On Thursday, November 14 students were given the chance to earn one hour of PE Passport credit by attending the Wellness in the Digital World workshop. Shaw Wellness identifies eight dimensions of wellness as: emotional, environmental, financial, intellectual, occupational, physical, social and spiritual.

Upon arrival to the event, students were greeted by Director of Shaw Wellness Institute Katie Griffes and were provided with a free lunch. After initial introductions, Griffes posed a few questions to the group and encouraged students to discuss the ways in which they typically find information about how to live a healthy lifestyle. The majority of students use the internet as their primary source for finding information. However, Griffes cautioned students to be skeptical of online websites due to the fact that they are not always reliable sources and instead encouraged participants to use YOU@colgate, a free digital wellness tool available to all Colgate students, faculty and staff. 

“The goal of the YOU@colgate website is to provide personalized wellness information and resources to all students, faculty and staff based on their expressed needs or interests. Students can login, create a profile and fill out three questionnaires: Thrive, Succeed and Matter. Based on how the student or staff member answers those questionnaires, the website will generate a large resource bank of information that may be helpful based on their expressed needs. There is also a goal setting tool to help people track the progress of their goals and guide their wellness work,” Griffes said. 

After outlining the purpose of the YOU@colgate website, Griffes walked participants through a tutorial on how to effectively use the website and gave students time to create their own profile and take the three questionnaires. People were then able to identify the areas of their lives that the survey suggests need improvement. In addition to this, students were able to explore the personalized resources that the YOU@colgate website generated in response to the areas of their lives that have room for growth. The great thing about these resources is that they not only provide students with reliable, external information verified by the Shaw Wellness Institute, but they also point out resources on campus that could help people with their specific needs.    

Beyond the three questionnaires, Griffes also taught students how to use the goal setting tool on the YOU@colgate website. The YOU@colgate website then helps individuals create a timeline to complete their goal and identifies certain steps that people can take in the right direction. Furthermore, the goal setting tool on the YOU@colgate website has the ability to send students reminders in order to make sure they are consistently staying on track to achieve their aspiration.

“I wanted to give students awareness of the YOU@colgate website since it is our first academic year having this online program, and teach people how to utilize it effectively,” Griffes said. 

She also encouraged students to reach out in the future if they wanted her to share this presentation with another club or organization on campus.