To be honest, I originally joined Health and Wellness Academy (HWA), an elective that provides nutrition and physical activity education to the kids that attend Altus Academy in Chicago, to fulfill a portfolio credit for the DPT program I am a part of at UIC. However, I obtained a lot more than some class credit during my semester in HWA.
Altus is a non-profit, private elementary school that serves the children from minority populations in the Chicago area. The Altus population is mainly made of up children from first-generation college graduate families, minority groups, and low-income households. This institution is made up of 1st through 8th graders who are 63% Hispanic and 37% African American. Altus aims to provide children from historically challenging neighborhoods a fair chance at opportunities with regards to schooling through providing an integrated, liberal arts-based, and project-based education.
I learned not only how to provide the underserved youth of Altus Academy education on nutrition and physical activity that they would otherwise not receive, but I also learned the history behind why I was providing education to these students specifically. I think a lot of time during my undergraduate education, I participated in courses or activities to fulfill a credit, but HWA reminded me of the importance of and had me questioning the “why” behind each course I have since enrolled in.
During this course, through podcasts, readings, and videos, I learned how several health disparities flourished as a result of the history of extreme segregation that occurred during colonization of major urban areas. The course materials gave me perspective on how Chicago neighborhoods developed, how resources were distributed, and what effects this initial set-up of access to resources continues to have on the members of these communities today.
Based on the health disparities of the members of the neighborhoods that Altus serves, HWA is a course that brings current UIC faculty (HWA is headed by the talented Lindsey Strieter) and students to Altus weekly to address these disparities via prevention and wellness strategies. Each week the hour with the kids begins with a nutrition segment. This includes education regarding food, such as how much water you should drink per day, strategies to fulfill your vegetable requirements if you haven’t had any by lunch time, etc. The course then puts this education into practice by providing students with the resources to make their own healthy snack they can indulge in during class.
The second part of the hour with the students is education regarding physical activity, such as alternatives to playing video games or watching television after school. This part of the hour is also an opportunity for students to learn about and practice different skills for a variety of sports, exercises to target certain muscles in the body etc. At the end of the semester, the students were able to apply what they learned by designing and demonstrating their own exercise program to their peers.
HWA not only gave me the opportunity to learn about how access to certain resources has created health disparities in those of certain populations, but it has also given me a platform to implement strategies to address and attempt to reverse these effects. As a future physical therapist, HWA has given me the resources to explore the wellness needs of whatever community I serve in the future. The course has also given me a foundation of tools to use to implement preventative strategies to promote wellness for those that have a need in the future.
That said, if you want to take a course for more than obtaining credit hours and have a passion for promoting wellness in the youth of Chicago, I’d register for HWA.
Sources:
https://altusacademy.org/mission-and-vision
