In collaboration with the Student Health Center, Kinesiology students serve as physical activity buddies to help implement a 10-12 week wellness program each semester entitled “WellFit”. The WellFit program is a self-selected physical activity program to enhance mental and physical well-being of Humboldt students who are experiencing depression and/or anxiety, to augment the treatment they are already receiving for their depression/anxiety. These students have voluntarily agreed to participate in the program in hopes that physical activity will have a positive effect on their everyday lives. The physical activity buddies support the participants in becoming physically active or maintaining physical activity levels. To help achieve this goal, the students choose the physical activities they would like to participate in with their physical activity buddies 2-3 times a week, which may differ from week to week. The role of the physical activity buddy is not to be a decision maker or personal trainer, but rather to be part of a support system to help the students access their choices and overcome what may be their own barriers to being physically active.

For more information, contact Cal Poly Humboldt Kinesiology Professor Jill Pawlowski at (707) 826-4541 or jill.pawlowski@humboldt.edu