After taking this course, I learned a substantial amount about how to properly plan and implement a wellness program in various settings. I didn’t completely understand the depth of planning that has to be carried out to advocate for a program, obtain funding, and ultimately establish a wellness program. This course helped me to appreciate the times when I was younger and took part in wellness programs that increased my knowledge on subjects like proper nutrition and how to maintain physical fitness as well as its importance. The main takeaway that I acquired from this course was that with proper planning and implementation strategies, a wellness program has the potential to reach people through interventions and information sessions.
For this course, the main project we were tasked with was to create a wellness program from scratch that would be beneficial to the Hampton Roads community. Honestly, this was the most difficult part of the course because it was a group project and the assignment had to be very precise and incorporated a number of elements to consider. Also, the fact that it was a group project and presentation required a lot of collaboration and communication between me and my group members. I really appreciated the hard work and responsiveness of my group because it made the project slightly less stressful and made me feel very accomplished when the project was concluded.
Reflection
Throughout the course of this project, I learned to communicate more effectively and collaborate and incorporate everyone’s ideas to produce a work representative of all group members. These skills will help tremendously as I navigate school at the graduate level because I would like to focus on research which involves a remarkable amount of collaboration with others. A piece of advice that I’d give to someone after taking this class is to express your ideas, communicate and listen, and most importantly divide big projects into smaller parts to make the final product less intimidating and stressful.