Professors and Student Affairs leaders are fine-tuning this list of hands-on activities for the Learning Community History, English, Speech, and Fitness courses. We thought you might like to take a peek at what we’re working on!

Our theme is “Health and Healing Along the Border” and we’ll be focusing on four key areas: Nutrition, Physical Activity, Diseases, and Non-Traditional Healing. The following list is subject to change as we discover more possibilities!

• Setting personal goals for nutrition and physical fitness. We’ll all receive a “head start” health screening during the first and last week of the semester. Student Health Services and faculty will work with individual students to set specific goals, use on-line “personal trainers”, develop a fitness website, and get “goodies” to help with your goals. All community members—including faculty—can participate.
• Movies and snacks during community time. We’ll watch and reflect upon healthy and not-so-healthy choices we make in eating and physical activity.
• Creating our own healthy meals. We’ll discover how food can be good and fun hosting a contest to develop our own healthy recipes, creating a cookbook, and selling the fruits of our labors on campus.
• Palo Alto re-creation of the medical tent during the civil war. In partnership with the National Park Service, we’ll travel to an important local historic site to learn first-hand how soldiers were treated. Costumes and taking part in the re-enactment is a possibility.
• Trip to a local herb farm to discover traditional Hispanic methods of healing. What are some alternatives to traditional western-based medicine approach?
• Adopting an off-campus service project. We’ll partner with youth and elder care programs that need our help to meet their goals of a healthy lifestyle for their members. Bring the name of your favorite organization to the community meeting!
• Scavenger hunt, t-shirt design, food shopping trips. Team building and leadership skills are important. We’ve a grab bag full of ideas to keep you coming back for more!