Student Health 101 is a nation-wide e-magazine that contains videos, recipes and articles about health and well-being issues that college students might face. Individual colleges are then given six pages to customize for their own students.

Assistant Professor in Health and Exercise Science Stephanie Otto, who serves on the Advisory Board for Student Health 101, feels that this customization is the most valuable part of the magazine.

“The best thing about this e-magazine is that we can customize a number of pages to highlight our own students, events, faculty, staff and organizations right here at Gustavus. Every month we invite individuals and groups to contribute to the custom pages by writing articles, posting pictures and videos and promoting campus events,” Otto said.

An advisory board made up of students, staff and faculty at Gustavus from a variety of offices and departments meets monthly to decide what to include in the custom pages.

“Some of the things we talk about are which student groups to highlight, which campus events are happening that we feel would be important to include and what articles we might want written that relate to Gusties,” Otto said.

In addition to the six pages tailored for Gustavus students are a number of pages that college students across the country can see. These pages include videos submitted by students at various colleges and articles on topics that relate to health and well-being. Assistant Athletics Director for Student Athlete Services in Athletics and Outreach Coordinator in Alcohol and Drug Education Kari Eckheart, who has been given the task of coordinating the Student Health 101 project, feels that these articles are very relevant to students.

“What they put in the magazine is pretty timely, because they know college kids and what is going on in the news and what [college students] would be interested in. They include a lot of videos, which students across the country have submitted,” Eckheart said.

The next phase in the project will be spreading the word.

“Now the trick is to get the word out to organizations who want to put stuff in Student Health 101 that they can do that,” Eckheart said.

“We certainly invite students, organizations and other campus groups to contact us if they are interested in writing an article, having an event highlighted or if they have any comments on the e-magazine,” Otto said.

November’s issue, which was released Nov. 1, highlights some of the exercise classes that are offered at Gustavus. Included is a video with clips from the classes and a feature on some of the instructors of these classes. A listing of on-campus events during November is also included.

“We’ve decided as a group that it is important to always have some events that are happening on-campus included in the custom pages, so you will always see that,” Eckheart said.

Also included in November’s issue is an Awkward Family Photo contest. Students were invited to submit photos to keckhear@gustavus.edu by Nov. 7. The photos will be displayed in December’s issue.

“It can be an organization picture, it could be a house picture, it could be your floor, it could be someone’s dorm, it can be any group. All you [had to] do [was] name your picture and send it to [Kari Eckheart] and then our board [will] pick the top two and those two will get a $50 gift card to either Erbert and Gerbert’s or Godfather’s Pizza,” Eckheart said.

“Student Health 101 is meant to be a resource for students that includes health and well-being information, campus events and hopefully serves as an enjoyable break from studying and homework. Our hope is that students find it relevant and helpful and take pride in seeing their fellow Gusties featured each month, and that every student will find something that relates to them,” Otto said.

The magazine can be accessed by going to the Student Health Services website and clicking on the Student Health 101 icon.