From aromatherapy to
dodgeball, Brain Fuel Week provides many ways for students to relieve
stress before final exams. The Office of Health Promotion and Wellness organizes Brain Fuel
Week every quarter to provide a week of calming experiences for students before
a typically stressful exam period.
The Office of Health Promotion and Wellness
launched Brain Fuel Week during fall 2015 finals. The various daily
events, all free for students, are designed to help students manage their stress
and improve all aspects of their health: physical, emotional and spiritual.
Two years of Brain Fuel Week has allowed Health
Promotion and Wellness to refine their offerings and develop new ones. “The number of
collaborations and the number of people that we’re partnering with has grown, and we've also improved the quality of the program,” says Shannon Suffoletto,
director of Health Promotion and Wellness. “We focus on higher quality, bigger
impact events. When you start to repeat an initiative, you get better and
better at it. Things now are very intentional, with very meaningful programs.”
Winter Quarter 2017’s
Brain Fuel Week included unique interdepartmental collaborations such as
aromatherapy co-hosted by the Office of Mission and Values and the Ray Meyer
Fitness and Recreation Center, and healthy taste-testing sessions at both the
Lincoln Park and Loop campuses, hosted by Dining Services. The aromatherapy
event proved particularly popular among students.
“Brain Fuel Week pulls me out of my own
intense study mode and into the community aspect of the Take Care DePaul
campaign,” Health Promotion and Wellness coordinator and graduate student
Alyssa Rickman says. “The message of ‘take care of yourself, take care of each
other, take care DePaul’ is embedded in Brain Fuel Week. We can all help take
care of each other throughout the quarter, and students don’t have to go
through or manage stress alone.”
Each quarter, Brain
Fuel Week returns to emphasize the importance of taking care of your health and
the community’s health, with the next one scheduled
for the week before Spring Quarter final exams, May 29 to June 2, 2017. Information
about Brain Fuel Week can be found on OrgSync, and fliers are posted around
campus with event information, as well.
Encourage students to come out and take
time to unwind before finals week. If you would like more information about
Brain Fuel Week, contact the Office of
Health Promotion and Wellness.