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Student-to-student support for healthy lifestyles

By Mara Kumagai Fink '11
May 6, 2011

Peer educators with the St. Olaf Wellness Center (left) help students realize how much alcohol is actually in the mixed drink they poured as part of a campus event earlier this spring.

The week before spring break, peer educators with the St. Olaf Wellness Center took an unconventional approach to teaching students about alcohol abuse: they set up a "tiki bar" in the middle of Buntrock Commons and encouraged passersby to pour themselves a drink.

After the students had done so, the peer educators explained just how much alcohol the drink would actually contain. They then encouraged students to visit each of the four stations they had set up to dispel common myths about drinking and provide information on the effect different mixers would have in combination with alcohol.

"I think that education through peers is extremely important to college students, and the Wellness Center is a great resource for that," says Anna Johanson '12, director of the student-run organization that promotes healthy lifestyles. "Sometimes students don't want to talk to faculty or medical professionals about health- and wellness-related issues, and I think that we are a great resource for those students who just want a peer to listen and advise if and when it is appropriate."

Johanson leads the Wellness Center's 10 peer educators, who are selected through a competitive application process and then trained in helping students in health-related areas such as chemical, emotional, nutritional, and sexual health. Each peer educator has a specific area they focus on, but many of the issues are intertwined, allowing them to work together on various topics.
 

A peer educator with the St. Olaf Wellness Center (left) talks to students during a campuswide event earlier this spring that provided information about alcohol abuse.

The majority of students who work in the Wellness Center plan to pursue careers in health care. Generally each peer educator holds four office hours a week to meet confidentially with students and is responsible for one individual Wellness Center presentation each month. The topics for these presentations range from healthy eating in the cafeteria to sexual assault and self-defense.

Through the presentations and meeting individually with students, Johanson hopes that the peer educators are an approachable educational resource. "I hope students walk away from Wellness Center events having learned something either about themselves or about the campus," she says.

Wellness Center events have become a central component of physical education classes on campus. Each student is required to attend a certain number of events during the semester, so every student is exposed to the Wellness Center at some point during their time on the Hill.

The peer educators in the Wellness Center are also working on a campuswide social norming campaign to expand student knowledge of "what's normal for Oles" and dispel any misperceptions. This campaign includes posters featuring statistics about typical Ole behavior regarding things like sexual activity and drinking.

"The Wellness Center is constantly striving to be more visible on the campus, and we hope to continue providing events that engage large amounts of the student body," Johanson says.

Contact Kari VanDerVeen at 507-786-3970 or vanderve@stolaf.edu.