A Program to Establish Healthy Lifestyle Behaviors with Freshmen Students

The freshmen transition is a crucial time when students make health choices in their physical activities, eating behaviors, and stress management skills. A consortium of student affairs staff created and implemented an introduction to the wellness program through freshmen orientation classes. The program included a health behaviors assessment, educational resources, and interventions for individual lifestyle change process. This article presents baseline health behaviors of the first-semester freshmen and the statistical results of the changes that occurred with students receiving the interventions. Implications are discussed that provide a template for how to implement and sustain this type of program.