Abeba AssegedLast Wednesday’s Stress-Free Festival brought campus health organizations together to educate North Carolina Central University students about the different facets of overall health and how to take better care of them all.
The purpose of the festival was to show students how to make healthy choices for themselves as it relates to their eating patterns, sexual behavior and their psychological health, according to outreach coordinator and counselor Jody Grandy.
The NCCU Counseling Center underwent some changes this year when it separated from Student Health, Grandy said. She went on to explain that despite not being in the same department anymore, the two entities still support each other and work together.
This was obvious at the festival, where Student Health offered flu shots, blood pressure checkups and educational pamphlets on sexual health while the Counseling Center held emotional status screenings for overall emotional well-being and depression.
Graduate dietetic intern Abby Coggins participated in this year’s festival by collecting data with her team for their study concerning freshman weight gain.
“It’s much more than food availability, you’re transitioning your whole life in one year and having to choose food for yourself,” Coggins said.
Project Success, a student organization within the counseling center that promotes mental health awareness and substance abuse information was also present. Grandy said that the organization is “instrumental” in removing health-related stigmas from campus.
“More students benefit from seeing their peers promote mental health education more so than they would adults,” Grandy said.
