively and pragmatically combine students’ ideas to promote wellness at Columbia. We’ve begun to lay the groundwork for an online student-run wellness hub that will centralize campus resources; a new peer-to-peer wellness mentoring program; improved NSOP programming about mental health and stress; a student-led healthy eating co-op; and campus puppy therapy, just to name a few.
Criticism
The validity of the SWP rests upon the premise that a top-down effort, staffed by campus elites, can effect real social change (i.e. foment a sense of culture). More to come.
