A new online magazine, Student Health 101, aiming towards student health launched through the Wellness Center in February.

Currently over 700 students have signed up for the magazine. It is free of charge and students receive a monthly issue once they sign up. It is available on multiple devices including phone, tablet or computer. 

“It is easy to access since the link is emailed to everyone each month. This is a great feature for SDSU since the majority of students are wireless,” said Lauren Uttecht, senior dietetics student. 

Mariah Weber, the wellness coordinator, saw the idea for an online magazine when she was at a conference last fall. She met with a representative for the company known as Student Health 101 who also has several campuses have purchase the magazine through their company. 

Weber and Nicole McKibben, the programming and promotions coordinator, are able to send in their own customized pages that are used. These pages are geared toward what’s going on in the wellness center and other resources available. 

“It kind of goes through the entire wellness wheel and not so much just the physical side that most students think about when they think of wellness,” Weber said.

The rest of the website focuses on a variety of topics. They range from stress, sleep, nutrition, alcohol, healthy sex practices, colds, flu and anything with any health issue said Weber. 

“Each issue is unique and different in the fact that it has different topics that they discuss. It encompasses all wellness topics, kind of going off the wellness wheel – financial wellness, occupational wellness, or physical,” Weber said.

The site is very interactive as it includes links to video and demonstrations for students to watch. There is a cookbook section with videos featuring students making recipes. 

“I really like the magazine in the fact that it is interactive, engaging and all the topics are the trends and what’s going on in college campuses,” Weber said. 

Nicole McKibben, programming and promotions coordinator at the Wellness Center helps Weber with the magazine. She prepares advertisements for Student Health 101 as well as decides what the Wellness Center wants to promote for that month as well as what is going on.

“More and more students are taking advantage of things right at their fingertips versus trying to seek out printed materials,” McKibben said.

Because the magazine is all online, McKibben said the website is very convenient for students as well as relative to their lifestyle. 

Once students receive their copy of the issue, they can look at it all month long and they can also access previous issues. Faculty can sign up for the magazine too. 

According to Weber, she has three goals for the Student Health 101 magazine. First, she wants to provide current information on popular college campus health promotion topics; second to increase student knowledge of personal health and wellness and finally to increase student awareness on the wellness center. 

“It’s never been done before. There are other college campuses that have done it and have had a lot of success and that is why I decided to invest in this because I talked to other college campuses that said it’s phenomenal and students love it, so after getting that feedback I decided it was something that we need to do,” Weber said.

Weber receives monthly reports from the company about how the magazine is doing. It tells her how many people have viewed it, what pages are the most popular, and comments from students about the website. 

The biggest hurdle, according to McKibben, is getting awareness to students about the start of the magazine. This spring has been a ‘soft roll out’ but as the new school year approaches, they will start a heavier marketing campaign and a larger body of students will be informed of the magazine. 

“It’s just easier to access than to find a brochure or printed materials,” McKibben said.

Students can sign up for the free monthly subscription of Student Health 101 online at readsh101.com/get/sdstate.html or at the front desk of the Wellness Center.