Volunteers needed for Eating Disorders Awareness Week

Lora Bertelsen, psychologist at Hendrix Clinic and Counseling Center, has been working with a tri-college committee to make plans for activities for Eating Disorder Awareness Week during the week of February 26th through March 3rd, 2012. Faculty, staff or students who are interested in partnering at MSUM to bring awareness to this issue for our campus are welcome to join the committee and/or volunteer in other ways.

Our theme this year will be “Be You(nique)!”. One of the activities planned will be tri-college; we want all three schools of higher education in the community to work together on an activity.  We are envisioning a learning maze, based on our theme, where students will walk through a space filled with educational, interactive projects pertaining to eating disorders, body image, self- esteem, media perceptions, wellness issues, physical exercise, nutritious eating, etc.  We are planning on setting this up at each of the campuses on varying days.  We are hoping that seniors who need senior projects and grad students will be interested in participating by having a table activity or display.

What we need from you is to encourage your particular students to give such a project their consideration. We would be glad to work with them in coming up with ideas or to help them fine tune ideas they might have.  We think it could be a win-win situation, where they have a project they need to do, and we can use their project in our program.  It could be something that they complete for fall semester, but do the presentation during Eating Disorder Awareness week in spring semester.  We would need them to be at their table during display hours during that week.  We will try to be mindful of students’ very busy schedules and will try to work the time issue out with them.

This display could also be something that you include on your syllabus for spring semester, giving extra credit to students who attend the learning maze.

Please let me know if you have students who are interested in being involved with our project. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.  We think this could be an excellent learning opportunity for students and we are eager to work with them on their projects.

Please contact Lora Bertelsen with any questions at 477-2211 or Bertelsen@mnstate.edu.