Elrod Center hosts Healthy Relationships Week

BY KYNDALL FOMBY-BELL Staff Writer

This week is Healthy Relationship Week (HRW) at Ouachita. What began as a marriage and family week on campus has now turned into a week full of support and aid for students in their relationships. The goal of Healthy Relationships Week is to advocate for healthy growth in both students’ personal and communal relationships, according to Judy Duvall, director of Ben M. Elrod Center for Family and Community.

Healthy Relationship Week is a program hosted by the Elrod center. Duvall explains some of the planning and preparation that goes into HRW.

“The planning begins in the fall as the theme is chosen and speakers and events are set up,” Duvall said. “Preparation includes marketing, coordinating speakers and spaces as well as a good amount of thought and prayer. As the theme of the week is ‘Healthy Me,

Healthy We,’ we looked at topics and speakers that could address this theme of individual and relational health.”

The speakers chosen this year are Susan Goss, a counselor and marriage and family therapist, Dr. Steve Goss who specializes in internal medicine and pediatrics, Jason Curry, founder of Finish Empty, as well as some of our faculty and staff; Sue Poole, Dan Jarboe Jason Greenwich, Rebecca Jones and Jerusa Carvajal. The speakers for the overnight retreat are Jeff and Mary Sanders, who are marriage and family therapists.

Earlier in the week, events were held for athletes and coaches and senior science majors. Ouachita has also hosted faculty speakers at Noonday and chapel. The events for the rest of the week will include a breakout session with Dan Jarboe and Sue Poole, Noonday and an overnight retreat for engaged and married student couples in Little Rock, Ark.

Leigh Anne McKinney, associate director of the Elrod Center, states why HRW is significant.

“Since relationships are such a significant part of a meaningful life, we want to do what we can to help our students do relationships well,” Mckinney said. “We think it’s important for students to graduate not only intellectually prepared for life, but also skilled at building healthy individual lifestyles, which directly impacts the health of the relationships with those around them.”

Gaining and maintaining a healthy relationship is essential in everyone’s life, but especially for college students who are continuously meeting new people every day. From professors to friends, each relationship can be a positive or negative influence.

“Establishing healthy rhythms and habits naturally leads to healthy relationships with others and creates a sense of well-being in all areas of your life,” Duvall said. “We want to provide our students with the tools they need to succeed and flourish in becoming healthy individually and in their interactions with others. ‘Healthy Me, Healthy W e’ should hold more than one week of importance. It should embody relationships every day as you con- tinue to build past, present and future relationships both in and out of the Ouachita bubble.”