It’s resolution time for university students

For college students, a new year means a new semester, new classes and, sometimes, New Year’s resolutions. 

For students, especially first year students, these resolutions are coming to them after a long and grueling fall semester.

Mariah Weber, wellness coordinator and coach, works with students and community members at the Wellness Center on making behavior changes when it comes to nutrition and overall health wellness. She works with campus programs to bring services to the student populous.

“We typically do see an influx of students coming in at the start of the second semester who have been thinking about making a change for a while and are ready to get started on making that change,” Weber said.

Students often come to the Wellness Center seeking help in fulfilling their New Year’s resolutions with general health, nutrition and fitness, she said.

TIME magazine reported in a study that the most common New Year’s resolutions are also the ones that are broken most consistently. Many of these can be understood as “college student resolutions.” Some resolutions according to the list included, “Lose weight and get fit, eat healthier and diet and spend more time with friends and family.”

The Wellness Center provides various health services including nutrition and counseling services. In addition to these health programs, the Wellness Center also offers personal training, group fitness classes, a meeting place for many intramural sports and clubs and other physical activities.

First year microbiology and biology major Nishi Patel feels that the Wellness Center could offer her more advantages for her athletics activities this semester. 

Patel plans to continue with intramural volleyball this semester while training for it more often in the Wellness Center with friends.

“I’m going to focus on grades as well, but I also feel like if I had gotten to the Wellness Center with friends a lot more last semester, I would’ve been able to manage intramural volleyball more,” she said.

One New Year’s resolutions students often make is to make better grades.

“While the Wellness Center offers a lot of physical wellness when it comes to nutrition and fitness, I think that that’s when that intellectual wellness is when students meet with their advisers, especially first year students,” Weber said.

Weber affirms that many SDSU advisers maintain relationships with their students and are able to pick up on a student’s shortcomings even before the student can. Advisers are often better able to pinpoint changes that occur in their advisees when they meet with their students and are able to discuss with them the various challenges that are met in pursuing resolutions. 

“Whenever people want to make a big change, I think they need to focus on the small changes first and build off of them,” Weber said. “For example, we get a lot of people coming in to work out. But, sometimes they just don’t have the time to, so we’ll work with them in finding a time, maybe even once a week, and then expand their time here as they continue.”

She also thinks SDSU supports students making a change at any time, not necessarily having it be at the start of the New Year.

“While the mentality might be to wait until second semester to start making a change, I think we push change and goal-setting whenever students are ready for it,” she said.

She advised that one of the best things students can do is surround themselves with people who have the same goals they do.

First year speech communications and advertising major Alex Farber runs a blog called “My Thoughts in Words” through Word Press. She began writing this blog in her first semester and has decided to continue writing as a part of her New Year’s resolutions.

“Whenever I feel positive about something, I share it on my blog, and that’s helping me to better carry out some of my resolutions. I think time management is definitely one of them,” Farber said. “In my first semester, I needed to find a better balance between school work and friends. Sometimes putting your own needs above other things and learning to prioritize myself.” 

Farber also feels that a large part of maintaining New Year’s resolutions is setting goals that are small and manageable. 

“I set my goals broad so I can feel that I accomplish them a bit better, something to motivate me more to get it done. I don’t have a new year, new me kind of mindset. I don’t think that’s completely realistic,” Farber said. “I think you’re the same person on New Year’s Day, but you’re slowly changing throughout the year. You’re no different on Jan. 1, but it’s who you are after 365 days that counts.”