A wellness fair was held at St. Thomas this past week to highlight available resources on campus.
The wellness fair happened Thursday, Nov. 28, in the Sir James Dunn building on the STU campus. The event was organized by STU student union members Tyler Magee and Julia Evans. Magee is the STU student union’s sexuality and gender diversity representative, while Evans is the first-year residence liaison.
The two organized the wellness fair in order to advertise the sexual and mental health resources available to students.
“We realized that a lot of students on campus have a lot of resources on hand, yet don’t take advantage of these resources,” said Evans. “We thought that having this fair would open students eyes up to see how we have many resources that are accessible to them.”
Groups presenting at the fair included STU’s Peer Health Education Team, STU Mental Health Society, AIDS New Brunswick, The Women’s Centre, Qmunity UNB, and the 203 Centre for Gender and Sexual Diversity.
The fair also advertised the STU Sexuality and Gender Advocacy group, Sexual Violence New Brunswick, and STU’s Wabankai centre, but representatives were unable to make it.
Attendance at the wellness fair was low, likely due to the large amount of snow Fredericton saw Thursday, but Magee and Evans were happy with the turnout.
A large part of the motivation to have the wellness fair was the upcoming exam series.
“We want to show [students] how they can access these resources, especially around exam season,” Evans explained. “This is a very busy time of year, so we want people to have interpersonal, personal and physical health all addressed.”
It is very important to keep yourself healthy during exam season—mentally and physically. There are many groups that offer resources to help with stress, as the STU wellness fair showed.
An unmentioned resource is the C.C. Jones health centre and Counselling services. Both are available to UNB and STU students. The Student health centre is open Monday-Friday from 8:15-3:30. Counselling services is open Monday-Friday from 8:30-4:30.