A Partnership for Wellness - Campus Recreation and the SALT Center
Isaac Flater & Mary Beth Eustice
The University of Arizona routinely ranks among the most beautiful college campuses in the nation. This gorgeous setting coupled with numerous sporting events, concerts, plays, lectures, museums, poetry readings, clubs and more, can keep any student occupied and comfortable for years. But of course, we’re not in the business of simply keeping students occupied. We want to help students stretch themselves and build their confidence to explore things outside of their comfort zones and to learn more about who they are and what they can accomplish. One of our strategies to address this desire involves a new partnership with the University’s Department of Campus Recreation. With their invaluable assistance, we are crafting unique opportunities for students enrolled in the SALT Center to participate in a variety of wellness activities and professionally supervised outdoor excursions.
We expect that this collaboration will help our students develop healthier life habits and greater resiliency to face their daily challenges. Each of the planned activities is designed to support at least one of what Campus Recreation describes as the eight dimensions of wellness, which are emotional, physical, social, financial, occupational, environmental, intellectual and spiritual. They explain:
“Everything we do, everything we feel and every emotion we have can influence our well-being. Our well-being directly affects our actions, emotions and thoughts. Achieving complete wellness can help diminish stress, mitigate illness and establish positive feelings, valuable interactions and happiness.”
Students can choose to attend any of an array of engaging activities such as hiking through beautiful desert canyons, touring the littleknown rooftop garden above the Student Union, attending hands-on cooking demonstrations and going to a real-life job fair to practice interacting with employers.
Lisa Elfring, who has been on our team for several semesters helping to organize previous field trips and hands-on social activities, will be a vital participant at these events. As our Faculty Fellow and an Associate Professor in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Lisa is uniquely positioned to bring her years of higher education experience to help mentor students outside of the formal classroom setting.
For nearly forty years the SALT Center has been at the forefront of developing unique and effective strategies to help students with learning and attention challenges find success and we are confident that this exciting new collaboration will add to our proven legacy of quality comprehensive support.