Beginning on March 22, Health Week, a program put on by ASNMU, will highlight different health topics each day of the week. Health Week will discuss topics ranging from male health to dietary health. Registration for the event will be avaliable on the Hub later this weekend. The program will run March 22-27.
Kylie Lanser, sophomore, zoology major and Chair of the Assembly, feels that Health Week gives students and faculty of the NMU community an opportunity to learn and partake in different kinds of health-related activities. Lanser feels that it is important that students get out and take time to learn about their health.
“Your health needs are valid, and we want to give you as many resources as possible to take good care of yourself,” Lanser said. “We also encourage you to learn about people with health experiences different from your own.”
Health Week will not just have activities, but presentations and demonstrations as well. Some highlights to expect to include a Zumba class, an emergency period kit demonstration, a healthy eating and cooking presentation, yoga, meditation and more. Many of the activities are put on by either students and faculty in the NMU community or people within Marquette–such as Dr. Laura Santoro, from the U.P. health system, who will be putting on an LGBTQ+ health presentation.
“We are including events surrounding LGBTQ+ health because many students have not had an opportunity to learn anything in this field because most K-12 schools do not cover this in a health class curriculum or the school doesn’t even provide a health class,” Lanser said. “Inclusivity is an important goal in Health Week, so it is important to offer information about LGBTQ+ health that students might have not accessed before.”
The origins of Health Week started with ASNMU’s “The Period Project”, which services several bathrooms around campus.
“ASNMU looked into options for creating education around female health as an extension of the Period Project that we run. In order to provide education to more people than menstruators, we expanded the concept into a health week for all,” Lanser said.
Lanser felt that the demonstration she looks forward the most to is “It’s An Emergency. Period.” which will be put on by ASNMU’s own president, Emma Drever, which will teach those in attendance how to build an emergency period kit.
ASNMU plans to make this a yearly event to help highlight the importance of health in the community. This pandemic has put stress on many people’s mental and dietary health, which is why ASNMU decided to include Dietary Health and Mental Health days.
“Mental and dietary health function differently everywhere, and we are hoping to contextualize them to college life in order to benefit our students,” said Lanser.
