Thrive Week highlights nutrition and well-being issues on campus

Georgetown’s Health Education Services began Thrive Week, formerly known as Be Well Week, on Monday, and will continue its health-related events through Saturday, Sept. 20.

The change in title comes with, hopefully, a new association.

“Previously it was ‘Be Well’ week and after looking at how the message was being received in previous years, we really wanted to orient it towards thriving,” said Victoria Somerville, current graduate assistant and health educator of Health Education Services. “‘Be Well’ doesn’t necessarily mean you are going above and beyond, and Georgetown students we know are so amazing and just fantastic and go above and beyond in almost every area of their lives; and so we thought ‘Thrive’ was a very appropriate title change.”

“Thrive is offering events that aid in mental health, stress management, diet, fitness and more, all which are important components to living a healthy life,” said Allison Marco, registered dietitian at Georgetown University.

“Our whole perspective for Thrive was really to target the behavior change in individuals on multiple levels,” said Somerville. “So the way we that modeled it was actually after the socio-ecological model, which was based off of core public health competency.”

Thrive week addressed every degree of health, from events focused on relationships to activities emphasizing community. “Monday, for instance, started at the individual level—we had nutrition, mental health, stress reduction, topics that really affect people on the individual level, and then from there the whole week fills out,” said Somerville.

“We really feel at Health Education Services that behavior change, especially for students who are just living on their own, is not really an individual process but more of a multilayered process,” said Somerville. “It takes many approaches in order to have [students] feel secure and supported and actually want to make a change in their life.”

Active Minds is an on campus group whose mission is to “to de-stigmatize talking about mental health on campus,” said Active Minds Board Member Sam Ricciardi (COL ‘17) . In terms of Thrive Week “I think we are pushing the whole mission,” said Ricciardi. “We see Thrive Week as a way of helping students—that’s what we are all about.” Active Minds facilitates two events during Thrive this year: “Air Your Grievances” and “Millennial Voices Dinner & Reflection,” at which members will serve as conversation moderators.

Somerville noted that student participation has been at an all time high. “Even just looking at numbers from the past two days, Thrive has been the most successful iteration of Be Well Week or any previous campaign we have run,” she said. “For the fitness class alone, there was a 700 percent increase in attendance. It has been incredibly successful to the point that we almost don’t have enough staff.”

Other students have expressed skepticism on the long-term effects the week will have. “Lifestyles are really hard to change,” said Jasmine Chou (SFS ’17). “Thrive Week does a good job introducing certain concepts like eating well, exercising, de-stressing, etcetera, but I have my doubts that Thrive Week will actually have a significant impact on students’ tendencies.” Chou attended the C3 class and Leo’s Dining Hall Trivia. “I don’t think they have impacted me in any significant way,” she said. “[I] now know that Leo’s has garden burgers in the burger section, but I would still avoid eating that.”

Ricciardi, however, hopes Thrive Week will hold a lasting impact on students and their habits. “I think people just don’t pay too much attention to themselves, they don’t give themselves the proper care they need to,” Ricciardi said. “It really all depends on the students’ participation.”

“[Thrive] is really the most Cura Personalis week that exists at Georgetown,” he said.