Dickinson’s Wellness Center encourages student wellbeing through its preventative healthcare services, treatments for common illnesses and the promotion of general health. The center is currently seeking to make its resources more known and accessible to students. One way in which they are doing this is through their Testing Tuesdays program, where they offer free asymptomatic STI screening every Tuesday from 12-1 p.m. These screenings are completely confidential and are not billed through insurance.
In addition to this, the Wellness Center also launched its Wellness Education for Lifelong Learning (W.E.L.L) program, which consists of “various educational programs throughout the academic year that aim to protect, promote, and maintain health and wellbeing,” according to the Dickinson College Website.
The W.E.L.L. program is centered around a harm-reduction model, where the staff members have interactive sessions with students about various issues related to college life, such as: dating violence, alcohol and other drug use, domestic violence, sexual assault, consent and stalking, mental health, sleep and overall well-being.
To encourage more students to take part in the program’s benefits, the Wellness Center launched a new student-led position to fill the gap between the facility and students. Peer Educators, as they are called, serve as student leaders and role models that students can feel comfortable confiding in and going to for help. Alcohol Peer Educators mainly educate students about alcohol and related topics.
Sexual Peer Educators discuss sexual health on campus and provide materials about sexual health. Both roles aim to break down the stigma surrounding these topics. As stated on the Wellness Center page of the College website, Peer Educators are paid by funding from the PA Liquor Control Board. They work on implementing alcohol prevention programming. They also assist in survey administration, marketing, and tracking program feedback.
The Dickinsonian spoke with Fiona Hannigan ’26, a Sexual Health Peer Educator, about her experience working at the Wellness Center during this time of the center’s initiative to make resources more accessible and known to students. A sociology major interested in reproductive justice, exploring the effects of preconceived ideas regarding sexual health and breaking down sexual health stigmas, Hannigan found the opportunity to work in the Wellness Center as an exciting opportunity.
As a Peer Educator, she engaged in training surrounding how to get students to make use of the available resources such as condoms, or how to encourage students to think about their sexual health.
“Sometimes it’s easier when that conversation is being led by students,” Hannigan said. “It’s awkward. It’s awkward to talk about sex , or sexual health […] we wanna keep that ball rolling where students feel comfortable having those awkward conversations […] and having the resources in their back pocket so that if they need them, they know they’re there.”
Hannigan spoke of the benefits of Testing Tuesday, and how important it is for students to capitalize on the free resource.
“A lot of people don’t know this–that it’s non-invasive. You do the test yourself, it’s completely private. It’s a great way to make sure you’re good,” she said. “Before COVID, 15 people every Tuesday were getting tested. Since COVID, maybe 1 person a month is getting tested.”
This disparity is linked to the discomfort and awkwardness students feel when using the resources, which is something they’re successively addressing, due to these programs.
One of the main things the Wellness Center is focusing on this year is visibility. And it seems to be that, when initiatives appear to be institution-led, they don’t connect with students as much. But transitioning the leadership role from faculty to students themselves influences the likelihood that students will actually remember the resource and make an effort to seek it out for themselves,” she said.
“When you see other students leading this charge, or just having a common understanding in a community with you, I think it changes the way the whole student body can take advantage of these resources.”
A prime example of this is the Pre-Halloweekend Freshman Takeover event which occurred October 26. The freshmen student senators reached out to the Wellness Center and asked if a representative could table at the event. In addition to requesting for tabling, student groups can use their website and request for a safe sex bag. Clubs can request 50 or 100 for their members to use, and this is completely confidential as well.
“We wanna do more events where we speak more one-on-one with groups,” she said. “Hitting people in smaller groups can be a lot more impactful then, like, being in ATS and having an hour and thirty minute talk.”
In the upcoming weeks, the Wellness Center will be placing various safe-sex tools in the FreeExchange so it’s more accessible, while still being private. In addition to this, they aim to place safe-sex materials in common spaces like laundry rooms and common spaces in forms. All of this is done in line with their goal to improve visibility.
