PLAN, Manage Your Professional Development as a Graduate Student
We all need to feel well to do well. Rackham's definition of wellness includes more than just physical health: there are the psychological, spiritual, vocational, intellectual and cultural parts of your life, too. Balance within and among these is essential to your success in graduate school and throughout your professional career. To address this need for balance in and out of your academic life, Rackham launched a Health and Wellness Initiative for graduate and professional school students in Winter 2006. Below are some questions to help you learn more about the Initiative and to learn about what Rackham is doing now for health and wellness..
Although there are many ways in which graduate and professional school students can obtain support for a healthy life on our campus, the size of the University can make these resources difficult to identify and locate. Some sources of physical and psychological assistance may also be difficult to afford.
In Winter 2006, Dean Janet A. Weiss began a health and wellness initiative that was to develop over the course of three academic years. Because managing stress is important to a successful graduate career and beyond, the first effort of the Health and Wellness Initiative was a mental health awareness campaign.
Over the past three years, we have continued to develop programs and activities that get these resources into your hands more easily, provide opportunities to improve nutrition, increase exercise, explore personal and professional development, get control over unhealthy habits, and connect with peers at social and cultural activities.
We continue to do this in partnership with those faculty and staff who have an interest in your well-being and those who provide resources to help meet your needs.
Rackham remains committed to focusing on the health and wellness of graduate students. Program and activities that were a part of the Health and Wellness Initiative are now incorporated into our regular offerings for students.
Below are examples of the types of health and wellness activities with which Rackham is involved.
Rackham developed the "got stress?" brochure, in collaboration with Daniel Eisenberg, Assistant Professor of Health Management and Policy at the School of Public Health and author of the UM Healthy Minds Study, to help normalize feelings of stress and reduce the stigma of talking to someone about concerns. The "got stress?" brochure also includes a map of counseling/treatment and support/referral resources. The brochure was first distributed in the Winter 2006 semester and is distributed to new students each year. A pdf of the brochure and resource map are available on our website.
Working with the Psychological Clinic, Rackham offers Stress Management and Imposter Syndrome workshops in the winter term.
During the University's exam study days, Rackham offers study break events. These events feature a variety of activities to help students de-stress.
In May 2007, in collaboration with the School of Art and Design, Rackham co-curated a show of works relating to mental illness, which received submissions from students, staff, faculty, and community members. The intent of this exhibition was to raise awareness about the realities of mental illness. How does mental illness change the life experiences of those with these diseases? And how do these individual experiences ripple out into the community -- families, health care systems, social services organizations? Visit this site to read a review of the exhibit.
This four-week series is designed to introduce students to the foundation of a healthy and fruitful yoga practice. Students learn to explore various breathing, physical, relaxation and meditation techniques that are central to hatha yoga and useful in cultivating a balanced practice. This program launched in January, 2007 and continues to be a popular activity
Active U is a fun incentive program designed to help participants become more physically active. In Active U's first year, over 8,600 faculty and staff participants raised over $36,000 for charity. For Active U 2007, graduate and professional school students were invited to participate in the program. Each year, Active U attracts over 1,000 graduate student participants.
Rackham has sponsored students to run in the annual Dexter-Ann Arbor Run since 2006. Between the four years of Rackham's participation in the event, the registration fees of the Rackham Graduate School Team and Rackham's sponsorship together have raised over $23,000.
Each fall, Rackham sponsors a Health and Fitness Fair event for graduate students, which includes basic health assessments, information on nutrition and physical activity resources on campus, and other interactive health-related activities.
GradConnect Newsletter: Rackham sends out an e-newsletter to all graduate and professional school students about health and wellness topics four times per academic year, with a special emphasis on resources available on campus and in the community. Click here to read past issues of GradConnect
We have many partners in this health and wellness, including the Psychological Clinic, Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS), University Health Service (UHS), Recreational Sports, MFit, the School of Public Health, and MHealthy, to name a few.
If you are interested in bringing health and wellness programming to your department or program, please contact Natalie Bartolacci at (734) 647-2640.
Graduate Student Affairs
1530 Rackham Building
915 E. Washington St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1070
Phone: (734) 647-7548
Fax: (734) 936-2848
E-mail: gradstudentlife@umich.edu
