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Appalachian State University’s Department of Wellness and Prevention Services offers a variety of programs to help students infuse health and wellness into their everyday lives.

Student wellness programs seek to inform and engage

Wellness and Prevention Services
Wellness and Prevention Services

The mission of Wellness and Prevention Services is to serve all students through the promotion of healthy behaviors, risk behavior modification services, and advocacy for campus-wide health policies which facilitate student success and holistic well-being. We offer services promoting health awareness and active lifestyles while taking a holistic approach to wellness.

Learn more
By Mary Giunca
Posted Sep. 5, 2017 at 4:01 p.m.

BOONE, N.C. — When Dr. Alex Howard arrived on the Appalachian State University campus in 2015 as the first director of Wellness and Prevention Services, he was given the charge of taking a community-based approach to student health.

Two years later, he summarizes his philosophy simply as, “less PowerPoint, more engagement.”

Whether it’s launching a game of Wellness Jeopardy or the new Whole Life Club, a student-led effort to encourage healthy living on campus and make Boone a Blue Zones Project® community, Appalachian staff, faculty and students understand the power of making wellness an enjoyable, and even joyful, part of everyday life.

“All too often on campus, we’ve got people who bore people,” Howard said. “They talk for 45 minutes straight and students are not interested in that. They want to engage with you and the material.”

Howard’s office, which is part of the Division of Student Affairs, has identified eight dimensions of holistic wellness that form a framework for his office’s programs. Those dimensions are:

  • emotional
  • environmental
  • financial
  • intellectual
  • occupational
  • physical
  • social
  • spiritual

Data direct the office’s programs, but Howard said he is always looking for the stories behind the numbers. Two years ago, a campus-wide assessment on student health behaviors found that first- generation college students, students of color and lesbian, transgender and gay students were lacking support.

Howard created a position in his office to work with those students to create support groups and other services. One example, A Voice at the Table, is a support group that offers students of color a chance to use poetry to talk about their experiences. Additionally, staff members have been dropping in on coaching sessions in the Student Learning Center to get to know students there.

“Everyone in this office is present at different student activities,” Howard said. “We’re involved in clubs and organizations. We’re constantly getting feedback.”

Data also directed Howard to make changes to Repost: Rethink, a suicide-prevention program. Student feedback identified Elisabeth Cavallaro as the most engaging of the program’s educators and asked for less of a lecture format.

Cavallaro, coordinator for student mental wellness, is also an avid gamer in her spare time and incorporated some of the techniques she enjoys when she plays trivia games. Cavallaro divided students into teams that received points for correct answers, converted various sections of the lecture into rounds of information and discussion, and added a bonus round of questions at the end of the evening.

Harnessing the power of peer-to-peer education led the office to create Wellness Educators for Change, Advocacy and student Needs (WE CAN). The department also houses the Red Flag Educators. These students host a number of activities, such as Take Back the Night, which is dedicated to ending all forms of violence.

Sydney Hobart, a senior from Matthews majoring in cellular/molecular biology, said she got involved in the program because the peer educators were so visible on campus.

“I think peer education is so beneficial and successful the way we do it here,” she said. “As college students, we tend to learn things better outside of the classroom from our peers. It’s more comfortable talking about mental or sexual health with our peers.”

The Whole Life Club is another campus effort to encourage student health. The club offers activities such as vegan meals and free yoga classes and is also working to raise funds to bring a Blue Zones Project® representative to Boone to discuss how the community could become part of a worldwide network of places that emphasize healthy living. The Blue Zones Project® offers guidelines developed by researcher Dan Buettner, who identified five places in the world where people have longer lifespans and enjoy good health into advanced age.

This fall Howard’s office will build on the success of its Wellness Jeopardy to launch a weekly trivia series on campus.

“We have got to entertain,” Howard said. “It’s very easy to put together a PowerPoint presentation, but as educators we have to do something out of our comfort zone.”

What do you think?

Share your feedback on this story.

Wellness and Prevention Services
Wellness and Prevention Services

The mission of Wellness and Prevention Services is to serve all students through the promotion of healthy behaviors, risk behavior modification services, and advocacy for campus-wide health policies which facilitate student success and holistic well-being. We offer services promoting health awareness and active lifestyles while taking a holistic approach to wellness.

Learn more
Alex Howard
Alex Howard

First Generation Faculty and Staff Project

Dr. Alex Howard came to Appalachian State University in 2015 to establish the Department of Wellness and Prevention Services. His approach emphasizes student engagement and feedback to create programs that are relevant and enable students to enjoy life to the fullest.

Learn more
Keeping students safe
Keeping students safe

Wellness and Prevention Services makes strategic partnership with Jed Foundation Campus Program

Aug. 30, 2016

Appalachian institutes a program to assess and enhance mental health, substance abuse and suicide prevention programming.

Read the story
Wellness and Prevention Services helps students navigate safely and successfully
Wellness and Prevention Services helps students navigate safely and successfully
Aug. 30, 2016

Appalachian State University’s Wellness and Prevention Services helps students navigate college years safely and successfully.

Read the story
Appalachian State University takes pledge as healthy campus partner
Appalachian State University takes pledge as healthy campus partner
Oct. 14, 2016

Appalachian joins a growing list of institutions and organizations working to improve the health of campus communities by taking the American College Health Association’s Healthy Campus Pledge.

Read the story
Whole Life Club promotes blue zone for Boone
Whole Life Club promotes blue zone for Boone
Sep. 5, 2017

Students’ Whole Life Club encourages healthy living on campus and works toward bringing the Blue Zones Project® to Boone.

Read the story

About the Division of Student Affairs

The Division of Student Affairs at Appalachian State University is committed to the development of lifelong learners and leaders by engaging and challenging students within a culture of care and inclusion. The division consists of 16 units that offer activities and services to help students develop more fully by becoming global learners, fostering healthy relationships, appreciating diversity and different perspectives, understanding community responsibility, enhancing self-awareness, developing autonomy and living ethically. These units include the Career Development Center, Campus Activities, Office of Community-Engaged Leadership, Wellness and Prevention Services, Counseling and Psychological Services, Student Health Service, Parent and Family Services, University Housing, Student Conduct, University Recreation, Intercultural Student Affairs, Student Legal Clinic and Off-Campus Student Services, Electronic Student Services, Child Development Center, and Staff Development and Strategic Initiatives. Learn more at https://studentaffairs.appstate.edu.

About Appalachian State University

As a premier public institution, Appalachian State University prepares students to lead purposeful lives. App State is one of 17 campuses in the University of North Carolina System, with a national reputation for innovative teaching and opening access to a high-quality, affordable education for all. The university enrolls more than 21,000 students, has a low student-to-faculty ratio and offers more than 150 undergraduate and 80 graduate majors at its Boone and Hickory campuses and through App State Online. Learn more at https://www.appstate.edu.

Alex Howard
Alex Howard

First Generation Faculty and Staff Project

Dr. Alex Howard came to Appalachian State University in 2015 to establish the Department of Wellness and Prevention Services. His approach emphasizes student engagement and feedback to create programs that are relevant and enable students to enjoy life to the fullest.

Learn more
Keeping students safe
Keeping students safe

Wellness and Prevention Services makes strategic partnership with Jed Foundation Campus Program

Aug. 30, 2016

Appalachian institutes a program to assess and enhance mental health, substance abuse and suicide prevention programming.

Read the story
Wellness and Prevention Services helps students navigate safely and successfully
Wellness and Prevention Services helps students navigate safely and successfully
Aug. 30, 2016

Appalachian State University’s Wellness and Prevention Services helps students navigate college years safely and successfully.

Read the story
Appalachian State University takes pledge as healthy campus partner
Appalachian State University takes pledge as healthy campus partner
Oct. 14, 2016

Appalachian joins a growing list of institutions and organizations working to improve the health of campus communities by taking the American College Health Association’s Healthy Campus Pledge.

Read the story
Whole Life Club promotes blue zone for Boone
Whole Life Club promotes blue zone for Boone
Sep. 5, 2017

Students’ Whole Life Club encourages healthy living on campus and works toward bringing the Blue Zones Project® to Boone.

Read the story

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Share your feedback on this story.

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Appalachian Today is an online publication of Appalachian State University. This website consolidates university news, feature stories, events, photo galleries, videos and podcasts.

If you cannot find what you're looking for here, please refer to the following sources:

  • Podcasts may be found at Appalachian State University Podcasts
  • Stories and press releases published prior to Jan. 1, 2015 may be found in University Communications Records at the Special Collections Research Center.
  • A university-wide Google Calendar may be found at Events at Appalachian

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Appalachian Today is an online publication of Appalachian State University. This website consolidates university news, feature stories, events, photo galleries, videos and podcasts.

If you cannot find what you're looking for here, please refer to the following sources:

  • Podcasts may be found at Appalachian State University Podcasts
  • Stories and press releases published prior to Jan. 1, 2015 may be found in University Communications Records at the Special Collections Research Center.
  • A university-wide Google Calendar may be found at Events at Appalachian
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