Page 32 - ARUBS TODAY

A32 FEATURE
Wednesday 11 OctOber 2017
College enshrines healthy living in bricks and mortar

By LISA RATHKE said her choice to join WE
Associated Press already has paid off.
BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) — She bases her life around
Pledges by college stu- living a healthy lifestyle and
dents to eschew drugs and liked the chance to be sur-
alcohol are old hat. Now rounded by healthy oppor-
they’re meditating, work- tunities like yoga, medita-
ing out, practicing yoga, tion and good food.
eating healthfully, and at “Just like already within the
least one school, the Uni- first three weeks of school
versity of Vermont, it has has already made a huge
become a bona fide life- difference. And it’s things
style. like this, the 30 minutes,
In UVM’s Wellness Environ- that can really change
ment, known as WE, stu- your week around,” she
dents live in a new, big said.
substance-free dorm, take Through the app, students
a required class in what In this Sept. 12, 2017 photograph, students at the University of Vermont in Burlington, Vt., take a earn coins for healthy
affects the health of their meditation class in a new Wellness Environment dormitory. choices that can be used
brains and bodies, and are Associated Press to buy WE parapherna-
given incentives to stay but then it’s also making you’re thrown out, Hudziak was very damaging cul- lia — socks, sweat shirts,
healthy like access to a changes to their commu- said. tures in university settings, hats. They’re also encour-
free gym membership, nu- nity,” said David Arnold,
trition and fitness coaches of the Washington-based
and an app that tracks NASPA, Student Affairs
their activities. Administrators in Higher
“We created an environ- Education. “So combining
ment where we believe those two things together
if we offer young people as well as working broader
healthy foods, healthy with faculty is actually a
choices, they’ll make them. very, very impressive imple-
We reward those things, mentation of that process.”
and we don’t encourage At the start of a recent class,
the negative things, so the “Healthy Brains, Healthy
rule in the environment is Bodies,” the auditorium full
no alcohol, no drugs, and of students stood with eyes
the students follow it,” said closed for a few minutes of
Dr. Jim Hudziak, the chief meditation. Then Hudziak,
of child psychiatry at the who tosses a brain-shaped
UVM’s Larner College of football to students in the
Medicine, who founded auditorium before class,
the Wellness Environment discussed neuroscience
or WE program. topics including how trau-
It goes beyond the well- matic or stressful experi-
ness and substance-free ences in childhood can In this Sept. 12, 2017 photograph, students from the Wellness Environment dormitory at the Univer-
residential halls found at affect physical and mental sity of Vermont work out in their fitness center in Burlington, Vt.
some colleges. health. Associated Press
“It looks at them (students) And there’s no tolerance “I’m a genetic neurosci- and I thought using neu- aged to mentor kids in the
as an individual, which is for alcohol or drugs in the entist and child psychia- roscience and behavior community as one of the
really important obviously dorm. If you’re caught with trist who wanted to end change science rather four pillars on which the
for health and wellness, either in the environment, what I thought and saw than sort of lecturing and program is based: fitness,
setting standards of be- mindfulness, nutrition and
havior would work,” he relationships.
said. Freshman Joy Vincenzo of
That makes for a quieter Portland, Connecticut, said
dorm, said freshman Cole she chose the WE program
Spaulding, of Waterbury, because in high school she
as he worked out in the would get stressed about
dorm’s fitness center on a school work.
recent evening. The UVM program has
“You’re sitting at home in helped in her first few
your dorm, and it’s not like weeks of college. She does
people are yelling. You yoga and, when she has
know the bathrooms are breaks between classes,
always clean. It’s a nice she might go to the gym
place to just live,” he said. for 20 minutes.
WE students pay the same “This argument of WE is, if
rate for campus housing as we teach and practice
other students. these health-promoting
After a recent evening activities, when things

In this Sept. 12, 2017 photograph, University of Vermont students from the Wellness Environment meditation class in the get tough, you’ll rely on
program meditate before the start of the Healthy Brains, Healthy Bodies class in Burlington, Vt. dorm, Hannah Bryant, of a whole new set of skills,”
Associated Press Brewster, Massachusetts, Hudziak said.q