Expo on healthy living comes to Student Center

Campus Recreation will be hosting a Wellness Expo with informational booths, giveaways, and opportunities to explore methods of how to have a well-balanced life.

"The purpose of the expo is to provide students with information about the different areas of wellness," Assistant Director of Fitness and Wellness and coordinator for the Wellness Expo Moira Johnson said. "There's a lot of resources on and off campus that are represented at the Wellness Expo."

The expo will highlight eight different dimensions of wellness. Johnson said they are all interrelated.

"If you have a deficit in one area, you can't overcompensate in another area to make up for it," she explained. "Most college students have a rocking social life, but that strains their financial resources."

Johnson said that vendors will be representing each of the dimensions. For instance, a dietician will be there representing physical wellness, campus religious organizations for spiritual, Greek life for social, the counseling center for emotional, career development for occupational, and bank representatives for financial, along with a variety of other venders.  Also included in the dimensions will be intellectual and environmental wellness.

Local businesses such as Rockwall Running Center, North Texas Poison Control, and the Raffa Clinic will also be represented at the expo. Johnson said the motivation to have the variety of vendors is to let students know there are resources everywhere for them to develop each of the areas of wellness.

Having the businesses come in will be beneficial for more than one reason, Johnson said.

"It's like advertising for them, but for students the hope is that they kind of learn about these different dimensions and are able to know that there are resources for them to develop these areas," she said.

When the students come in, they will get a "passport." If they visit a certain number of booths and fill out a survey, they have the opportunity to receive some giveaways while supplies last.

Along with various free tangible items – such as healthy snacks from Sodexo – will be free amenities from the cosmetology school in Greenville, which is coming to do hair, nail and makeup services.

A few other notable attractions include a green screen for photos, an oxygen bar, and private screenings from the counseling center.

The theme for the expo is "eat responsibly, live responsibly," Johnson said. She encourages all students to stop by Thursday, March 1, for the event held in the RSC Ballrooms from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.