The Fresno State Wellness Center will introduce its newest program HEAL (Healthy Eating and Activity for Life) later this semester to promote healthier lifestyles among campus students.

The student-staffed program will consist of 10 student dietitians enrolled in the Dietetic Internship Program at Fresno State. These dietitians will be providing students with the tools they need to follow a healthier and more active lifestyle by means of private counseling sessions, online tools and healthy weight loss contests.

Elizabeth Ferris, Fresno States Dietetic Internship Program director, will oversee the graduate interns who are required to fulfill 1,200 hours of practice in the field under the supervision of a registered dietitian.

“We want to focus on what students need and what they want to know,” Ferris said.

Students are able to receive private counseling sessions from the interns on topics ranging from food allergy issues to weight management.

Ferris and her team are incorporating a walk-in component to the program to make it more accessible to students at any time.

“We are still working out the details as far as how students are going to be able to access the program,” Ferris said.­ “Definitely referrals from physicians, but also we want to have a walk-in component so students can come right in and sit down with the interns.”

The student dietitians will provide not only one-on-one counseling to students, but will also reach out to the entire campus.

“The interns will be going out into the campus and advertising for this program and also doing outreach such as fun nutrition games and handing out nutrition information,” Ferris said.

In the spring, the interns will form a healthy weight competition where students will have the opportunity to utilize and showcase information they have received from the student dietitians.

“The interns will be organizing it, running it and promoting it on campus in the spring,” Ferris said. “This will be a Biggest Loser type of competition.

“They will also be creating media such as flyers, educational handouts and it’s our goal to get an online component started soon,” Ferris added.

The online component to the program that is in the making is intended to provide students with 24-hour assistance and Ferris plans to eventually branch the site out to others in the community.

“We want to make the site not only accessible to students, but to their family members because obesity and health risks run in families,” Ferris said.

Aetna financed the new program with a $35,000 grant to not only promote a healthy lifestyle among students, but also to the public.

“Aetna’s goal is really to impact the community and provide nutrition information and this is our way of reaching out to the community as well and hopefully students will bring that information home to their parents,” Ferris said.

Aetna has funded the Wellness Center two times in the past. The first grant was for the Aetna Wellness Resource Center and the second for a mobile wellness unit.

“This third round is to focus more specifically programmatically in collaborating with the academic department of food science and nutrition,” Kathleen Yarmo, the Coordinator of Health Promotion and Wellness Services, said.

Both of the previous programs were utilized by students and the HEAL program is anticipated to have the same outcome.

“Yes, I would use the HEAL program,” Fresno State student Itzel Morfin said.­ “It’s free, so why not?”

The student dietitians will not only be interning on campus, they will also be rotating their time in various facilities throughout the community.

“Other than the additional facilities, what better population to work with than your fellow students?” Yarmo said.