Across from Burk Hall, a stairway leading downhill reaches the home of the Student Health Center, where students are able to find basic care needs and educate themselves on health awareness and preventive care; however, many SF State students never learn about the helpful opportunities at the Student Health Center, let alone enter it, because of its hidden location.
On Wednesday, Oct. 24 from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., the health center will be hosting its annual open house created to expose its opportunities to students. The event includes tabling from on and off campus collaborators offering numerous opportunities for students to take advantage of before graduating.
“A lot of times people get to be seniors and don’t know we exist and so we really want to encourage them to come in and see what services we offer and what other organizations on campus offer,” says Linda Meier, a family nurse practitioner at the health center. “Often we suffer from being underground and people walking right on by and not knowing we are here.”
Each year the center expands beyond campus organizations and into off campus organizations, while trying to get students attention as much as possible. With a spooky inspired flier, staff members at the health center created a haunted hall in order to bring in students. Along with massage sessions for part of the day, including food and a raffle.
“Halloween is a good hook for the event because its a celebratory time where you can just have fun and it’s also right around the time of midterms,” says Meier. “It allows for students to blow off, either ten minutes or an hour away from midterms, and then get back to what they need to do.”
Participating organizations include the University Police Department, DREAM Resource Center, Associated Students Food Pantry and various other groups. Students can also receive free flu vaccines.
Additionally, the Student Health Center is beginning their recruitment process for the student health advisory committee that helps to determine what services are needed to offer more robustly and determine student fees.
