I returned from South America in late August, unemployed and not at all sure where I’d end up or how long it would take. I could not have imagined that in only three weeks, I’d have landed my dream job. I finally get to combine my personal interest in health with my training in health communication and my love of education as a bonafide health and wellness educator at a college in Boston, MA.

In my new role, I teach classes and workshops, coach students in individual sessions, design and run education campaigns and behavior change interventions, plan events and programming, collect and analyze student data, and advise a student group of peer health educators. My new world revolves around alcohol and drugs, sexual health, stress management, sleep, nutrition, fitness, eating disorders, mental health, and wellness.

I absolutely love, love, love my new job. And what’s more, it’s prompting me to think about a lot of new things and considerations. For example.

My role as role model

• So, like, can I never mention drinking in a tweet ever again?
• Must I now avoid bars where there might be undergrads?
• If I choose to get drunk, does that make me a hypocrite?
• Will people be watching my personal health/eating habits more closely?
• Does it reflect poorly on my authority/credibility as a health educator/expert if I am overweight?

Serving a population that is 85% male and 15% female

• How do I make sure to dedicate enough resources to women’s health topics when women are such a minority?
• Opportunities for sexual assault prevention aimed at a male audience (bystander education)
• Making sure that sex ed/sexual assault/body image/eating disorder programming reflects feminist perspective
• What men’s health issues do I need to learn more about?

Education vs. social marketing

• Social marketing has traditionally not been used at this college; in what cases is it worth pushing for change?
• How much time/effort/money do I dedicate to educational initiatives when I believe behavior change interventions would be more effective?
• How much time/effort/money do I dedicate to the complicated process of designing behavior change interventions?
• When is it worth designing original materials vs. using materials already available?

Health vs. Wellness

• What’s the difference?

Pretty great stuff, right?

I look forward to exploring the intricate details and delicate dilemmas involved in college health education with you at Talkin’ Reckless. In addition to my usual gender- and health-related ranting.