POW! seeks advocates
Promoters of Wellness seeks students to serve as peer educators on campus
8:32 a.m., April 6, 2015--Promoters of Wellness (POW!), an organization of peer educators from University of Delaware Student Wellness and Health Promotion, is looking for undergraduate students interested in advocating for student wellness.
In an effort to give POW! a greater presence on campus, the organization is looking for motivated and passionate students.
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“Ideally, we are looking for students who have a strong passion for issues that they believe in, especially when it comes to wellness and health,” says Kiki Schmit, a POW! coordinator and adviser. “Students should also want to advocate these ideas to the student community, and have a desire to empower others about student wellness.”
Schmit, who graduated from UD in December with a bachelor’s degree in psychology, became involved with POW! as a student because of her interest in learning about eating disorders. Through POW! she was able to learn more about the subject and was then able to discuss and advocate about these disorders.
Schmit now works as the organization’s coordinator in order to help grow the organization and recruit more students.
POW! has been an organization at UD for about 10 years, and trains peer educators who provide programming and education on student wellness for the student body.
POW! promotes its programming in First Year Experience classes, and programming is available to any registered student organizations or Greeks that request it.
There are three main areas of focus that POW! promotes: Stress and General Wellness; About Body Image and Disordered Eating (ABIDE); and Sexuality Understanding, Growth, Awareness, and Responsibility (SUGAR).
POW! will explore these topics in an upcoming discussion series, which will be free and open to all members of the UD community. For a flyer about the series, click here.
On Wednesday, April 8, POW! will lead a discussion on body image at 7 p.m. and fad diets at 8 p.m., both in the Collins Room of the Perkins Student Center.
On Wednesday, April 22, POW! will focus on the portrayal of sexualization in the media at 7 p.m. and awkward sex questions at 8 p.m., also in the Collins Room of the Perkins Student Center.
For the final event of the series, on Wednesday, May 6, POW! will show a film called America the Beautiful: The Thin Commandments, addressing the obsession of beauty in American culture, from 7-8 p.m. in Multipurpose Room A of the Trabant University Center.
Schmit said she hopes that this series will serve as a re-introduction of POW!’s mission and ideas to students, and that it will inspire them to become a part of the organization.
Through her efforts in attempting to grow POW!, Schmit has been able to recruit students to act as liaisons for other student organizations on campus in order to have a stronger presence.
Her goal is that POW! will have a larger membership and a more active role for the fall semester.
Students who are interested in applying to POW! or who wish to learn more about the organization should visit the website or email Kiki Schmit at kschmit@udel.edu.
Article by Craig Stack