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| Angie O'Neal |
Angie O’Neal, an academic advisor in the USA College of Medicine’s Office of Research Education and Training, implemented Wellness Wednesdays in January. The weekly email covers wellness topics, provides resources, and keeps the cohort of students connected and engaged with check-ins and virtual volunteer opportunities.
“My job is to support students and postdocs from the day they start in our program or college until the day they move on,” O’Neal said. “I didn't believe that I could do that without considering their overall wellness.”
For the most part, first- and second-year graduate students are participating in online learning, although some are considered essential workers based on their roles in the lab or ongoing experiments.
“Scientists in general have to be resilient,” O’Neal said. “A major part of research is failing and trying another approach. Our BMS students have adapted to the new learning environment and are making necessary adjustments.”
The concept for Wellness Wednesdays stemmed from a webcast O’Neal attended in November through the Society for Neuroscience titled “Supporting Emotional Well-Being in Trainees.” One of the presenters, Sharon Milgram, Ph.D., from the National Institutes of Health, discussed how she had started a wellness initiative at the NIH for their students and postdoctoral fellows. O’Neal reached out to Milgram to learn more about how she could implement some of the ideas at the USA College of Medicine.
With support from Thomas Rich, Ph.D., professor of pharmacology, and Mark Taylor, Ph.D., associate professor of physiology and cell biology, co-directors of the Office of Research Education and Training, O’Neal moved forward with her concept. They formed a wellness advisory committee, with representation from the six basic medical sciences tracks and a postdoctoral representative, that helps inform the topics for Wellness Wednesdays and plan wellness events.
