Over the summer, NEIU’s Joy and Wellness Committee had kickstarted the Walking Wednesdays Initiative after the program had been on hiatus for part of the 2023-2024 academic year. Eighteen Wednesdays were planned over the current Summer and Fall semesters for students, staff and faculty members to take a short 35-minute excursion in the North Park neighborhood that surrounds NEIU. This year, the first Walking Wednesday excursions started on July 3, 2024.
Dylan Magahis, Marketing/Media Assistant for Student Health Services and Fine Arts Alumnus, prepared the logo, fliers and goodie bags prior to each walk. Magahis also tracked the number of participants during each walk.
The purpose of tracking was to estimate the number of goodie bags and supplies to purchase and prepare for upcoming walks. In terms of marketing, Magahis’s goal “was getting an overall vision and goal of what they wanted to do,” Magahis said. “I was just told a very short story of what they needed, and [I] kind of had to fill in all the gaps.”
The main organizer of the excursion, Shoshanna Vazquez, I.T. Support Associate, took over leading Walking Wednesdays from Shireen Roshanravan. Roshanravan, Former Executive Director of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, was in charge of Walking Wednesdays during the Fall 2022 and Spring 2023 semesters.
“I just love student involvement and just overall community involvement. I think when [Dr.] Jennie [Lasko] and Shoshanna pitched the idea to me, it sounded like a fun and interactive way to connect both the NEIU students, staff, and community together,” Magahis said. “We, as a university, represent a community.”
Jose Colón, an undergraduate student in Cybersecurity, attended the first two excursions because he “wanted to get a little more involved with the school and the community.” Colón said, “I figured this would be a good way to walk, focus on health and also talk to community members.”
Similar reasons were expressed by Vazquez. “The camaraderie of it all, like the bonding and the meeting new people and talking with people while you’re walking; that’s really the inspiration,” Vazquez said.
After participating in the second excursion, Colón admitted, “I feel like the blood is flowing and then I also feel like I built a community [because] I’m getting to know people.”
“Sometimes if you sit around too long, you feel like your brain’s a little foggy, [and] you don’t get that mental clarity, but once you do walk and you come back you feel like you get a more clear head,” Colón said. Vazquez’s motivation for taking the short excursions around NEIU was for similar reasons, such as “getting out of the office instead of sitting in front of the computer all day long.”
On September 4th, after experiencing ten walking and talking sessions with various members of the NEIU community, “The biology department is the most interesting; they usually have different things to say about the nature and the animals and the trees and different things; so I’ve learned a few things from them,” Vazquez concluded.
Walking Wednesdays will continue meeting every Wednesday with the final excursion on Oct. 30, 2024. To take part in this activity, participants should meet up at Lech Walesa Hall at noon on Wednesdays.
