President Book reflects on the importance of the future HealthEU Center, which will serve as a hub on campus that integrates recreation and fitness, counseling services, academic and student life programs.
One of my favorite Commencement memories is from 2012, when I was standing next to a graduate in Jordan Gym as the class prepared for the processional. “Dr. Book, look around at all these beautiful people,” he said. In that simple observation, he summed up all the youth, vitality, excitement and promise that was around us.
Being on a campus full of young adults brimming with energy, potential and optimism is exciting. In this uplifting environment, it can be easy to overlook some key underlying needs. At this stage in a college student’s development, they must learn how to care for their minds and bodies and understand how to lead balanced, purposeful lives. These are skills that will sustain and nurture them through the challenges of the decades ahead.
This is why our holistic HealthEU initiative is so essential. Elon is implementing a wide range of programs to promote six dimensions of well-being: community, emotional, financial, physical, purpose and social. The university’s aim is to prepare students to thrive in all aspects of their lives and we have made great progress since HealthEU was formally launched in fall 2022.
I’m most excited about the way the entire Elon community has embraced these dimensions with great passion, incorporating well-being concepts in classes and workshops, events and activities, and all aspects of campus life. HealthEU has become our community’s mantra.
We must never let Elon students forget who they are: the ‘beautiful people’ that I see every year at Commencement — the smart, happy and healthy individuals our world needs.
This year, the Dr. Jo Watts Williams School of Education is offering 11 HealthEU courses, ranging from recreation and sports classes to meditation, joyful living and balancing the use of technology in daily life. Alexis Franzese, chair of the sociology and anthropology department, teaches a popular course on the science of happiness.
Elon College, the College of Arts and Sciences, has launched a food studies minor to help students study the essential role of nutrition in their lives. The Martha and Spencer Love School of Business has established the Center for Financial Literacy to help students gain personal finance skills and understand budgeting, debt and retirement planning.
A cornerstone of our efforts is the future construction of the HealthEU Center, a campus hub that will integrate campus recreation and fitness, counseling services, academic and student life programs. Design and fundraising for the facility in the Innovation Quad are in progress and the concepts are exciting (learn more about it here). I can already imagine the spirit of a place where our community comes together for wellness classes, workouts at the fitness center, personal development and training sessions, exercise science research, a healthy snack and a jog on the indoor track or a swim in the new aquatics center. Our community will soar with this new resource.
As I plan my calendar, I always schedule time to have fun and relax with students. We go on fitness walks, play table tennis, have fireside chats and play late night bingo. Making those activities a priority builds community at Elon and also provides a model of creating balance in life. Elon students are driven to succeed, and learning to attend to their health and well-being, alongside their disciplines of study, will ensure a life of contentment.
We must never let Elon students forget who they are: the “beautiful people” that I see every year at Commencement — the smart, happy and healthy individuals our world needs.