By Kristy Volmert | Staff Writer
Seventeen students play a special role in preserving the well-being of their busy, stressed Baylor peers.
These students work for Well-Being Initiatives, a program under the Department of Student Care and Well-Being, as peer health educators and well-being ambassadors.
Meghan Becker, director of the Department of Student Care and Well-Being, commended the students’ creativity and innovative abilities.
“It’s been fun to watch the students creatively come up with things that they think will be effective,” Becker said. “They’re way more innovative and effective with it than I’d ever be.”
Becker said that the student workers have helped increase overall awareness on various health and well-being topics and peer-to-peer support has been a very effective measure.
The team consists of four peer health educators, 12 well-being ambassadors and graduate assistants. Peer health educators, typically medical or health-related majors, focus on public health awareness and education.
“For peer health educators, we look for students who care about public health and awareness and education about well-being,” Becker said.
Well-being ambassadors are selected based on their familiarity with specific student populations, and they participate in tabling and outreach events within their designated area.
Cypress freshman Andrew Saldana is a psychology major who works as a peer health educator. Saldana said he enjoys talking to different students about various health topics, and the job gives him unique opportunities to learn and talk about what he is passionate about.
“In college, we kind of forget to take care of ourselves,” Saldana said. “Through this job, I get to learn about wellness topics, and that can be incorporated into my college life.”
Saldana said that one of his goals is to inform other students about these effective strategies, helping them cultivate holistic wellness in the midst of a chaotic college life.
In early March, Saldana led a presentation on stress management at Brooks Residential College for their weekly Open Door Night.
Cypress freshman David Mauk, who attended the event, said he thought the presentation was very practical.
“They covered useful techniques like time management and self-care, which felt especially relevant with the pressures of school,” Mauk said.
According to Saldana, the peer health educators help each other out and often sign up to lead different events depending on their schedules. He said that the job provides a supportive, relaxed work environment, which is very helpful for maintaining a balanced life.
“The job itself actually reduces stress for me,” he said. “It’s such a chill job; everyone’s so nice in the office.”
He said he regularly works three times a week in the office located on the second floor of the SLC, and most of his work involves research and media design.
According to Becker, the position was just created in the fall, so this is the first full academic year to incorporate them into the Well-Being Initiatives team.
“We learned how peer-to-peer help and connection is more effective, and that’s what inspired it,” Becker said.
She said that having this additional support has been effective for cultivating awareness, and that they will continue to hire well-being ambassadors for future years.
“We hire students who care about well-being for students, but about a specific population,” Becker said. “It’s really effective when students from that specific school work with that population.”
Both positions are two-semester commitments, and well-being ambassadors must be entering at least their sophomore year to apply whereas peer health educators can start as freshmen.
Becker said the applications for these positions will open in the next few weeks and should be available on the student job board.
