SU Health Center hosts Annual Homecoming Fair

Southern University held the Health and Wellness fair on Wednesday, October 1, 2014 at 10:00 a.m, in the Seymour Gymnasium. Taking place during homecoming annually, the fair has a main purpose of helping students become aware of the commonly talked about health issues, such as Hypertension, obesity, and diabetes.
“When things are known they can be prevented and screened,” said Shirley Wade, executive director of health and wellness.
Students were allowed to participate in several tests for HIV, glucose, height and weight testing (BMI), blood pressure and cholesterol. These test helped the students understand facts and information pertaining to their bodies that they were unaware of.
“This event helped me realize I need to make better decisions with my diet, being that my BMI was horrible,” said Lakia Banks, a 19-year-old freshmen nursing major from Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Along with health care professionals, many organizations partook in spreading the word about the major disease affecting numerous people around the world, but mostly in the African American race, AIDS and HIV. Major organizations included BET’s Wrap-It-Up campaign and the Association for Aids and Substance Abuse. The Rap-It-Up Campaign is a safe sex initiative created by BET and partners to urge young people in the African-American community to practice safe sex, get tested for HIV and AIDS and to know their status. It features a series of commercials and printed ads set up like public service announcements and uses African-American celebrities and entertainers to spread the message about safe sex and knowing your status. To learn more about the Rap-It Up campaign visit www.greaterthan.org.
“Everyone should know their status, because knowing your status is the best way to prevent the spread of HIV and AIDS,” said Wade.
The Jags Get Fit initiative is a part of the Healthy Campus 20/20 campaign to promote a healthier campus, not only in the student body, but in the faculty and staff. It will involve health walks, fitness programs and changes some of the unhealthy things within the cafeterias on campus in order to promote a better life style and way of living within the campus setting. Events are set to take place around the campus throughout the years here at Southern. Students were amazed at what Jags Get Fit had to offer and the effort they were putting into making our campus better, and were inspired to continue informing themselves about their health and even inform others.
“Initiatives like these should not only be on campus but in the surrounding communities as well,” said Adrian Charles, an 18-year-old freshmen mass communications major from St. Martinsville, Louisiana.
“This is only the beginning for Southern University. We will be healthier,” finished Charles.