As the semester wraps up and finals week is near, stress among students is bound to increase. Vandal Health Education has offered events during their De-Stress Fest to explore new relaxation activities.
“We know that 42% of students have reported that stress impacts their academic performance,” Amanda Ferstead, the mental health promotion program coordinator, said. “It’s just a chance to take a break to de-stress and find something that you enjoy doing and to really make sure that there’s international time for stunts to take care of themselves during a pretty stressful time.”
Destress week is hosted by Vandal Health Education every semester for finals week. Normally, their events involve therapy dogs, yoga, coloring events or other activities meant to relax students. They work with other departments and the Residence Hall Association to add more events for students across campus.
During the Spring 2020 semester when classes went online and campus was shut down, they still managed to do de-stress events, virtually. They hosted yoga classes and coloring online, which was popular according to Ferstead.
They still plan on having most of their events online, and all students are encouraged to join. Pay close attention to Vandal Entertainment’s social media page Dec. 7-11. Some of the events they have planned are a stress management workshop, yoga sessions, gratitude meditation, drop-in mindfulness and some on-demand resources like tutorials on how to DIY bath bombs and make a heading pad.
To view activities during De-Stress Fest, visit here.
Ryan Hill can be reached at [email protected].
This story was updated for accuracy and providing more information.