Health and Wellness Education

The Health and Wellness Education team focuses on both Health promotion to enhance protective factors and campus strengths and Prevention efforts intended to reduce personal, campus, and institution-wide health risks.  

Collaborative Programming

Health Educators routinely partner with student groups and organizations to host programming and training. Peer support and engagement with education bolsters attendance and effectiveness. In Fall 2024 partnerships included: Student Government Association, Student Athletes of Color, Quest Bridge Scholars, Residential Life, Prism Center interns, CARE management, Counseling, Health Services, Anderson Freeman Resource Center, Scott Center for Religious and Spiritual Life, The Knoll, Franklin Environmental Center, Center for Career and Internships, Dean of Students Office, Class Deans, Atria Collective, Earth & Salt Sex Education Initiatives, United Way and many other groups.

Sample Programs Offered

All events and programs are documented and evaluated monthly by health educators based on stated learning objectives, student feedback and health educator perspective. Feedback is shared and reviewed by members of the office to promote group knowledge and learning for future efforts.

• Recovery Month (September), a celebration of recovery in many forms—events included on substance free events, Narcan training, and community building with others in recovery and others.
• Dating and Domestic Violence Awareness and Prevention Month (October), focused on awareness raising, training bystander intervention skills and showing support for survivors—events included: Green Dot Bystander Intervention Overviews, Education with Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners, Communication strengthening workshops and others.
• Mental Health Awareness Week (November 4-8), focused on building skills to cope with challenges, normalizing seeking support and destigmatizing mental health—events included: Fresh Check Day, Shred Your Worries, Peer led belongingness activities, and others.  

Highlight: Inaugural Fresh Check Day

Health & Wellness Education and Counseling jointly hosted Middlebury’s first Fresh Check Day, an event focused on destigmatizing discussions about mental health in a lively and fun environment. The event featured 14 peer and staff led booths which shared information about coping skills, and belonging, and normalized mental health challenges through interactive activities and games. Groups took ownership of their topics and engaged in hula hooping, community coloring, mask making, t-shirt decorating, singing along with bands and DJs, and many other activities. Each group received psychoeducational training on their booth’s focus and a primer on effective resource referrals. This level of partnership for groups hosting the event was an exciting step forward for mental health promotion on campus.