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The Student Wellness Project (SWP) is a student-led movement that aims to help Columbia University and Barnard College students feel like their best selves by promoting a campus culture of well-being. Read more
Feeling Stuck? Look at the Big Picture
October 2, 2012 – 8:00 am
How To Get Unstuck: The Big Paper Experiment
By Mike Vardy, via LifeHacker
If you ever find yourself stuck and unclear of where you are and where you’re going, try the following exercise to get moving again. All you need is a pen or pencil and two sheets of paper.
- Find some paper. The bigger, the better.
- Write out what you are doing, who you are doing it for, and why you are doing it. Be brutally honest.
- Take a good look at the paper. Don’t do anything but look at it and reflect on what you’ve written. In fact, drink a cup of tea or coffee while doing so, and don’t do anything else until you have drank the last drop.
- Start crossing out the stuff that doesn’t resonate with you on some level that is deeper than “I have to do this”. If you look at all of the criteria, you can avoid the “have to” items and get to the “want to” items.
- Take the items that you crossed out and write them down on a piece of paper. The smaller the paper, the better.
- Take the items you didn’t cross out and write them down on a piece of paper. The bigger the paper, the better.
- Compare the two pieces of paper. While doing this, you should (hopefully) realize that the smaller stuff shouldn’t get in the way of the bigger stuff. The small paper represents stuff of little import, the big paper represents stuff of bigger import.
The next steps are up to you. Either live with two pieces of paper or try to make that smaller paper even smaller—which will make the other paper seem even bigger. If you need to prioritize the big paper stuff, then go ahead. Make it one giant to do list. Whatever you need to do to make it the focus.
The big paper stuff is the big picture. The small paper stuff just blocks your view. Get it out of the way so you can see your big picture clearly.
http://lifehacker.com/5946313/how-to-get-unstuck-the-big-paper-experimentRemembering
September 26, 2012 – 2:23 pm
Zeev Mendelsberg, a student in Columbia’s Master’s Program in Mathematics of Finance, passed away this week. We, the Student Wellness Project, extend our sympathies to Zeev’s family and friends. We must remind ourselves everyday that life is precious and valuable– it can be taken any second. Don’t be afraid to reach out for help, whether it be a friend, family member, mentor, or resource on campus. We, the students that comprise SWP, are also here for you. Think you can’t be heard? Don’t worry, we will listen.
Please remember, there are always resources available on campus to deal with grief. Students are encouraged to reach out to Columbia Psychological Services by calling (212) 854-2878, or during walk-in hours at locations around campus.
Another Year of Wellness
September 18, 2012 – 7:57 pm
At the first general body meeting of the Student Wellness Project this Sunday, we asked everyone three questions about wellness. Here are some highlights:
What Brings You Here?
I deeply, deeply care about people, and feel it is my human duty to be of the utmost support to others and their happiness. Also, I myself have been very, very unwell in the past and am looking for friends.
I want to put smiles on other people's faces
What Does a Well Columbia Student Look Like?
OK with failure. Accepting of themselves. Sympathetic to others. Passionate about living.
Cares about others, cared about by others, and happy to be in this community
What Would You Like to See SWP Do This Year?
Random Acts of Kindness, building community: community and public space initiative--the campus belongs to us too. Permanent Impacts.
Make campus more conscious about how their choices are affecting them
We will post more responses as the year goes on and we begin to implement the wonderful ideas from the group!
Welcome
September 12, 2012 – 2:16 pm
“In recent months, the movement to improve Columbia students’ quality of life has gained traction, in part due to the work of the Student Wellness Project.”
– Columbia Daily Spectator, 1/23/2012
“I am going to do everything I can to ensure that we make wellness a priority”.
– Columbia College Dean James J. Valentini, “Supporting Student Wellness”, 3/8/2012
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Hi, and welcome to the website of the Columbia University Student Wellness Project, an officially recognized student group.
Who are we?
To put it simply, we’re a group of regular students at a stressful school who dream of building a campus community where students don’t just have to pretend like they’re ‘fine’, but can talk about what it means to be well. We accomplish this through events, initiatives, political advocacy, art, and dialogue. For a sample of our previous accomplishments, check out the list of what we did in our first six months as a student group.
You can also check out these highlights from our numerous appearances in campus media.
What are our goals for this year?
Now in our second year, we remain committed as ever to sustaining the dialogue about student wellness, especially as the new members of the Class of 2016 enter our campus. Here are some of our top goals:
- Continue developing innovative and meaningful events that can continue to make a positive impact on our campus community.
- Strengthen the alliance of wellness-related student groups.
- Make wellness resources more accessible to all students.
- Develop an agenda to push for concrete policy changes that will benefit student well-being.
- Continue the effort to create student spaces where peers can support each other and engage in meaningful, honest discussion about wellness issues at Columbia.
- Foster the expression of artistic and literary voices on campus that can help us carry on the conversation about wellness.
How can I get involved?
Just show up! There’s no commitment required. We’re a low-key and low-stress club.
Our meetings are every Sunday at 12 PM in Lerner 505 (the SGO room on the 5th floor). The first general body meeting is this Sunday, September 16th. (FB event)
We’re looking for all types of help, from event planning to policy writing to peer-to-peer mentoring to graphic design to blogging. If you are interested in joining, take a few moments to fill out this form so that we have a sense of what you’re interested in.
For more information, feel free to contact us. And definitely join our Facebook group to receive updates.
New flyer
September 12, 2012 – 10:06 am
Check out this new flyer, and come to our first meeting of the year, this Sunday at 12 PM in Lerner 505 (SGO office)!
Open discussion tonight
August 28, 2012 – 4:09 pm
We’re turning John Jay Lounge into an open discussion space tonight between 5-7:30 PM for anyone who wants to just come talk. You’ll be able to bring your John Jay food into the lounge.
If you an upperclassman and would be willing to help facilitate, please arrive between 4:30-5.
More info:
http://bwog.com/2012/08/28/open-discussion-to-be-held-tonight-in-john-jay-lounge/
Last night’s tragedy
August 28, 2012 – 11:53 am
Dear Student Wellness Project members and other friends,
I don’t really know yet how to explain the terrible sadness I felt this morning when I saw that one of our new student body members passed away in an apparent suicide last night. The truth is, you can spend years thinking about these issues, and how to deal with them, and you’re still left completely unprepared when it actually happens again.
In this time, we need to come together. Not just to stand strong, but also to remind each other that it’s okay to be weak. That it’s okay to lean on someone next to you and say, “I’m not okay right now.” And that, at a place like Columbia, we’ll be there for each other, no matter what. Moreover, we need to be there for the Class of 2016 right now. After all, we can tell them to go to CPS and Furman, but what about the new students who have no idea what those terms even mean? We can tell them to be there for each other, but what if they don’t even have real friends yet? It is NEVER too early to remind others that we care about them.
So — 1:45 PM. Today. Lerner 5th floor SGO. Impromptu Student Wellness Project meeting. Please come as you are. Bring friends. This will be an opportunity for us to discuss this tragedy, what it means, and to talk about an initial campus response. My hope is that we can put together an event for the early evening where we provide an open space for 2016 and other students to come, and to know that they are not alone.
In the meantime, if any of you need anything — anything– please call me, or call a friend who cares. None of you are alone.
Wilfred
Important Summer Update
July 26, 2012 – 11:19 pm
Hi friends and supporters!
It’s that summer check-in email you’ve been waiting for. We’re a month away from gametime.
First, Priom Ahmed CC’14 and Sara Donatich BC’13 will be taking over as SWP co-chairs this year! I’m so excited for them, as they are phenomenal. Look forward to some big things happening. I’ll be taking a semester off to pursue an internship in DC, but I will be staying highly involved from afar.
Interest in our mission continues to grow among the student body. We’ve done tremendous work, and made a real impact with Random Acts of Kindness Week. We now have members of SWP on the executive boards of CCSC, ESC, and Barnard SGA. Dean Valentini said in a recent front-page Spectator interview that one of his top priorities as permanent dean will be to continue supporting the Student Wellness Project. In short, the time for action is now.
Hence, one of the most exciting changes is the introduction of our new Political Committee. Its goal is to empower students to critically examine the state of wellness at Columbia and to push for real policy changes at the administrative level. We’re really excited about the dialogue about wellness that’s been sustained so far, and now it’s time to turn that dialogue into real change. If you’ve ever been frustrated by the state of student wellness at Columbia, and want to work with stakeholders to push for concrete administrative or academic change, you should definitely join.
The rest of SWP is continuing to grow as well. Kudos again to the Projects committee for executing Random Acts of Kindness week in April, with over a thousand participants. The Roundtable committee has continued talks with CPS to develop an on-campus discussion space for wellness related issues. The External committee has helped to build a fledgling wellness alliance of campus groups. And finally, our Media committee has already created an excellent site at http://cuwellness.com/. And they’re all looking for new members.
We’ve done a spectacular amount in just a few months, but there is so much work left to do. So I’d like to hear back from you all that you’re interested in helping us as we continue the fight to improve student wellness at Columbia – because everybody deserves to feel like their best selves. So whether you’d like to take an active role this semester, or just casually attend a few meetings, or if you just want to learn more about how you might be able to help, take a few seconds to fill out this short google form for us. This is really important to us.
As always, I hope you are doing well! Please email me with any thoughts, questions, or concerns. I’ll respond right away.
Wilfred Chan
Founder, SWP
http://cuwellness.com/
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