Health Instructors Make Dorm Calls

Student groups are engaging in talks with instructors on a variety of wellness topics as part of a new Health Center program, titled Outreach.Initiated by health instructor Michelle Soucy, the program allows faculty who lead campus organizations to request a Health Center-led discussion on topics of concern. “Our program provides advice to certain groups around campus,” Soucy said. “We take requests from not only dorms, but also other organizations on campus like athletic teams.”Last week, for example, Langdell engaged in a dis- cussion with health instructor Carol Cahalane and intern Melody Yee, centered around disordered eating behaviors such as skipping meals. Upper Alex Weitzman said that she found the interaction through the talk to be interest- ing. “The students were pretty cooperative and interested because it was sort of like a quiz,” she said.She felt that the examples allowed the students to understand the issue better. “For example, one "girl" skipped breakfast and only ate during meetings, and the other skipped only lunch but ate a really big dinner,” Weitzman added.Weitzman said the lecture would help her fellow dorm-mates stay health and be aware of the dangers of an unhealthy diet. “One thing Ms. Yee said that left everyone in my dorm horrified, was that if you skip meals, your body will have no food to digest, and will instead burn off your lean muscle, not fat. I’m sure girls in my dorm will be skipping meals less from now on.”Many students in the other dorms accepted the idea of having talks with the Health Department in the future to improve their understanding of topics related to student life and wellness.Upper Nick Diao said he thought that the talks may help to address issues by placing them in a more private setting. “I think these actions by the Health Center provide an opportunity to discuss pressing and serious issues that afflict many members of the Exeter community, and of which the significance of such matters would perhaps be lost if discussed on a school wide basis,” Diao said. “These actions should be used to talk over matters that are best discussed in more private settings, where students mightbe more willing to take in the details and gravity of the issue being discussed.A student from Ewald, who requested to remain anonymous, shared similar sentiments as Diao. “In Ewald, some people might be spending an unhealthy amount of time playing video games, and that might be something for them to talk to us about.”Fermin Perez-Andreu, a member of Ewald dorm faculty, expressed his interest towards the Outreach program. “It is always good to welcome some- body to the dorm if they have something interesting to say share or discuss with the dorm. I am not sure what we would talk about at this point in Ewald, but I would not mind conversing about the issue.”The topics under discussion vary widely. Wentworth participated in a discussion led by Cahalane about issues surrounding pornography.Tony Karalekas, a senior in Wentworth, said that while he believed that Outreach was a good idea in theory, it did not seem to succeed as executed.“The Health Department did seem to put a lot of effort, but with sixty boys in Wentworth, the atmosphere of the dorm made it rather loud and noisy, and the whole talk seemed to be pointless. It could've been better, but not in such a big dorm like ours,” he said.Prep Kofi Ansong viewed the talk as unnecessary, claiming that it did not affect his view on pornography."I did not leave the talk feeling differently about pornography then I had before. I can't speak for others but I would have been fine without the talk," he said.Health instructor Shane LaPointe said the Outreach program is not lim- ited to lectures within dorms. She mentioned another aspect of the Outreach program called PEA Pods, podcast episodes featuring experts offering health ideas and tips.“I have been, every week or every other week, producing these one minute to two minute film clips, trying to interview the experts we have here on campus,” she said.The wide scope of the program, located under the Announcements tab on ExeterConnect, incorporates topics ranging from D-Hall eating to study skills. “We are trying to highlight all the pieces that a student could use as resources to make their life better,” LaPointe said.