During Winter Quarter, students searched for rare sunny spots on campus, participated in a virtual dance lab and hosted a book club—all in the name of health. The Winter Wellness Club, a new initiative from College Programming and Orientation, UChicago Student Wellness, UChicago Athletics and Recreation, and Spiritual Life, sought to make wellness simpler and more accessible.
“Winter Quarter is notoriously the hardest to get through, but I think this club is proving that just because it's the ‘hardest’ doesn't mean it can't still be fun and healthy,” said Erika Steiner, a fourth-year political science major and program co-coordinator.
With students’ holistic health in mind, the club focused on seven key facets of well-being: social, emotional, environmental, financial, physical, spiritual and intellectual. These formed the pillars of the program and were designed to make sure students addressed all aspects of their well-being, according to Katie Welch, assistant director for student transition programs.
At times, Winter Quarter can be both physically limiting and mentally challenging, so Welch believed the season was the perfect time to reflect on wellness and bring further intentionality to students’ lives.
“Every student connects to wellness in different ways,” she said. “When I used to think of wellness, I would often focus on physical and mental, but a lot more than that goes into a person's overall well-being. The Winter Wellness Club provides a space where students can see the breadth of activities and resources available to them on campus, and the many ways they can take care of their health, both during the winter and year-round.”
At the beginning of Winter Quarter, students signed up for the program individually or in small teams. By completing a variety of activities, participants earned points that contributed to a weekly leaderboard. Points also went toward prizes such as sunlamps, herb-growing kits and meditation app subscriptions. And with 386 participants in its premiere year, the competitive spirit was well underway.
Laura Pape, a third-year majoring in public policy, joined the program as a way to engage with the first-years in her House. The social aspects of the club have been invaluable to her.
“It’s been a good way to reconnect with them and also to get to know some of the first-years who joined with us,” she said. “[We] meet every week to check in on our progress and do some activities as a group. It’s been really fun to hear about how everyone’s activities are going, and we also do things like virtual study groups or game nights.”
During the Winter Wellness Club’s opening event, Welch and Emily Schulze, health educator at UChicago Student Wellness, encouraged participants to fill out a wheel-shaped worksheet that helped students evaluate each aspect of well-being in their own lives. Each spoke on the wheel corresponded to one of the facets, with the idea being to “fill” each section to complete the circle.
“This activity provides an opportunity to critically reflect on how things are going with our well-being,” said Schulze. “We might see some flat spots, which gives us perspective on where we want to put our energy in the future. Our wheel may not roll perfectly, but if we can prioritize those flat spots, we may have a smoother ride.”
New opportunities were posted to the group’s Canvas page throughout Winter Quarter. They ranged from participating in mental health first aid training to attending the Diversity and Inclusion Summit to creating a piece of art.
For Pape, one of the most exciting parts of participating was getting to experience the new virtual fitness classes.
“I used to go to FitChicago classes all the time when they were in person, but they haven’t really been on my radar since going virtual. The Winter Wellness Club gave me the incentive to check out their winter offerings, and I’m now completely obsessed with the foam rolling class! It’s the best way to start my week,” she said.
To Steiner, holistic health, which is the basic tenet of the Winter Wellness Club, is of the utmost importance for students’ daily functioning.
“We learn in 6th-grade science that homeostasis (the interdependent equilibrium system of the body) is everything,” she said. “Our ability to contribute to discussions is directly related to whether or not we got a good night's sleep. Our ability to take on problem sets can change if we haven't seen the sun in three days. Our ability to just interact with other people is sometimes obliterated if we haven't had a good meal in a while. We are interdependent creatures, so it's critical that we consider all aspects of our life when aiming for healthy living.”
Despite a virtual Winter Quarter and a global pandemic, the Winter Wellness Club kept the UChicago spirit and daily interaction alive. With a cumulative 2,709 activities completed, the program boosted student engagement and morale.
“It’s easy to let holistic health start to slide when things get hard, so the external motivation is really helpful to keep me doing the activities that I know make me happier and healthier,” said Pape.