HealthEU Day highlights holistic wellness and well-being on campus

The day-long event included a campus wellness fair, educational sessions, group exercise events, along with other activities, programs and giveaways.

With a commitment to promoting the implementation of holistic wellness and well-being values in everyday life, the HealthEU initiative supports all students, faculty and staff in the Elon University community as they work toward achieving their goals.

TJ Bowie, left, and Sylvia Muñoz at HealthEU Day on March 21, 2023.

And on Tuesday, March 21, Elon hosted the first annual HealthEU Day event that strives to educate and celebrate the continuous efforts for integrated approaches to wellness and well-being.

“HealthEU Day is an opportunity to bring our entire community — students, faculty and staff — together to focus on building a life and community culture of wellness and well-being. There are opportunities for exploring resources on campus and in the community to enhance a sense of wellness and well-being for our community,” said Jana Lynn Patterson, associate vice president for student life, dean of students and co-chair of the Council on Wellness and Well-Being.

HealthEU is the university’s comprehensive and integrated wellness and well-being program that provides access to resources educational tools and support for all members of the university community while cultivating personal values they can rely on for years to come. Through six dimensions of well-being — community, emotional, financial, physical, purpose and social — the university hopes this work will help it to become a national model for programs, research and dialogues promoting resilience, belonging and all aspects of lifelong personal wellness.

HealthEU Day consisted of various events, such as a campus wellness fair, educational sessions, group exercise activities and other programs.

“It’s important because a lot of universities haven’t been focusing on mental and physical health. It’s great that Elon has events that give students the resources to the kind of things that can help,” Anna Mustanski ’26 said of HealthEU Day.

An educational session co-presented by Student Life Communications Manager Kelsey Armstrong and Associate Director of Campus Recreation and Wellness for Student Wellness Charlotte Williams served as a formal introduction to the initiative and how its objective permeates life at Elon, academically, professionally and personally.

Student walking the tightrope during HealthEU Day, March 21, 2023.

“HealthEU belongs to everyone. It holds a responsibility as well as a right to everyone to be a healthier version of themselves as well as to empower their peers to be healthy and help enhance our communities to be healthy,” Armstrong said.

Williams spoke on what HealthEU Day means for her. “HealthEU Day for me means a truly intentional focus for the whole community — faculty, staff and students — on the importance of making space and time for wellness to be elevated and uplifted.”

Following HealthEU Day, the opportunities for wellness will continue for all faculty, staff, students and community members. For more information on those opportunities, news and updates, visit the HealthEU website.