Between getting caught up in studies and balancing a social life, staying active and getting involved on campus can often be a struggle, especially for first-year students. Keene State College is helping to address this lack of physical activity and on-campus involvement through a program called, “Take Time Tuesdays,” which meets every Tuesday at 5 p.m. in the gym.
Coordinator of Wellness Education Tiffany Mathews and her intern, health science and nutrition major Alexandra Fitzgerald, put together the program this semester. Featuring a different physical activity each week, from volleyball to yoga to basketball, Fitzgerald said she hopes to help students stay active and get involved.
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“People get so caught up in their studies or they come from high school where they’ve played sports, and they’re not on a team here and they kind of don’t know what to do,” Fitzgerald said. “So we are trying to bridge that gap and help them make connections with other organizations and clubs on campus.”
Mathews said she expects the program to help connect like-minded students to connect and explore resources on campus together.
“Students are interested in learning about the physical activity options in our community, but might not know what is available or accessible to them. Take Time Tuesdays introduces students to a variety of activities and connects them with like-minded individuals to explore healthy options together,” Mathews said.
This past Tuesday’s activity was a local nature walk at the cross country track, near the Owl Complex. Unfortunately, only about two students attended this session compared to around 16 on the program’s first day, featuring volleyball games.
First-year Brandon Paul attended both the hike and the volleyball game and said he will attend more sessions in the future.
“It’s something to do to just get out of my room and meet people, I guess,” Paul said.
“It was cool to see that trail; I’ll definitely start using it more.”
Even with the small turnout of last week’s hike, Fitzgerald said she is happy with the positive connections students made.
“As far as what I took away from the hike, it was nice to be with the two students because it was very personal and we were really able to talk and connect,” Fitzgerald said. “With talking to the two of them, they figured out that they live in the same Residence Hall, which I thought was funny that they figured it out at a program only the two of them went to.”
For more information or for the weekly event schedule, students can visit the KSC Center for Health and Wellness Facebook page.
Meridith King can be contacted at mking@kscequinox.com
