De-stress With SGA | Photo by Rose Taylor | The Wright State Guardian
The Student Government Association hosted an event on Wednesday, Nov. 6, to help students relax after a stressful day or week full of political discussions. Hosted in the Student Union Atrium, this event featured lots of ways to calm down.
Event
The Atrium was filled with people and dogs, some of which were in training and others who were already with their forever person. Tables were set up where attendees could sit and work on their coloring crafts or origami and socialize with one another. Against a wall, there were two tables where the hosts were handing out the supplies for the event.
Kat Sprowl, an elementary education major at Wright State University, came to the event with their service dog, Maaza, and sat with their friends to relax and chat with the other dog lovers.
“What I really like is the Play-Doh, I was literally just sitting there messing with it the whole time. Yeah, that kind of sensory stuff. That stuff calms me down,” Sprowl said.
They shared that they often come out to events with Raider Pups, and enjoy any event that is intended to de-stress. Sprowl said that while they enjoy their major, it is also a lot to have homework on top of their school placement.
Student Government Association
Aliesha Smith is the Director of Student Health and Wellness for SGA at WSU and was heavily involved in the planning of this event.
“The main motivation is knowing we had Election Day yesterday, and we had a week of like, early voting leading up to it. Honestly, elections are super stressful for a lot of people, and it can cause a lot of anxiety and tension between a lot of people too. So I really wanted to do a mental health-related event around election time,” Smith said.
Smith explained that she partnered with Counseling and Wellness Services and Raider Pups to get the best possible event for students to de-stress. She shared that having dogs there was very important to her and that all of the fun crafts and supplies brought by CWS enhanced the experience.
She also shared a lot of what SGA has been working on this semester, mostly involving getting resolutions started.
“We tried to push for university-wide to have election day off [but that] hasn't been approved yet. We're hoping in future years it can. So we're working on that this year,” Smith explained.
SGA meetings are on Tuesday nights at 6:30 p.m. and are open to all students.
Raider Pups
Ximena Santin is the President of Raider Pups, which is a WSU student organization that cares for and trains future service dogs.
“With everything that's happening in the world right now, just kind of like, decompress. And especially as students, we already have so much stress on us, I thought it would just be nice to bring out the dogs and let people relax for a little bit,” Santin said.
She explained that it is helpful for the students to be around the dogs, but that many aspects of these events also benefit the dogs in training.
“Our main goal is just to socialize the dogs as much as we can. So obviously, with sounds like this one or with new people, and that is our main goal. So doing a lot of these, like relaxation activities, helps us socialize them better because they get to meet a bunch of people in different circumstances,” Santin explained.
There are several ways to get involved with Raider Pups as well, with opportunities to attend fun events such as this one, or the chance to be trained to become a primary or secondary caretaker for service dogs in training.
The event ended up being a huge success, and while the stress of our education and politics is not entirely gone, SGA and the other organizations involved worked hard to ensure students would have a brief respite.
