MIKAYLA HEATH, Special to The Denisonian — Student Wellness.
It’s a term that has been crammed into the ears of Denisonians since the minute they stepped on campus, and yet, there are plenty of students who are not taking care of themselves. Red Corps, a group of twelve hand selected students on campus, have been brought together with the goal of creating a more open and acting solution to the issues that students may be having. Senior Kira Barr, is a part of the social networking team within the group, and is eager to use all the data that they have been gathering in order to create events for everyone.
“The Red in Red Corps stands for Research, Engage and Design, so this year we are a team of twelve students, we have done a lot of research on campus in the last few weeks of the population,” she said. “Then based on those results we plan out the events and figure out how exactly our campus looks so we can foster some ideas for what we want to do.”
Having been split up into teams, the twelve are focused on the end goal of overall student wellness, as the data being collected has proven this to be an issue amongst the student body. With this issue in mind, Barr hopes to help improve this for students, as connection and tight nit relationships is suppose to be a large part of the Denison community.
“There is a lot of data out there indicating that students at Denison are actually quite lonely and not feeling connected to each other which is kind of different than how Denison is portrayed to the world,” she said. “With their ‘lasting relationships’ that’s why you come so we’re working on that.
Junior Coby Strell, also a Red Corps member is eager to get started as he acknowledges the connection between his experience as a Community Advisor (CA) and the opportunity to make a change on a larger scale.
“Building community is something that has always been really important to me,” he said. “I love my residents each year that I’ve been a CA, so for me Red Corps is another opportunity to create that community but from another standpoint.”
Changing from last years strategy of focusing upon presentation and being an information based group, Red Corps is now moving towards being an event based group for this year as they hope through their projects to engage all students and move them towards a more interactive Denison experience.
“I don’t know if they really did events but I know they focused more on presentations,” Strell said. “I know they focused a lot on parking… presented their idea for parking based on student feedback and I think campus safety took what Red Corp said into account.”
Though their year has just begun, the anticipation to be involved and expand the group, and the rest of the school towards community involvement is what will drive the group this year as they have just wrapped up their data collection for upcoming projects.
“We work in the Red Frame Lab in Slayter so we get experience with a lot of local entrepreneurs, coaches, design teams,” Barr said. “For me it is a way of expanding how I think. We go through a lot of problem solving, but I also feel like I am able to really help the campus itself by being in this position.”
With the groups base being in the Red Frame Lab, Strell is ready to involve new individuals in all that the lab has to offer and hopes to inspire students to use the resource.
“Definitely go to the Red Frame Lab, if there’s events going on sign up, because it is an amazing place where you can think about things with designed thinking and that’s a great way of prototyping problems and contemplating solutions,” he said. “Even if you have a problem in your dorm or problems with your school work, using that as a resource to frame that and help you can be an excellent way to get help.”