June 2024 BWI Spotlight

Holistic wellness is a huge part of the culture of the John Glenn College of Public Affairs culture. We joined the Buckeye Wellness Innovator program to progress the current efforts from a great level to an exceptional level.

We work with many people who are completely dedicated to serving others and making the world a better place. It is important to us to be Buckeye Wellness Innovators, serving those who serve others and ensuring they are best supported in all areas of wellness.

We developed a university-wide fitness challenge revolving around the namesake of the college, Senator John Glenn.  His legendary efforts across a range of different public institutions are very motivating for others.  We also have provided other opportunities by winning a BWI grant award to provide indoor parking for the many faculty and staff who use bicycles as a mode of transportation.  We also just hosted our 2nd annual Bring a Child to Work Day, with a special guest visit from Brutus Buckeye, to showcase to children the important and cool work that everyone does in the college.

We have great support from everyone in the college to ensure we have the time to plan wellness activities for the benefit of the college. Many people volunteer their time to help plan, develop, and implement many activities. The great team effort of everyone makes these events and activities possible while still ensuring we provide the best quality and timely service of our roles within the college.

As everyone is very busy working on very important academic research and projects, we try to make our events and activities as fun as possible at times, and convenient for the most people.  For example, for the Ohio State 4-miler, we created door signs for people who signed up to encourage others that a large group of us will be at the event, and we welcome anyone else who is interested and able to join.

Our leadership has been instrumental in our roles as BWIs. This is evident with our supervisor, Kim Young, recently winning the university wellness award for creating an extraordinary wellness environment across the entire college. Part of her great efforts is ensuring the BWIs have the time and space to lead events and activities while encouraging other units within the college to volunteer and participate.

It is important for leaders to embrace and model wellness behaviors as wellness is foundational to ensure we can be our best selves so we can be there to help others.  A culture of wellness ensures we look out for each other, support each other as needed, and generates care, compassion, and excellence.

Our leaders model wellness behaviors by providing flexible work arrangements to allow each person to maximize both their work productivity and their health and wellness.  Our leaders are among the first to sign up for events and activities and encourage others to join.

Benefits of the program include financial support to allow the college to have indoor parking for bicycles to further encourage everyone to keep wellness in mind in everything we do.  Also, the program has provided us with expert knowledge, resources, and professional networks to be able to provide the best events and activities for an entire college. 

We would like to help develop more university-wide events, such as an on-campus employee 5K run/walk or a fitness challenge inside Ohio Stadium. We have experience organizing and participating in both kinds of events.

Involve colleagues within your units, as their involvement allows for a better understanding of others’ health and wellness needs while also encouraging participation in events and activities.  Also, the involvement of leadership is beneficial in ensuring the greatest possible outreach and communicating that those in leadership positions value everyone's health and wellness of everyone.