Student Health Advisory Committee opens applications for passionate servant leaders

The Student Advisory Health Committee works alongside the Baylor Counseling Center and the Baylor Health Center to organize projects bettering student wellness. Photo courtesy of Hayden Spier

By Ashlyn Beck | Staff Writer

The Student Health Advisory Committee is looking for applicants to join its selective team and help connect students to on-campus wellness resources.

According to the Baylor website, SHAC is a student-run council that works under the department of student health and wellness. It serves as a liaison between students, the Baylor Health Center and the Baylor Counseling Center while also organizing projects to advertise wellness around campus.

“There’s a lot of stuff that I personally didn’t know about before joining SHAC, so our goal is to kind of market that out to the student body and let them know about these resources we have, because Baylor actually offers a crazy amount of free resources,” Lake Oswego, Ore., junior and committee member Hayden Spier said.

Applications to join SHAC are available online. Spier said that while many of the committee members are health care students, the team can use students from any area of study.

“We’d love to have new members and get to have a greater reach, because we really believe in our mission,” Spier said.

Seattle senior and committee president Carolyn Rausch said the team is selective, as members have mandatory biweekly meetings in addition to the events they organize.

“We only have about 20 members total, so we are selective in our process,” Rausch said. “We’re really looking for students who want to be very involved.”

According to Spier and Rausch, members generally have a love for volunteering and connecting with other students, and some of the biggest incentives to joining the team are its leadership opportunities, training and experience in the clinical field.

Besides the clear link to health care, Rausch said she could use students to help plan events, run social media and network.

“We would be more than willing to welcome anyone who is passionate about reaching out,” Spier said. “There’s a lot of things you can learn about medicine and also just how Baylor works being a part of [the council], so we’d be more than happy to share that.”

Spier said being a part of SHAC has helped him see how many things Baylor offers in terms of health and wellness. According to Spier, he wants to help other students by advertising what free resources are available to them.

“We’re always learning new things [that] Baylor’s doing for their students, and we’re trying to promote that to the public,” Spier said.