Dr. Ali DeLizza has been posting webinars twice a week on wellness activities for students.
New webinars are held live twice a week (Tuesdays at 8 a.m. and Thursday at 4 p.m.) on Zoom. Students can find recordings of past webinars at www.keeplearning.unmc.edu. The Canvas course was created through a partnership with UNMC Academic Affairs. Dr. Kati Cordts, one of the developers of the course, says the webpage is a centralized location for students to access wellness information, resources for basic needs (e.g., food pantries), and technology concerns (among other things).
Dr. Cordts, a child and adolescent psychologist, worked with Dr. Steven Wengel, a geriatric psychiatrist and assistant vice-chancellor for Wellness at UNO/UNMC, to develop the program. This was in response to a call to redouble the wellness programming for UNMC students by UNMC’s Chancellor, Dr. Jeffrey Gold. Dr. Cordts asked Dr. DeLizza to lead the webinars. Dr. DeLizza, a child and adolescent psychologist, has given many wellness talks during her time at UNMC.
“The Basics of Managing Social Distancing,” and “Maximizing Distance via Learning,” were two early webinar topics.
“So far, the response has been positive! We are working on developing new content for coming webinars, and working on ways to ensure the content most important to students is prioritized,” said Dr. DeLizza. “We also want each webinar to stand alone, so we are working on ways to review material without it feeling repetitive or stale.”
For students who cannot watch the webinars live, they are recorded and saved on Canvas.
In March, Dr. Delizza and Dr. Cordts signed on to promote wellness at UNMC and UNO with Dr. Wengel. Dr. Cordts has been named Director of Wellness Education.