Promoting Student Wellness In and Out of the Classroom

The Honors Program Takes Measures to Ensure That Students Have Opportunities and Methods for De-stressing

By: Kaitlyn Brustkern

Friendly competition fills the 440 Blank Honors Center (BHC), where students create teams for an hour of trivia. On another night, laughter spills out of the same room, with a selection of board games and snacks for students to enjoy. Across campus, the Honors Program partners with the Campus Recreation and Wellness Center for a private beginner-level yoga class for honors students.

The University of Iowa Honors Program emphasizes cultivating student curiosity and upholds that through the program’s application of student reflection. 

Promoting student wellness is integral to answering the central question posed by the Honors Program’s mission statement: how can a student engage in meaningful reflection or cultivate their intellectual curiosity if they’re overwhelmed, exhausted, and only running on four hours of sleep?

As an institution, the UI Honors Program takes steps to address student wellness, including a spring course on student health and mental well-being and honors events offered throughout the semester designed to help students de-stress.

Dr. Emily Hill, Associate Director of the Honors Program, teaches Honors Student and Wellness, a course that aims to help honors students develop their work/life balance. 

The class was inspired by a combination of Dr. Hill’s dissertation research, which focused on how universities could better support high-ability college students with mental health issues, and the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on students.

“At the time, I was talking to a lot of students virtually, and some students requested to have a program on imposter syndrome, so I talked to my director at the time about me trying to develop a class that’s inspired by what I was seeing in my dissertation work, but also what we’re seeing every day now,” Dr. Hill said.

The goal for the class was to create a space where students could gather to connect and find community, and provide tools to cope with their academic and personal emotional lives.

“I thought, ‘There’s a lot of islands out there, so maybe if we can get them in the classroom together, it would be a good thing,’” Dr. Hill explained.

The class emphasizes maintaining mental health and holistic wellness. Topics like intuitive eating and sleep hygiene were implemented when Dr. Hill realized students were struggling with these issues.

“If you don’t have it worked into your day, it’s really hard to start practicing wellness,” Dr. Hill elaborated, speaking on the importance of offering a wellness course. 

“I think for some students, it’s good to carve out space in their schedule to start exploring different ways that they can maybe bring a little bit more wellbeing into their lives.”

Outside of the classroom, the Honors Program searches for other ways to promote student wellness. One way is through honors events, open to any and all honors students. 

As the First-Year Experience Intern, Grace Kariuki helps to plan and support Honors social events. 

“We just host events and then try our best to market them and hope [students] get to them,” Kariuki said.

Two of the most popular events are Game Night and Trivia Night, where honors students can unwind and connect. 

“Trivia Night goes wild,” Kariuki said. “It starts from just a few people streaming in, going into a corner, and then having strangers join their table and trying to get the answers correct, and it’s loud in there, and I love to see it.”

To encourage student wellness, the Honors program collaborated with Rec Services for a beginner-friendly yoga experience. 

“We wanted a wellness event,” Kariuki explained. “And you know, wellness looks different for some people. Others want a meditation session. Others just want a good stretch. [Yoga] is a way of switching up events.”

Considering the reflective nature of the Honors program, it’s only natural that student feedback is a key component of the event process. Student feedback determines what stays and what goes, while suggesting possible future events using Qualtrics surveys.

There are, of course, always personal favorites. 

“My favorite has always been Game Night,” Kariuki stated. 

“It’s a show that runs itself. I love that students walk in [440 BHC] knowing, ‘We’re not going to have to sit and listen to anyone. We’re just going to grab snacks and start holding casual conversations” [...] and so, there’s already reduced tension.”