Well Devil Coalition Director: 

My first job in college was in the role of a Well Devil Ambassador (WDA). I acted as a liaison between the residential living communities and the ASU Wellness Department. The responsibilities of the WDAs were to promote healthy living habits to residents living on campus. We worked with Community Assistants to host programs and led several initiatives to promote a culture of wellness. From this first position stemmed the opportunity to apply as the Director of the Well Devil Coalition. With hopes to expand my role in the wellness community, I applied and was accepted for the job.

Being the director of the Well Devil Coalition very much aligned with the values of the Grand Challenge Scholars Program. With an obvious relationship to my chosen focus theme of health, this position also aligned with many aspects of education, specifically to the engineering challenge of advancing personalized learning. The Coalition was a multi-faceted and interdiscipliary approach to teaching students about health and wellness. We utilized many different platforms and mediums to connect with students and meet them where they learned best. The goals of the coalition were to improve personal health and wellness, build a healthy campus environment, and advocate for policies that supported student wellness. The overarching aim of the coalition was to make Arizona State University “the healthiest campus in the nation” through increased cohesion among campus clubs and organizations, increased student education and involvement, and communication with committees and policy makers within the higher ranks of the university.

As the program director, I was responsible for all aspects of organization and oversight, including management of the budget, hosting and coordination of events, and development of branding and marketing. This role challenged me immensely, but it provided me with profound amounts of knowledge as to how to effectively run an organization, and ultimately a small business. It opened the door for my passion for entrepreneurship, which heavily shaped the future of my college career. All the while I was staying true to my underlying interest and passion for health and wellness. I was actively working to share this passion with my peers and my community by promoting a healthy campus environment. Through meeting many students and other student-run wellness organizations, I was able to grow my understanding of the social aspects that face our society when it comes to health and education. To connect with a population of young people and provide valuable education in a meaningful way is very challenging. It requires innovation, collaboration, and drive to make progress, which I became acutely aware of during my time as the director of the Well Devil Coalition.