Wellness Center Steps Up

 Virtual events help keep students focused on their mental health

In light of coronavirus, people everywhere have had to step up to boost the physical and mental health of themselves and others. This past month, Santa Clara’s Wellness Center has upped its outreach through digital platforms aiming to help students take care of their mental health and well-being.

“What involvement looks like in creating wellness has changed, and that doesn’t mean it’s any less important now,” Tiger Simpson, assistant director of the Wellness Center, said. “If anything it could be more important now.”

“We need to reach new people,” he said. “When you’re looking at a pandemic, we want more people to get involved.”

Typically gathering for trainings, quarterly summits and residence hall visits, the Wellness Center has learned to thrive off of social media.

“The social media presence hasn’t been our main push, but now it kind of is, and we can really see room for growth,” Simpson said. 

Students recently reimplemented Wellness Wednesdays into their social media, where a student posts a video leading an activity, like a meditation or a dance for example, and discusses a wellness-related topic.

Virtual events premiered in April, which is Sexual Assault Awareness month. The Violence Prevention Educators led these activities with a list of books, podcasts, and films all related to sexual violence. The included works centered around empowerment, awareness, and voices from sexual assault survivors. 

The Virtual Clothesline Project, a project where students make t-shirts describing their experiences with sexual assault and relationship violence, moved to an online format for students to engage with. They dedicated a full week to providing resources for students, another for health and healing, and followed by a week for survivor support. 

The month wrapped up with Denim Day on April 29th, an event where students wear denim in solidarity of a rape survivor whose case was overturned because her jeans were considered “too tight” by the Italian Supreme Court. 

Women in the Italian Parliament responded by wearing their jeans to work the next day. In honor of that survivor, students voiced that clothing should not matter by rocking their denim on social media on April 29 with #SCUDenimDay.

May is Mental Health Awareness Month, which will also include plenty of virtual events for students to engage in. 

“Our out of the darkness walk for suicide prevention is one of our larger events,” said Vice President of the Peer Health Educators, Kelsey Lyons, “and due to physical distancing and shelter in place we will be unable to host a physical walk but on the flip side we are working on shifting ways to make that walk digital so stay tuned!”

The Wellness Center consists of three main student organizations: the Peer Health Educators, Violence Prevention Educators and the Burnout Broncos. Once having met regularly, these students groups have shifted to weekly zoom meetings instead and conducted their respective events and activities online as well.

Simpson noted that not only the Wellness Center, but the University also has been focusing on finding new ways to facilitate connection, providing a guaranteed weekly time that people can just talk. 

“We want people to feel like they can get out of their head, out of their physical space for a little bit, and engage with someone,” Simpson said, referring to both the Wellness Center and the University’s efforts.

While some students are turning outward for support, others are finding comfort in the quiet.

“For others this has been a time of going inwards, rather than reaching out for support,” Lyons said. “That has been my experience and learning how to rely on myself and my own internal strengths has been a great source of growth and empowerment.”  

Ultimately how we are responding to coronavirus is going to create a new normal—we as a society have the chance to come out on the other side better, depending on how we respond. 

Students at Santa Clara have witnessed more empathy, generosity, compassion these past few weeks than in possibly any other moment of history we’ve lived through, and we can only hope that is something society carries after this settles down. 

Expressing his hope for the world in terms of wellness in a post-coronavirus society, Mr. Simpson said, “a greater value on responsibility, empathy, and how we treat strangers.”

If students want to get involved with the Wellness Center they can reach out to Lyons, Simpson or anyone else involved with the Wellness center, and will be directed to wherever the best fit for them is. Students can also get involved through any contact listed in the Wellness Center newsletter, as well as connect through any of their social media.