OU Celebrates Health & Wellness Week

Oakwood University is celebrating Health & Wellness Week for faculty, staff, and students this Monday through Thursday, March 22-25. The idea is to promote wellness, improve school morale, enhance relationships, and develop and strengthen friendships.

A special Health and Wellness student chapel service took place Tuesday, March 23, beginning at 9:50 a.m., at the Oakwood University Church.  This was a time for students to focus on what it means to be mentally, physically, spiritually, emotionally, and socially fit.  

A schedule of the week’s events, highlighting each day’s activities, is available at the end of this article.  The daily themes are built around spiritual physical, mental, emotional, and social health.  The week’s events are sponsored by the United Student Movement, Student Services, Student Activities, and various Oakwood student clubs, including the Peer Advocate and Wellness group, also known as PAWS.

PAWS is a group of students who are sponsored by Dr. George Ashley, Social Work Department chair at OU.  These students are social work, psychology, nursing or physical therapy majors.  Working with Dr. Ashley, they were successful in getting a grant to promote health and wellness on campus. The objective is to prevent suicide and depression among their peers and promote wellness for the mind, body and spirit.

In addition to promoting health and wellness, PAWS wanted to show appreciation to OU staff members whom they felt were underappreciated. As part of Staff Appreciation day, the following  staff members were honored at the chapel service were:  Mr. Ron Acklin, staff member at Oakwood’s Physical Plant; Mrs. Carole Booth, supervisor of the OU’s Student Accounts Student Information Center;  Mrs.  Cartwright, cashier for the Oakwood University Dining Hall; Chief Lewis Eakins, director of Public Safety and Transportation; and Mr. Ron Pittman, custodial staff member at Holland Hall.  Each individual has shown his or her light to the students on campus, and PAWS felt they needed to “feel love.”  Mrs. Cartwright commented, “I am so happy to be loved by the students; they are my angels.”