St. Olaf College | Staff and Faculty Well-Being
May 6, 2024
2024
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May/Summer 2024 Well-Being Newsletter

Welcome to the May/Summer edition of the Well-Being Newsletter!

Mental Health Awareness and Trainings

SKY Happiness Retreat is Back! 
Tuesday–Thursday, May 21–23 | 5:30–8:30 p.m. | Virtual | Register (only 10 spots available)

The Staff and Faculty Well-Being Committee and the Mental Health SAMHSA grant are offering a second session of this stress management retreat. SKY Campus Happiness is a comprehensive well-being and resilience program designed to help students, faculty and staff achieve their fullest potential. The focus of the retreat is to promote happiness, well-being, harmony in diversity, leadership, and service, and create a stress-free campus!

“Check it out! You may find that it isn’t for you, but the time wouldn’t be wasted because the company was great,” says a St. Olaf employee who attended in March 2024. “It’s also always useful to slow down and reflect, no matter the exact way you go about it, so this was a good reminder of that as well,”

Mental Health First Aid
Tuesday, May 21 | BC 142 | 9 am-4:30 pm | Signup Required

This free training will be led by a certified instructor. The course will run for 7–8 hours.  All materials will be provided for you. 

Mental Health First Aid is a skills-based training course that teaches participants about mental health and substance-use issues. A recent study by the American College Health Association found that 48% of college students reported moderate or severe psychological stress, 53% reported being lonely, and 26% had considered suicide. 

The St. Olaf Wellness Center works to increase awareness, reduce stigma, and connect students to resources and support. Just as CPR helps you assist someone having a heart attack, Mental Health First Aid helps you assist someone experiencing a mental health or substance use-related crisis. In the Mental Health First Aid course, you learn risk factors and warning signs for mental health and addiction concerns, strategies for how to help someone in both crisis and non-crisis situations, and where to turn for help. #BetheDifference

Questions? Contact Wellness and Mental Health Coordinator Laura Turek.

April Walking Challenge

Congratulations to the 130 participants of our April Walking Challenge who walked a total of 26,504,118 steps! Although we didn’t quite reach the 30,000,000 steps goal, it is encouraging to see this great accomplishment as a community. We hope you had fun and have established some new habits that will encourage you to continue your walking into the summer months.

A shout out to Donna Malecha for leading the step count! She will receive a prize and will be the first recipient of the traveling “Golden Sneaker” award. The other random drawing prize winners are: Diane Strom, Elizabeth Leer, Jordan Borman, Natalie Berg-Wall

Summer Well-Being Topics of Interest

As we approach the end of the academic year, the Well-Being Committee hopes that you have a fun and safe summer. Here are some key safety reminders and helpful lists of fun activities: